totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
I hate all of this I just wish there was some way to know what was wrong with our kids for sure!!!
I am just convinced 100% that difficult child 1 is Bipolar... how it will develop I am not sure... As Dr. Pavuluri said to us she is a classic Bipolar case. All of the signs and symptoms and the genetics... but if someone said difficult child 2 was BiPolar (BP) I would be hesitant, due to her age. (although she is is showing some signs, but she is showing signs and symptoms much differently also) With difficult child 1 if she hadn't been exhibiting such extreme symptoms of Early Onset Bi-Polar (EOBP) and we didn't have such a huge family history I might not have taken the diagnosis so easily.
I don't know I just know that we as paretns have such a hard time even taking these steps without always being questioned. But someone needs to ask questions, I just wish it didn't always leave me feeling like I was making my child a guinea pig just for the fun of it... or like that is how others feel on the outside... I know warrior mom!!!



http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/09/070409fa_fact_groopman
 

smallworld

Moderator
T, this is just the abstract. Have you been able to get your hands on a copy of the full article? I have a friend who is saving it for me, but we haven't seen each other in a couple of weeks so I don't have it yet.

Honestly, I'm not convinced either of my difficult children has Bipolar Disorder, but they're being treated as if they do because they go whacko on SSRIs without the benefit of a mood stabilizer. Our psychiatrists say we will know for sure when they go through puberty and are older adolescents.
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
Smallworld-
No one of my husband Aunts mentioned to me, but I could not find it by then... I wonder what the full article says???

I am scared of what is going to happen once puberty hits!!! I would be the happiest person in the world if difficult child 1 got "better" less severe. After puberty, Dr. Pavuluri said that is a long shot without medications... but who knows??? The only reason psychiatrist ( tho one that diagnosis'd difficult child 1) didn't put Early Onset Bi-Polar (EOBP) or BiPolar (BP)-not otherwise specified is because of the DSM-IV, which she is helping revise.. who knows, I know anyone can be wrong.

It is like we are all waiting for puberty...such a strange feeling. To determine how mentally ill our children are going to be.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I did get worse in puberty, but since I didn't have classic Bipolar I, it was still missed and diagnosed as just depression. Even telling the psychiatrist that I snapped into highs that I could feel didn't help. He thought because the "highs" weren't psychotic highs that they weren't mania. I did tend to get more depressed than hypo-manic. It's very hard to get a correct BiPolar (BP) diagnosis unless you are the classic type. Often you are told you have ODD or borderline personality disorder or unipolar depression or anxiety disorder or that you're just "difficult." I don't know if it's changed any, but somewhere I read that the average time a person goes for help and gets a bipolar diagnosis is TEN YEARS. It was certainly that long for me. I started getting considerably worse at thirteen with the moods, and got diagnosed at twenty-three. The Bipolar II diagnosis has stuck. Every professional I've gone to so far agrees with it, although I also have serious neurological symptoms too--most recent diagnosis. on that front is a NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD), but that wouldn't explain my mercurial moodswings without medication. So there is really no way to know for sure, even as a teen, unless that teen is Patty Duke Astin high/low. Otherwise, it can be blurry and you can still be misdiagnosed and put on medications that make you worse instead of better. You have to make sure you go to a top notch doctor, and hope for the best.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I wasnt diagnosed until I was 38 and I have been diagnosed with bipolar 1, borderline personality disorder and ptsd! I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have early onset bipolar. I dont think I have bipolar 1...I believe that bipolar that is manifested in childhood presents differently your entire life. That is just my theory because of how I react with my moods. I tend to react much more like a child with bipolar. I have much more rapid cycling than doctors can believe.

I cycle sometimes weekly if not daily. Sometimes several times in the same day.

I can look back on my childhood and remember all sorts of incidents where I had problems. When I read the book The Bipolar Child, I thought they had written it about me! That is honestly what gave me the courage to get diagnosed. Before then I was too afraid to admit what was wrong with me and the weird things that I did. I kept them locked up at home and my family protected me. I had the rare outburst in public but people just thought I was strange.
 

oceans

New Member
My son is 15 and he has had extreme difficulties since he was about 8. We started the psychiatrist/psychologist path at age 11. From then until recently he was given stimulants for ADD that did not work and made things worse, and tons of antidepressants for depression that never helped, and in many cases also made things worse. He has seen several psychologists and many psychiatrists. He had one hospitalization. No one would believe what I saw was mania. They blamed it on side effects from medication. What I saw was not normal!

I have been trying to get him on a mood stabilizer for over 1 1/2 years. No one would do it, and he continued to go down hill. The mood stabilizer and the anti psychotic have changed his life. He is better. Is it bipolar? They will not diagnose it as bipolar. They say we need to keep waiting until it is clear that is what it is. They need to see the mania for themselves.

As long as he is getting medication that will keep his moods stable, and my life sane...
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
The article was interesting I really liked the Papoloses description of the "View"...

It is kind of funny that Patty Duke lives in our neighboring town!!! You think we would have better mental health care??? She does do a lot of theatre here...

This is one of the reasons that I love/hate the DSM-IV criteria. And the media at times. It gets word out but not always in a good way. The guidelines need to be adjusted, for the DSM. I think if they did it would help the psychiatrist's not be so afraid to work with the parents of BiPolar (BP) children and not try and just diagnosis them with somthing like adhd or odd.

Obviously the medication situation needs to be an ongoing improvement... for everyone. But it seems like they only point out the bad in regards to the behavior medications... you don't see this with medications being used to treat other illness in children so much. They will discuss the good and then if it outweighs the bad etc. For our children's medications it is let's point out the bad... and then we might say something good, maybe.

When I walked in to our evaluation armed with the videos... it was pretty funny, there was little to argue about at that point!!! I bring those videos now to every apt!!!
 

oceans

New Member
Wow! You have videos! I think that would have really helped us tremendously. That way the psychiatrist could have really seen what I was dealing with and they could not have shrugged my concerns away!!! You are so smart to have done that!
 

smallworld

Moderator
Debbie, thanks for posting the link. I finally read the article in its entirety.

The one question I can't get any professional to fully answer is this: If a child is very depressed (to the point of not functioning), treated the traditional way with antidepressants and then has a manic or psychotic reaction, what does it mean in terms of diagnosis? difficult child 1 has tried four antidepressants (Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft and Effexor) and become manic, depressed or both. With a mood stabilizer on board, he is finally able to tolerate an AD. Is it that he can't tolerate ADs, or does he have Bipolar Disorder?
 
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