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How do you know???
| Tue, 04-08-2003 - 10:55am |
If your child is really ADHD or bipolar? Is a ADHD kid aggressive? I've been reading alot on bipolar and that is everything my child is. But he will probably get an ADHD diagnosis. What really makes the difference? I know my child won't be diagnosed with bipolar--because he's only 3yo--but I also don't want him misdiagnosed and should have been getting a different treatment all along.
Holly
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At the age of three, treatment will probably be the same regardless of the diagnosis because children are not usually medicated at such a young age. My son went to a therapist for over a year before meds were prescribed, and he still sees the same therapist. He says the only thing consistent with ADHD is inconsistency - while we just want the same kid every day, it is unusual to ever have that. I'm sure we've all wondered what happened to the "real" kid, but we have to learn how to deal with our children's inconsistent behaviors. One thing for sure - life is never boring!
Things to look at at family history. Mine & my husbands both had manic depressant in the family. We also has some family members who are probably unDXed. We listed people who were alcoholics, drug abusers, in & out of jail, risky behavior. We also started keeping sa journal of our sons behavior, sleep patterns & such. I just kept something on my computer that I would make an entry every day. This helped determine a cycle.
As you probably have read, BP looks differently in children. Aggression can be a symptom of depression or maina. I always had to look at other behaviors to be able to tell the difference. Like if there were a lot of cyrinf it owuld probbly be depressed state, if he had a hard time sleeping & was ultra hyper it was mania.
My son now taked a mood stabilizer and an antipsychotic along with his ADHD meds. I have to really look at his behavior to be able to tell if the hyperness is from adhd or Mania.
Here is link to help tell the difference in ADHD & Mania in BP.
http://www.psycheducation.org/PCP/handouts/ADHD.htm
I just hope to find a Dr who is open to the idea of early-onset bipolar!!
Holly
My son used to cycle during the day (the afternoon being the worse), but also weekly. The later part of the week being the worse for him. He also goes manic just before a full moon, we noticed it one night when hubby & I went outside to get away from the screaming. Joiners psych says that she is told by several of her patients that they feel very different during a full moon phase. Everytime we have a really bad day I look up & see the moon just about to be full. Strange.
I thought it was normal at first to have a baby that cried almost continuously until I was told it was not. He refused to sleep or be settled. We changed formulas a dozen times etc...thinking it was gas or what no.
At 5 months he was in daycare and I used to be near tears after getting him ready and taking him in, he would go rigid and scream when I tried to dress him until we figured out that there was only one type of fabric that he would put up with, and I had to go buy a dozen sleepers made out of thick t-shirt material and cut off the tags and the feet, he couldn't stand the ridges in the feet at the toes. At daycare they had to take him in the nap room to feed him so he would not be distracted and actually eat.
By the time he grew his first two teeth I was covered in bite marks. By the age of 2, he had me crying almost daily. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, I actually tried to get someone to see him then. He pinched, scratched and bit whenever he got mad, his tantrums were out of control.
When he was almost 3, the breaking point for me was he took a box of 24 lightbulbs and lobbed them about his room laughing as they exploded. I caught him on the last one. I lock up all the poisonous cleaners...but lightbulbs???? I demanded he see another doctor and the pediatrician dx with the most severe adhd he had seen in a child that age. Many months of testing later that is still his dx and he starts school in September.
I can still see the days where the ritalin seems to make him high and the days when it drives him to the bottom of the pit and he's riddled with anxiety and becomes very withdrawn. Then there are the days it seems to work the way it's supposed to.
No one will take me seriously regardless of how much journalling, mood tracking or begging I do. I have a huge team of psychologists and psychiatrists that work with him and they are the best in the country, but for some reason, they think I'm crazy. I still feel bad when he looks at me with that look and says, Mummy I wish my gun was real because I would blow your face off and watch you bleed. You'd go to sleep forever, you know, really die.......
Elspeth