About our Daughter

I am mother to four wonderful daughters, ages 17, 19, 21, and 23, and wife to the greatest husband on earth. God has given us a special child to raise one who was diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder at the age of seven, though she showed signs of it from the age of fifteen months. She also has ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder (sensory seeking), Dyslexia, and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder-NOS, all typical comorbidities for a bipolar child. In spite of the trials, she enjoys lacrosse, running (finished her first marathon in October of 2014!), and reading and writing her own books. I will share with you the many joys and sorrows we have faced and will face in the future with the hope that you may find better understanding about this mental illness caused by both chemical and structural abnormalities in the brain. I desire that you will be encouraged by this blog if you are also dealing with a bipolar child. Thank you for reading and sharing in our journey.

How Did You Know She Was Bipolar So Young?

I wrote a long explanation of how we came to this bipolar diagnosis in a child so young under my post of March 19th of 2009. If your child or a child you know bears similarities, please seek out a good psychiatrist and don't wait for "things to get better." Often they will simply get worse, and the longer a child is unmedicated, the more damage their brain can accrue. Early diagnoses and treatment are key to providing these children with a chance at a successful life later as a teen and an adult.
Never change, start or stop a medication without the approval of your child's physician!

Friday, May 21, 2010

"We're Too Normal"

I was watching "Wife Swap" tonight on the TV with my two youngest daughters. The show should really be called "Mom Swap" because that is what it is essentially. They take two radically different families, switch the moms for two weeks, and lo and behold you have a reality show. Of course one mom is always much too permissive, usually on the low end of income and education level, and the other one is often well-educated, materially blessed, Type A, and uptight about everything, and extremely protective. Mae asked if we could sign up to be on the show. I gave her a "no-way" look. Then Jane said we couldn't anyway because our family was too normal. TOO NORMAL?? Did I hear that right?! I was tickled. I really thought that she would say we were too messed up. Yes, we are a normal family, with issues like every family. Our oldest comments frequently that we have a very dysfunctional home, but then I ask her to look at the home lives of most of her friends. We are doing okay in comparison. Yes, at times we haven't felt the least bit normal, but I must say that this year has been a new "normal." I am grateful for the reprieve from the holes in the walls, the running away from home, the constant crises we were in for so many years. I realize that things could change, but for now, I am just thankful.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh, enjoy this moment! It is so reassuring to hear that the siblings are getting through it all pretty well. My 7 year old just asked if my son's anger problems were all gone now, thankful to meds, we are seeing a new normal!

Fighting for my Children said...

Sometimes its good to be "normal"

domandkat said...

A friend of mine on Facebook wrote that a family of more than one person is a dysfunctional one...
:-)

marythemom said...

I've thought about going on this show, but we are "too normal" too. They only take people of extremes, and while my kids are extreme. We aren't so much.

I could never do it anyway though. We're still in the middle of attachment/therapeutic parenting. I'd just be made to look like an overly restrictive witch as my kids behave perfectly for the new person (they both have "charming RAD").

Mary in TX