Anyone here have bipolar kids? I have a strong suspicion that my

[GreenPartyVoter]

8 yr old son either has that or some other mood disorder. :( He is SO much like me in so many ways that it wouldn't surprise me at all. (I behaved very similarly as a child and I didn't get diagnosed correctly as BP2 until just a couple of years ago.) My heart aches so much for him!

Since his behavior at school is starting to be affected I thought maybe he could speak to a counselor. Unfortunately, not only does our school not have one but there isn't one in the district that makes visits here, so we have to do this on our own. The Sped teacher gave us the name of someone; I'm going to try and track him down. I think I will also talk to my psych nurse when I see her later this month.

Anyway, please send prayers or good vibes. I can see so clearly the path of self-destruction that lies in front of this kid. :cry:

[elleng]

1. Good luck to you

and your son.

How lucky he is to have you, who can foresee and help so early.

((()))

[mopinko]

2. i have one.

she is 21 now, and i honestly never thought i would see it.
i would recommend http://thebipolarchild.com the folks behind this site, and books, have really written the book on the differences in symptoms, etc, in kids.
one thing that they have recommended is cold water fish oil, i believe 1 gram/day, alone or with medication. i mention it because getting to medication, let alone the right medication, can take a long time, and this is something that you can start tomorrow. get it from a health food place, and get the salmon oil. that is the best.

this is a special hell right here, and i wish you well. fwiw, mine is now doing very well. but it took a hell of a lot of work, and help. if he is a problem in school, get him started on an iep NOW. the process is slow, but once it is started there are protections and accommodations, and rules. they will have to have the school shrink evaluate him, but if you can manage it, see if you can find someone who can do it privately. that person can be your advocate at hearings, and is worth whatever you can afford to pay.

good luck. check in and let us know how it goes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. The trouble is he isn't yet a big enough problem in school so there is

no way they will do anything official with him now. I have told the principal so that he is aware of what potential troubles are there, but I don't want to wait until things get bad.

As far as I can tell he's like me, BP2 and possibly a rapid cycler. He can go from furiously angry and majorly rude to me and then 5 minutes later he's the loviest snuggliest little boy sitting in my lap and kissing me all over. Is it contrition or did something else change? He also has to get in the last word during our fights, but at the same time I swear I see panic in his eyes every time he opens his mouth. Is it because he knows I'm going to lose it with him or because he's experiencing pressured speech and the panic is from knowing he needs to stop but can't?

He barely eats. He doesn't like the food we give him even if yesterday it was his favorite. He pushed a girl off of the slide last year. He didn't mean to. The kids were playing a "push me _down_ the slide game" and his turn went awry. The girl was fine but my son was in the Principal's office for HOURS because he would not apologize. He figures if it was an accident he has done nothing wrong. He also freaks any time we try to correct him about something, even in the gentlest kindest way. Last spring he came home and shredded some papers into the trash. I fished them out. He had gotten a 95 on that spelling test and hated himself for not getting a perfect 100. He got caught cheating on a pop quiz last year. He had never had one before and not knowing that it was coming really upset him. He was supposed to make up a fairy tale, started one, erased the whole thing and then slouched in his chair and insisted he would take a zero instead. He has been kicked out of Sunday school for crawling across the table and we had an incident where he took a prize and the teacher said he didn't earn it because he didn't say the verse. Kid insists he _did_ say the verse but teacher didn't hear him. Refused to say it over again just to make things right. Now I have just heard that he has refused to do his artwork for the past 3 weeks all because he can't make it come out the way he sees it in his head, so he refuses to even try.

He hates doing things for the first time in front of other people; his self-esteem is terribly low. He will clown around to get other kids to laugh at him, even admitting that he will act inappropriately to get that laugh. He is furious that we have rules in our house and says that this means that we do not respect him. (If we respected him we never would have taken away his computer privileges.) A few times he has said he wished he was dead. This is happening more often now and he was faking punches at his face the other day when we were fighting again, saying he hoped that his jaw would break and he would pass out. He also said he wished he could shoot me, but then took it back as a "joke".

I have known BP 1 kids and he is not like that. He is not full of raging violence (yet) just really moody. But I worry that he will be the type of kid to get into drugs (like my brother) or self-mutilation (also my brother) or even attempt suicide. My biggest fear is the impulsive suicide. Someone was mean to him. A girlfriend dumped him. Whatever. I really can see things going that way someday. :cry: But I am also just as scared of meds. I've had some bad experiences with them. I would give him the fish oil but I tried it myself and it didn't do a thing for me.

[EFerrari]

4. Imho, get him tested. If meds become part of the treatment

you are a grown up and you can observe how well they are working or not working and you can get them adjusted.

No one prescription is a sentence to suffer. We had Doug's meds tinkered with all the time until the right balance was found. It takes patience, that's for sure, but the results can change lives.

Good luck to you guys. :hug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Thanks! *hugs*