Hi everyone,
I've been a lurker for long enough to know how supportive you all are, so I thought I'd chime in with a question about this diagnostic quest we're on.
difficult child is a 7-year-old boy who was diagnosed with partial complex seizures last year. He's always been impulsive, mildly to moderately oppositional, intense, and extremely bright. I've often had to talk to teachers about his unwillingness to sit in circle time or rest quietly at nap time, or shouting out in class when he got to kindergarten, etc. He's often had intense fears, and really has never slept on his own reliably (But Dr. Sears says that's normal...right? Sigh...) So, he's intense and a little offbeat, but always pretty much functioning normally, has friends, etc. He's on Tegretol 100mg 2x daily for the seizures, and his blood level is 4.
In the past several months, he's been doing things that seem out of character for him. Some pretty scary tantrums (VERY infrequent but scary nonetheless), tormenting his brother (very frequent), exploding with frustration about every little thing. He does very well in school academically, relatively poor behaviorally at school, but nothing more has been needed than chatting with the teacher. Unfortunately, more often than not, life at home is living hell. So much intensity, impulsivity, inability to leave his brother alone, oppositional behavior.
We don't think he's got ADHD, and we think his seizures are under control, but there was never any findings on the MRI or EEG anyway so I don't know how we can be empirically certain.
He has a crappy, dismissive neurologist (we're working on changing that). He has a genius therapist. We saw one psychiatrist, without difficult child, just parents, who suspects bipolar but admittedly doesn't know much about seizures.
Here's what I'm wondering:
-Does anyone have any experience teasing apart behaviors associated with seizures from bipolar symptoms?
-Does anyone have any opinion on whether Tegretol is part of the problem, or part of the solution?
-I'm shaking in my boots after hearing the word "bipolar" and reading a book on the subject that seems rather frightening. Can any reassure me that treating a bipolar child may not be the nightmare of ups/downs/wrong medications that I fear it will be?
Thanks for listening!
I've been a lurker for long enough to know how supportive you all are, so I thought I'd chime in with a question about this diagnostic quest we're on.
difficult child is a 7-year-old boy who was diagnosed with partial complex seizures last year. He's always been impulsive, mildly to moderately oppositional, intense, and extremely bright. I've often had to talk to teachers about his unwillingness to sit in circle time or rest quietly at nap time, or shouting out in class when he got to kindergarten, etc. He's often had intense fears, and really has never slept on his own reliably (But Dr. Sears says that's normal...right? Sigh...) So, he's intense and a little offbeat, but always pretty much functioning normally, has friends, etc. He's on Tegretol 100mg 2x daily for the seizures, and his blood level is 4.
In the past several months, he's been doing things that seem out of character for him. Some pretty scary tantrums (VERY infrequent but scary nonetheless), tormenting his brother (very frequent), exploding with frustration about every little thing. He does very well in school academically, relatively poor behaviorally at school, but nothing more has been needed than chatting with the teacher. Unfortunately, more often than not, life at home is living hell. So much intensity, impulsivity, inability to leave his brother alone, oppositional behavior.
We don't think he's got ADHD, and we think his seizures are under control, but there was never any findings on the MRI or EEG anyway so I don't know how we can be empirically certain.
He has a crappy, dismissive neurologist (we're working on changing that). He has a genius therapist. We saw one psychiatrist, without difficult child, just parents, who suspects bipolar but admittedly doesn't know much about seizures.
Here's what I'm wondering:
-Does anyone have any experience teasing apart behaviors associated with seizures from bipolar symptoms?
-Does anyone have any opinion on whether Tegretol is part of the problem, or part of the solution?
-I'm shaking in my boots after hearing the word "bipolar" and reading a book on the subject that seems rather frightening. Can any reassure me that treating a bipolar child may not be the nightmare of ups/downs/wrong medications that I fear it will be?
Thanks for listening!