Hi everyone,
We are less than a week into difficult child's new (probable) Early Onset Bi-Polar (EOBP) diagnosis and I have been reading, reading, and reading the whole time. Here's what I'm wondering: What triggers do you see for your BiPolar (BP) child's ascent towards hypomania or mania? Can you identify triggers and what do you do when you see the pattern start?
As I look back over the past month, Bug certainly had a clear episode of mood cycling. I now wonder if I have missed cases in the past because I didn't know what to look for (I assume I have). I think he has spent much of his life in a mixed state, which just makes me want to cry. I hope the new medications help, but I also feel like I need to understand better how to recognize what is happening to him.
On the medication front, he took his first dose of Trileptal with Christmas dinner on Friday. Unfortunately, yesterday he had blood in his stool so the psychiatrist told us to discontinue the medication for a few days and then try again. difficult child has chronic constipation (takes Miralax for it), so both husband and I and the psychiatrist feel like it probably wasn't due to the Trileptal, but we want to make sure.
I have a cold and have had a head/back ache since the visit to the psychiatrist on Wednesday. Perhaps I'm a little stressed. Glad to be seeing both my psychotherapist and physical therapist on Tuesday.
We are less than a week into difficult child's new (probable) Early Onset Bi-Polar (EOBP) diagnosis and I have been reading, reading, and reading the whole time. Here's what I'm wondering: What triggers do you see for your BiPolar (BP) child's ascent towards hypomania or mania? Can you identify triggers and what do you do when you see the pattern start?
As I look back over the past month, Bug certainly had a clear episode of mood cycling. I now wonder if I have missed cases in the past because I didn't know what to look for (I assume I have). I think he has spent much of his life in a mixed state, which just makes me want to cry. I hope the new medications help, but I also feel like I need to understand better how to recognize what is happening to him.
On the medication front, he took his first dose of Trileptal with Christmas dinner on Friday. Unfortunately, yesterday he had blood in his stool so the psychiatrist told us to discontinue the medication for a few days and then try again. difficult child has chronic constipation (takes Miralax for it), so both husband and I and the psychiatrist feel like it probably wasn't due to the Trileptal, but we want to make sure.
I have a cold and have had a head/back ache since the visit to the psychiatrist on Wednesday. Perhaps I'm a little stressed. Glad to be seeing both my psychotherapist and physical therapist on Tuesday.