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New here, mother to child with bipolar disorder
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<blockquote data-quote="JRC" data-source="post: 704696" data-attributes="member: 21147"><p>Thanks for all the advice and for editing my post to remove the identifying information. Sorry! I'll check out the parent report. My sister in law uses some similar method (My brother's wife. She has a son with schizophrenia-age 21-and a son with bi polar and autism-age 10). My grandmother also was bi polar. Basically my family is f%#$d when it comes to mental health. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /></p><p></p><p>Thank you for the book recs. I did read the BiPolar Child, but not the others. I didn't find the B P Child to be terribly helpful because J doesn't look like most bi polar kids. He doesn't have tantrums, isn't explosive and his baseline is actually pretty compliant and wants to please. That, of course, is what made us question the diagnosis. It's very clear, though, that he is bi polar. We got a 2nd and 3rd opinion (and also saw a neuropsychologist) and are now seeing--as the disease progresses--the rapid mood cycling (mania and depression), mixed states etc. We are grateful that there is medication to help him. And it does appear to be working. We're crossing our fingers that it continues for a while. It's so, so hard to watch him go through this. </p><p></p><p>He doesn't seem to have sensory processing disorder. But that's a good point. My oldest son did (does still somewhat). And I did brushing therapy and Occupational Therapist (OT) with him. Seems like such a long time ago now (he's now 15). My oldest had pretty significant ADHD symptoms when he was younger. He's managed to really figure out ways to organize himself and stay on task both out of the classroom and in it (he doesn't take medication. We tried it and it made him very anxious). He still needs me to squeeze his hands sometimes or put a beanbag on top of him and sit on it. But he's come such a long way. </p><p></p><p>As for my depression--I was diagnosed about 25 years ago and have been taking Zoloft very successfully--with the exception of last year for about 6 months. My doctor thinks it might have been peri-menopause interrupting my sleep and then the added situational issues with my youngest son. My nephew (autistic and bipolar) had the DNA test done with great success. They did the testing because they gave him an SSRI for depression and he went absolutely bonkers. No surprise because he's bi polar (this was before his diagnosis), but they were able to see what medications were in the "red zone" and what were "green zone." </p><p></p><p>The hardest part for me has been the isolation. As I said before, only a few people know about his diagnosis. None of his friend's parents do with the exception of his best friend's mom who is also my very good friend (she has 4 boys. 2 with ADHD. She gets it). I just don't now how to talk to people about this. I don't want to stigmatize him. I feel like it's no one's business. And when the medications are working he's *fine*. No one would know that he has this serious mental illness. But that also means that *I* don't get to talk to people about what we're going through here. I don't want to talk to my friends who's kids are in my son's class. I know they would be supportive but I don't want to put his story out there because I don't want all of his friends to know right before they all go off to middle school. What have all of you done with disclosing to people? I really struggle with it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JRC, post: 704696, member: 21147"] Thanks for all the advice and for editing my post to remove the identifying information. Sorry! I'll check out the parent report. My sister in law uses some similar method (My brother's wife. She has a son with schizophrenia-age 21-and a son with bi polar and autism-age 10). My grandmother also was bi polar. Basically my family is f%#$d when it comes to mental health. :( Thank you for the book recs. I did read the BiPolar Child, but not the others. I didn't find the B P Child to be terribly helpful because J doesn't look like most bi polar kids. He doesn't have tantrums, isn't explosive and his baseline is actually pretty compliant and wants to please. That, of course, is what made us question the diagnosis. It's very clear, though, that he is bi polar. We got a 2nd and 3rd opinion (and also saw a neuropsychologist) and are now seeing--as the disease progresses--the rapid mood cycling (mania and depression), mixed states etc. We are grateful that there is medication to help him. And it does appear to be working. We're crossing our fingers that it continues for a while. It's so, so hard to watch him go through this. He doesn't seem to have sensory processing disorder. But that's a good point. My oldest son did (does still somewhat). And I did brushing therapy and Occupational Therapist (OT) with him. Seems like such a long time ago now (he's now 15). My oldest had pretty significant ADHD symptoms when he was younger. He's managed to really figure out ways to organize himself and stay on task both out of the classroom and in it (he doesn't take medication. We tried it and it made him very anxious). He still needs me to squeeze his hands sometimes or put a beanbag on top of him and sit on it. But he's come such a long way. As for my depression--I was diagnosed about 25 years ago and have been taking Zoloft very successfully--with the exception of last year for about 6 months. My doctor thinks it might have been peri-menopause interrupting my sleep and then the added situational issues with my youngest son. My nephew (autistic and bipolar) had the DNA test done with great success. They did the testing because they gave him an SSRI for depression and he went absolutely bonkers. No surprise because he's bi polar (this was before his diagnosis), but they were able to see what medications were in the "red zone" and what were "green zone." The hardest part for me has been the isolation. As I said before, only a few people know about his diagnosis. None of his friend's parents do with the exception of his best friend's mom who is also my very good friend (she has 4 boys. 2 with ADHD. She gets it). I just don't now how to talk to people about this. I don't want to stigmatize him. I feel like it's no one's business. And when the medications are working he's *fine*. No one would know that he has this serious mental illness. But that also means that *I* don't get to talk to people about what we're going through here. I don't want to talk to my friends who's kids are in my son's class. I know they would be supportive but I don't want to put his story out there because I don't want all of his friends to know right before they all go off to middle school. What have all of you done with disclosing to people? I really struggle with it. [/QUOTE]
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