:( well took tatorbug to doc last week for his 6 months checkup. Told his doc. i was really concerned....been reading on bipolar and i'm thinnking he might have it. I printed off a sheet that had the signs and symptoms and its sad to say he had just about all of them. Now shes really concerned. Shes gonna set us up some appt. with differnt docs and things but i know bug hes not gonna talk to noone. We have a hard time here trying to get him to talk to us about whats going on with him. Any advise from those who maybe dealing with this or know someone that is? I'm just really worried about him and i feel like now that i thought i had the adhd where i could handle it now it seems more. thanks all for listening guess i'm just having one of those days...... Tatorbugs_mommy (tracy) :confused:

I am sorry to hear that Tator's problems have gotten seemingly more complicated. I can't offer any advice as I haven't any experience in the area, so all I can give are best wishes. I hope the doctors can figure out what's going on.
Greg

Bless your heart, I know what yor going through. My DS (11 yrs old) has both ADHD and Bipolar, we found out about the bipolar around Christmas time, when during the break off from school I did not give him any stimulant at all, and right after Christmas he went to see his Pdoc and I told her how he was soo much easier to get along with than when he was in school, and on medication. He was a bit hyper and in-attentive but it wasn't like walking on egg shells around him!


I noticed with the stimulants, if he was attentive and the medicine was doing a good job, he was hateful and hard to be around, BUT if the medicine wasn't doing it's job or we had him on a lower dose, he wasn't hard to get along with. So DH and I had to decide "well do we have him do well academically and be attentive but hard to be around, or do we let him be easy to be around, able to make friends but suffer academically?"

We had also went through all of the stimulants known to man, thinking the one he was on at the time was making him the way he was. Thats when I knew there had to be something else going on and I started reading up on Onset bipolar disorder in children. It's very,very hard to distinguish between the two, they seem so much alike, but from what I have read many children are often mis-diagnosed with adhd when it's really bipolar, or both. I have also read that 80% of those with bipolar have adhd, but not the other way around, hopefully that makes sense. A book that I HIGHLY recommend, is "The Bipolar child" I checked it out at my library, and am now gonna order one to keep from amazon, it's a wonderful book!

Well his Pdoc did do an evaluation and concluded that he did have the Bipolar along with his already diagnosed adhd, it was really hard to hear but I had to just concentrate on helping him, and we now had a name for it. Another thing that many parents are confused about is the "mania" side to bipolar. Your child DOES NOT have to be acting suicidal or go into wild tantrums and be hospitalized to be bipolar, because my Son does not fit that description at all,that's what at first made me think he didn't have it. There is a depressive side to Bipolar, which is what my Ds has, and a manic side, or both.


Plus some people (children or adults) have a manic side, it's just not severe enough to really notice, and be hospitalized. Of course I am no expert on this, I'm just telling you what I have read/heard.

Right now I am trying to get DS's medication where it needs to be, he is still taking a stimulant, because the medication he is on for the bipolar (trileptal) isn't really helping him with his adhd symptoms, although the bipolar symptoms alot of the times look like bipolar symtoms and vice-versa. Plus he is VERY in-attentive, and gets very distracted. Soo we are trying to come up with a good combination so the two disorders can work together.


It's really hard because a stimulant exacerbates the bipolar, by making a person more irritable among other things, the very irriability part, which was the case for my Son, but the thing is he needs the stimulant for school? So I may need to have his Bipolar med upped some to help the stimulant side effects. Anyway's if you think your child may have bipolar disorder concentrate on that before the adhd, the bipolar disorder needs to be dealt with first,as your Son's doctor will tell you.

Sorry for rambling on and making this so long, I hope I've made sense, and given you some advice, feel free to e-mail me or message me here if need be. Take care! :)

How old is he?my daughter is 8 now and we do believe she also has bipolor but they keep telling me she is too young to test,is this true?

Tracy,

tracy, My son just turned 5 and he was diagnosed with adhd 1 1/2 years ago he was on adderrall then concerta and now straterra nothin is working and just like you i have been reading on bipolar and have also printed off a sheet of signs of biploar and scary enough he fits every one but 2 and there are like 40 of them. He goes to see his doc next month and i am going to take this sheet with me. I have also bought the book The Bipolar Child it has also been a great help to me and that too fits my son to a tee. I f you need any support or just wanna talk email me at edited id be glad to hear from someone who is batteling the same as I am. good luck!

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Tracy,

Andi posted some excellent, up to date research regarding the things to look for in trying to distinguish ADHD kids from Pediatric Bipolar kids.Please check that out when u get a chance.


Keep in mind that there's a "one way comorbidity" between Pediatric Bipolar kids and ADHD.
That means that research has shown that up to 97% of PBD kids also have ADHD, while the reverse is not true.

There are 5 evidenced based (research substantiated) differences:

1) an elevated mood (how long that ocurs ultimately decides the type of Bipolar involved);
2) a decreased need for sleep;
3) grandiosity (world's greateat expert on everything );
4) hypersexual behavior (displaying sexually precocious behavior at an early age);
5) flight of ideas (racing thoughts).

There;s a 6th one that is strictly anectodal but I 've seen it for years and it always is discussed at workshops on the subject, and that's 6) destructive behavior.

By that I mean major property damage. Some things I've seen over the years are smashed tv screens, demolished doors, coffee table destroyed (broken into pieces), objects thrown thru plate glass windows or living room windows, etc.,kitchen cabinet doors ripped off, etc.

Most of those ultimately resulted in the police being called, so this is more than throwing the remote control.


I hope that helps some.Good luck.:)