A blog for anyone who needs to know they are not alone in raising a bipolar child.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Mania, Again, Self-Diagnosed
Caroline just told me that she has been feeling manic the last several days, having inappropriate thoughts, not sleeping well. This might explain the definite OCD-like attitude with the book she has been writing, her loquaciousness, and her sassiness the last few days. I am so proud that she decided to tell me that she was feeling this way without a big crisis making it obvious. Yay! She is growing in maturity all the time. I don't know which med we should increase, the Lamictal, the Trileptal, or the Seroquel. I will call her psychiatrist for an appointment and also see if I can get advice while we are waiting. She is on a high dose of all of those, so I am not sure what would come next medication-wise. Spring is such a hard time, as the body clock has to adjust to more daylight and then the DST ends too. Maybe she is on too much Lamictal now.
I too think it is very encouraging to see that she has the insight to recognize her mania. There is lots of hope for her.
ReplyDeleteThat's something I still have problems with seeing in myself, so that's great that she can 'see' it!
ReplyDeleteOh, boy. Mania is really tough to deal with. For some reason Seraquil made my daughter manic after being on it for a few months and having good results. That is nice that Caroline can recognize her mania. Did she ever have help identifying it herself? When my daughter is manic she thinks she's fine and very defensive about her behavior. (I'M FINE! I DON'T NEED ANY HELP! LEAVE ME ALONE! I HATE YOU! etc.) She hasn't been manic for 2 months... and it's been such a blessing! Our world is not perfect, but I've learned to take it one day at a time... sometimes one minute at a time. Hope you all find a fix and find some peace soon.
ReplyDeleteCamille, Caroline was defensive last night about her state, the whole I'm just happy stuff. But she was scaring us with her out-of-control chattiness, and she was literally bouncing up and down and couldn't stop--way too happy!
ReplyDeletedoes OCD come with mania? We are still trying to figure out how our son works and it's driving me batty.
ReplyDeleteHe gets obsessive about books or something he wants and if he can't have it he gets aggressive and violent. He told me tonight his new medicine (intuniv) makes him sad.
And, he is only just turning 7.
Found you tonight and will be visiting often, BTW
Pickel--has your son been diagnosed as bipolar or ADHD? Mania is definitely only a part of bipolar disorder and OCD behavior absolutely is a part of early onset bipolar disorder. Tunnel vision, can't be swayed from thinking about one obsession is a symptom of OCD all by itself, of course. Is Intuniv the only med he is on? Intuniv lowers their blood pressure so the sadness he is feeling might be a sense of low energy.
ReplyDeleteMegan,
ReplyDeleteMy son has fetal alcohol syndrome, SPD, bipolar, and ADHD. He also has PTSD, anxiety, and OCD tendencies that increase depending upon which medications he is on.
He takes abilify, risperdal, intuniv, and clonidine. I;m not liking the intuniv because it makes him really aggressive and angry with us at home but he is very focused and on target at school. It's also helped his tics so I LOVE that.
Hi PIckel (BTW) again! That's interesting about the Intuniv helping with your son's tics. Mae has a stuttering problem and I noticed that the Intuniv improved it. I think it is relaxing to their brains. Are you going to work up to 2mg of Intuniv or 3 before you quit? I am so sorry about the fetal alcohol diagnosis, because I am sure that his other issues probably were caused or greatly exacerbated by it, as you know. Doesn't seem fair.
ReplyDeleteWe have him on 2mg right now. He's from Russia and the FAS was originally the primary diagnosis but as he gets older we see more and more of the bipolar taking over. I wrote a post last night on it over on my site...http://www.growninmyheart.com/and-he-rages
ReplyDeleteWe're not sure about his family history but we guess that one or both of his birth parents were also bipolar. It's very common.