Catherine - posted on 12/07/2010 ( 11 moms have responded )
5
37
My eldest son, who just turned 7 last week, is currently waiting for a "formal" diagnosis, which I am quite certain will eventually be Bipolar. He was initially thought to be autisitic when he started school. This was then changed to selective mutism. After seeing a speech therapist and a psychiatrist, he was found to have speech articulation issues which were causing anxiety. We worked with a speech therapist for 2 years until he aged out of their program and was assigned a speech therapist through the school system. Grade 1 was an awful year as he became the target of bullying in his class. He became very anxious and started lashing out. He was voluntarily placed in a 'safe and caring' school class with a ratio of 6 students to 3 teachers. He excelled in this environment and finally received a Psycho-Educational Evaluation and was found to have Anxiety/ADD/ODD. We started medicating over the summer break and he returned to his regular school this year for grade 2. He was doing fine until after 3 months of treatment with Strattera he plateaued and his doctor increased his dose. Within 2 weeks of the increase, he wasn't sleeping, he was fearful, paranoid, hallucinating and very aggressive! We stopped the meds and are now waiting to have him seen by a child psychologist.
I, myself, am bipolar with anxiety, and I see so much of myself and my own behaviours, in my son. His most recent episode was so similar to the manic episodes I've experienced both as an adult and a child. My parents and doctor as a child, felt my issues were just a phase that I would grow out of and it wasn't until I sought treatment on my own at 18, that I finally received the care and support I needed. I refuse to wait it out and allow my son to suffer when there is so much we can do for him!
Any advice or experiences you want to share? I just need to know I'm not alone and hopefully gain some knowledge along the way!
11 Comments
View replies by