Son is out of the hospital--addition to diagnosis

[ggluvbug]

My son(the one who shot the BB gun at us) is out of the hospital. They increased the medications. He still seems slightly on edge, but he is not aggressive at all so that is a good thing.

They did some more psychiatric testing when he was in this time and it confirmed the BiPolar (BP) diagnosis. Gave him a separate Generalized Anxiety Disorder diagnosis. It confirmed ODD. And it also showed alot of Hystrionic Personality Disorder traits. That is a new one, but I read up on it some today and thought it sounded like him.

The doctor also thinks it might be good for him to see a male therapist instead of female. I hadn't really considered this before. Any thoughts on that?

 

[jbrain]

Well, both my dtrs seemed to relate better to male therapists than female, not sure why (though one of the females was a terrible therapist, maybe that had some effect!) Anyway, glad he seems to be non-aggressive at this point!
Jane

 

[trinityroyal]

Sometimes the gender of the therapist can make a difference.
My difficult child does MUCH better with female therapists and EAs, but with male teachers. With the therapists and EAs, it seems that he gets into a competition for dominance, which doesn't seem to happen with the females. He listens and participates much better. With teachers, on the other hand, he seems to accept the authority of men better than women.

I'm not sure where this comes from, as he has had strong male and female influences in his life. However, this pattern seems to work well for him, so we've tried to accommodate it.

If it might help the situation with your difficult child to have a male therapist, and you can find a good one that you're comfortable with, then I don't see the harm in it.

Best of luck,
Trinity

 

[smallworld]

How does psychiatric testing confirm a BiPolar (BP) diagnosis? I've always been told that BiPolar (BP) is a diagnosis made by observation and clinical judgment of the treating psychiatrist.

 

[busywend]

If the female therapist is not working, it can not hurt to try a different one. Try a male therapist and see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised. Must be difficult child said something about having a female therapist or why would they have mentioned it, right?

 

[DDD]

I believe gender can be a major factor. Our difficult child grandson gets
along beautifully with females but he subtly plays sympathy cards
with females more than he does males. The professional females
seem more likely to respond with "awww" type responses when he
regurgitates his tales of neglect and abuse...and they are much
more responsive to his tales about GFGmom.

I changed him from female to male for therapy and recently, in the presence of difficult child, told the male therapist that it was my very
strong belief "that difficult child was focusing too much on repeating tales
of the past and that he needed to be guided to planning for his
future and analyzing his current life". Later...difficult child smiles and
said "Mama, you always know what's going on don't you?"

What weird lives we all lead!!!! DDD

 

[TerryJ2]

Sounds like you're making progress. I would ditto what others have said about trying a new therapist who is male. Sometimes it's a "guy" thing that only guys can understand. Then again, there may be some sort of competition. I guess you'll only know if you try.
Good luck.