My mom is my number one champion in all that I do. She is getting a ‘minor’ surgery today. I once heard that there is no such thing as minor surgery if someone has a knife anywhere near you!
I am here at the hospital working until I will take her home. This is great in one way- I always do better when I have to stay somewhere and can’t roam around because of feeling uncomfortable and all ADHD.
In other ways, it scares me. Do you have bipolar? Have you thought of the people in your life whom you love and what would happen if they were suddenly gone? I think of this all of the time. I am not concerned about my mother today, it really is routine. But I think of how it will be if she dies. Yes, I am honest about it and use the real words and think about [ Read More ]
Julie, I love these blogs but I have an 8yr old girl with bipolar disorder and everything is about adults. Her anger just gets worse and worse and I don’t know how to teach her the stuff i read from you. the hcp has her on depakote and risperidal, please tell my wife and I how we can help her. I feel so bad that she has to feel this way.
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I will answer this question either tonight of tomorrow. I thought I had time right now, but I am off to a meeting to interview a potential speaker for the Latino Mental Health event that my friend Gayathri Ramprasad is doing here in Portland, Oregon.
The childhood bipolar questions are so important and I want to give this a lot of thought before I answer.
UPDATE: I have not forgotten this question- I have just been in [ Read More ]
I asked my brother, “What’s it like to have a sister with bipolar disorder?” His answer was totally unexpected. I thought he would talk about the problems I had in the past. But that was a long time ago – and now we get along well. It’s good to ask family members what they think. You can record them and add them to your blog!
Hi, I just received this comment about my speech last week. I want to respond to it directly.
julie. . . .we attended your speech in Eugene on last Thursday night. My daughter is having a hard time right now and any little “light” that she can see is SO important, so you can imagine how important it has been for her to be exposed to your hopeful messages, your time that you took to speak with us afterward! We bought the health cards CD. Haven’t had time to look at it yet, but WILL. Many thanks. becky
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When I meet wonderful people at my talks, I’m always happy to see mothers and fathers with their child. There is so [ Read More ]
I have a friend who has done everything possible to help his son find a diagnosis. The recent diagnosis was bipolar disorder. His son lived in a treatment facility for a year, went to a special camp in the country, learned more effective communication techniques and truly tried hard to fit in with his family. I have been amazed at how hard my friend and his partner have worked to find out what is happening to their child. The bipolar disorder diagnosis was a catch all- as it often is. It’s not that the diagnosis was wrong, it’s just that it was so vague.
Finally, some answers: My friend just wrote and said that his son has a new diagnosis that makes more sense. It’s called Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Here is what I just read in Wikipedia: **
The diagnostic category pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), as opposed to specific developmental disorders (SDD), refers to a [ Read More ]
The following is a copy of an excellent WEB MD article on bipolar disorder diagnosis in children.When people ask me about childhood onset bipolar disorder, I always have the same answer: I believe that what we call bipolar disorder in children is VERY different than what we consider bipolar disorder in adults.
One of the main differences is the level of anger, irritation, tolerance levels and duration of screaming, crying, and out of control mood swings. Another very imporant distinction is the ADHD behavior of these kids. They have more of the hyperactivity part of the ADHD than adults who are usually diagnosed with ADD.My heart goes out to these kids as I know they have a lot of troubling symptoms, but like many people in this industry- I question these bipolar disorder diagnoses.
This is a looonnnggg article- which is why I’ve put it in two posts, but the information is extremely helpful. It’s [ Read More ]
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