Hello everyone. BG here. I have a son who is ADHD. I also have a 15 yr old daughter who has been diagnosed with Bipolar 1/clinical depression. I was reading yesterday on the Bipolar thread and I started to cry because I'm now thinking my 9yr old son may have that also. I have so many questions:confused: .

Let's start with my daughter. She was always a sweet but emotional child. Cried for the littlest things all the time. She was harrassed since Kindergarten because she was in the resource classes because she had numerous tubes in her ears while she was a baby and everything she heard was muffled thus causing speech impairment, and she really isn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. When she was in 3rd or 4th grade she started pulling out her hair, plucking eyebrows until she didn't have any and eyelashes too. She was able to hide it because she has long hair. I worked through it with her because I was in denial that something was wrong. It seemed to work at least with the eyelashes and brows. I couldn't tell about her head because of her ability to hide it. One day she tells her lil brother that he has a bald spot on the back of his head:mad: . Next thing you know...he picked a bald spot on his head. It's growing back, but I think he should have more hair then he does. It's been like 6 months. I'm still worried. I heard that Adderall could make Bipolar worse...is that true??

BG

BTW...Since I'm a NEWBIE, I don't know if I posted this on the right topic, so if it needs to be moved please do so.

don't have much advice for you, but I have known a few people who were bipolar and it's a long road to finding the right way to cope, but once they did they lead beautiful lives.... one I know is happy as ever married with two kids, you'd never know she ever had a problem, another just graduated college with her BA in psych, (lol I thought that was funny, she loves it) she had a good enough GPA to get accepted to a graduate program!!! Just wanted to let you know you are in my thoughts and to give you hope that there are success stories out there, keep your head up and your kids will have a good example to follow (which I'm sure they do if you are already going this far :) )

Pigeon

Thanks for the words of encouragement!! I know I have a long road ahead of me, especially if I have to add Bipolar to my sons diagnosis:( . I have enough with my 15 yr old daughter. She keeps going off her meds because she don't "feel the medication", therefore she crashes often and seems to want to self medicate herself with weed. Because she "feels it instantly" and she believes it helps her. I cannot alow her to smoke pot. It is illegal and I feel it's just messing her up even more. Whats a mom to do??

BG

BG,

it must be unbelieveably challenging to have two children who are giving you worries. I'd like to think that your daughter will eventually figure out the medication/non medication and how she feels, but it doesn't help right now.

I do know someone who is bipolar and they do take meds, but they've had a few ups and downs (they are in early twenties now), including one attempted suicide that scared them as much as anyone. I think he benefitted most from getting really great psychological as well as medical support. He's a very sweet person inside, but that isn't always coming out, and is really improved with meds.

If there was some way you could link up with a bipolar group too, I think that would further increase your own support..I didn't get whether your daughter was ADD/bipolar because I think that is covered in another forum below this one.

Keep posting, BG, we're definitely thinking of you.

cs

She's being re-evaulated as we speak. 3 doctors said it was bi-polar. But this last doctor has a list of other things that could be wrong including a mild case of Autism. I'll let you guys know what I find out this coming Tuesday.

Bg