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, January 1, 2010

Three Days To Go

Three more days and counting until Caroline goes back to school! All of them but one, whom I am homeschooling. She's the easy one to homeschool, Jane that is. I tried homeschooling Caroline but she does so much better with tighter structure and other teachers. Her New Year's resolution was to stay at one school for an entire year. Kind of sad, but a good goal. We hope that she can finish an entire year at one school for a change. Maybe even for all of middle school. We shall see....

4 comments:

Lora said...

Hi Megan, You are the second person to tell me about the connection between bipolar disorder and autism. I am going to do a search on the internet because I am very interested to learn about the study. I am not surprised especially since Griffin is also bipolar and ADHD. There is mental illness and who knows what else, on both sides of my family. Thanks for the information.

I think that staying in one school is a good goal too. Griffin had a very difficult time when he was in two different schools in South Carolina (they have horrid schools there because they do not spend any money on education). In between the two schools I tried homeschooling but he needed the socialization with his peers that he gets in school. So, now that we are in NC the school is soooo much better, which explains how he can be in a mainstream classroom.

Corrie Howe said...

We had Bob Drews here today. He brought us the Word and told us about his ministry to Japan.

My oldest is read to go back to school. Jonathan thinks he's crazy, "Why would anyone want to go back to school?"

And I'm so ready for the kids to go back to school. I can clean my house and it will stay that way for at least a few hours.

J-momma said...

i recently decided to homeschool mateo when we move in april. he's actually the opposite of your daughter. he does better without the structure. he needs the flexibility and for the learning to move with him and his interests and needs. i'm going to give it a try. i just posted all about this actually. i'm finding more and more parents of special needs kids (and bipolar kids) who homeschool. it's so interesting to me. and i hope it works out for us. i think it will. :)

Megan said...

I really really wish that homeschooling would have worked for Caroline because we have had so many unsuccessful stints at various schools--all were fine academically, but it was the social aspect that was the problem. I've tried homeschooling her several times and it was a disaster. She just refused to work for me, and once kids are past the early elementary years, there is so much they need to have down pat, and we had to hold her back a year as a result of her refusal to work at home. So our goal is to keep her in a school, but I am envious of parents of bpkids who can homeschool successfully.