Bipolar is in my family, and difficult child has mood swings, so this is one of the first things his old psychiatrist looked at. (We chose this psychiatrist because he was a local expert on children with bipolar.) Even with the mood swings, rages, etc., the psychiatrist "ruled out" bipolar.
It's so hard to tell. difficult child has many signs of bipolar, but also of asperger's, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), odd, adhd, the list goes on.
My difficult child did awful on prozac - got very mean and violent the second night. We stopped it immediately. Zoloft worked until he started getting tics. Lexapro has seemed to be working the last few years. Now that difficult child is getting close to puberty, the psychiatrists are re-evaluating him again for bipolar, among other mood and thought disorders, and asperger's again.
It's so hard to tell whether the kids are reacting to the medications or to the things that life throws them. My difficult child is always the worst in the spring - is it biological or is it because the schedule at school turns upside down, or is it because he is outgrowing his medications?
My difficult child takes Lexapro for anxiety and to help with "rigid thinking." He's never been diagnosed with depression although he is either in a really good mood, or a really bad mood.
