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!

Monday, September 7, 2009

To Sleep, Perchance to Sleep Some More

One thing I have definitely noticed is that unlike how I slept all summer, which was great, so much so that I dropped two of the sleep meds I was taking, I am now back to needing three sleep meds and having lots of nightmares. I wake up and I can tell I have been grinding my teeth. Subconsciously, I must be more stressed out than I feel. When Caroline was away, we all felt so relaxed, and so sleep came easily. Now, just her presence brings on anxiety. She is better yes, but she will always be bipolar, and always have struggles greater than the average kid.

Right now she wants texting back, which we had taken away last fall after some unfortunate texting that got her dismissed from the homeschool coop she was in. She wants to feel like a normal teen who does normal teen things. I wish that for her too, but the but the boundaries will always be tighter for her. She said that she always feels like she is in Elizabeth's shadow, which I am sure must be very hard. For that reason I am especially glad that she will not be in high school at the same time as her older sister. Holding her back in the fourth grade was a good idea just for that reason. Caroline will need her own space.
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1 comment:

Corrie Howe said...

We have the same conversations in our own home. How come they aren't treated like the other sibling. It is hard for them to understand that we treat them individually. My oldest is "typical" and seven years older than our middle child with Asperger's Syndrome. One would think he'd understand why he and his brother are treated different, but he doesn't. The hope that I hang onto is that when I finally became a parent, I understood why my parents treated my siblings and I differently. :-)

September 21, 2009 at 12:44 PM

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