ADHD and Early Onset Bi-Polar Child
It all started at the very beginning my child was born prematurely and only weighed 2 lbs 11 ozs at birth. He was a fighter to begin with. He would push himself onto his head in his incubator and it would appear that he was standing on his head. This was the biggest joke among his nurses in the neonatal unit.�¯�¿�½
By the time he was the age of 2 he would move so fast that I literally had to hold him down to get him to go sleep. It only got worse with age. By the time he was 3 his anger started to develop and not only would I have a child that would climb walls but I also had a child that could not sit still, hold still, would scream at every no, and would throw punches when he didn’t get his way.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
As he aged the temper tantrums would continue, he ended up in special education by the time he was 3 due to a speech disability, and has qualified ever since for other conditions. When he entered Kindergarten the school could not handle him in the regular classroom and demanded that I take him to a doctor to have him diagnosed.�¯�¿�½
The first visit with the psychiatrist was a wonderful one; my son was pulling on my arm so hard to get my attention that the psychiatrist thought he was going to pull it out of socket. When I did get him to settle down enough not to be pulling on me the psychiatrist was amazed how much he was actually moving. That visit, they diagnosed him in the 98th percentile of the nation of children with ADHD disorder. They placed him on an ADHD medication and an anti-depressant. The ADHD medication worked but when he took the anti-depressant he went into a 12 hour psychotic episode. I called the psychiatrist right away and they asked “Can you handle him?” I said “Of course I’ve handled him up to now haven’t I!”.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
This episode was so bad at the age of 5 he was throwing power wheels across the yard, needless to say all of the sharp items in the house got put up for the day. When he finally came out the episode he had no idea what he had done and was so exhausted he immediately fell into a 14 hour sleep. Let me tell you I needed the rest after that one. Anyway we had an appointment with the psychiatrist that week, and they said well since he had that type of reaction to that medication that just tells us that he also had Bi-Polar disorder. This was a test; we had suspected that but had to give him that medication to tell for sure.�¯�¿�½
Well we spent 3 years with this doctor and when my son reached 3200 milligrams of medication a day, I took him off of all medications. I felt that was way too much medication, and it wasn’t working anyway he was the same on the medication has he was off of it. I started to look for another psychiatrist.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
At this point and time I started to look for child advocates and other options to find new doctors. It took me almost two years, and I finally had to go to our family doctor to get a recommendation. He is now seeing another psychiatrist that wants to perform an EEG to rule out some sort of seizure disorder and has set up an appointment to have him tested all over again.
Hopefully this time we can find out exactly what my son’s disorders are. He is on new medication and seems to be handling it well, even though he refuses to take it now due to the first psychiatrist placing him on so much at such a young age. I have to hide it in his food now, but at least that way I know that he gets it.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
My only advice to a parent with a child like mine would be:�¯�¿�½
1) Always be patient with the child, you may have your moments but make sure that the child understands that they are being punished for their actions. They usually don’t know what they did, but they do know that they did something wrong. I tend to tell my son what he did after the episode so that maybe with the next episode it won’t be quite so severe.Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½
2) Find the right doctor that will listen to you.�¯�¿�½
3) Do all the research you can and be knowledgeable on all childhood mental disorders. Who better to diagnose your child than you, after all you are the one who knows them best. You need the doctors for medication and advice and a proper diagnosis but you can assistance.�¯�¿�½
4) Never give up and always look at the brighter side in life, its not all bad.�¯�¿�½
Every day I thank my lucky stars that I have two wonderful children. One may have disorders and be challenging, and the other feeds off of her brother, so it can make for challenging days. I may have days that I am stressed beyond anything else, but at the end of the day when I tuck them into bed and give them the kisses and hugs and they say “I love you Mom”, those will be sweetest words that you will ever hear, and it just makes all the bad and challenging issues disappear. Besides all that tomorrow is another day.
