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, March 20, 2009

Mania Confirmed

Unfortunately, Caroline is showing signs of being very manic, which looks like extreme belligerence, physical aggression, taunting, laughing in a sinister sort of way, stealing money from her sisters, grandiose self-centered thinking, and this weird devil-may-care attitude about anything.  "I am just showing you my dark side," she boasted, as if quite proud of her rebellious mood.  We are not sure what exactly may be going on with her chemically, except that I did just introduce high potency flax seed oil pills to help with her cholesterol.  She had a bad reaction to fish oil, also inducing mania, so maybe she just can't take high doses of Omega 3 and 6.  We were almost ready to take her to the hospital because she was so out of control.  I could feel Bill's despair.  Watching her in this state just tears at your heart.  She can't see that how she is acting is abnormal.  With Bill's dad still in the hospital, coming several times close to death, I can tell he is very weary and has just about had it dealing with Caroline.  
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)