I recently got to know a woman who entertains in her pajamas. She said "I don't know you well, so I am dressed. But next time, don't be surprised to see me in pajamas and fuzzy slippers." Her house may not be clean, but she assured me she would always have wine. I, on the other hand, live in fear that someone will drop by unannounced and the beds will be unmade. Instead of the recurring nightmare people have about showing up naked in high school, I have dinner party nightmares. People show up at the door, no food is prepared, my family is not properly dressed, and worst of all, the house is trashed. How I admire my friend who can entertain in her pajamas.
Ever since I was a young girl, I kept a clean house. My mom went back to work when I was in middle school, and with two younger siblings, there was still a lot of house keeping to be done. I struggled to keep the house as neat as possible, to keep the laundry going and the grocery lists up-to-date. Why would a 12 year-old care? Because I lived in a house of dysfunction and shame. All said and told, my father was an alcoholic, my mother depressed, my sister eventually had problems with drugs and alcohol, and my brother had severe ADHD, which my mother was not treating medically. For some reason, to me, a messy house meant messy people. The more our house looked like the Cleavers, the more "normal" we would seem to the outside world. It was the only hope I had of controlling my out-of-control surroundings. Perhaps it was because when I was young, and my mother was present and attentive, our house was clean. When things got ugly, she only cleaned the house for special occasions or special guests. We were no longer worthy of that treatment. I figured, as long as our house was clean, no one would know our secrets. A kind of literal sweeping of things under the rug.
I carry this illusion of control with me today. Though I am not in the closet about any of our issues (I am writing about them on the web for the world to see), I cannot get out from under the shadow of shame. I am ridiculously uncomfortable unless my house is clean, and cannot even start doing anything else until my bed is made. If anything is out place when someone comes over, I apologize profusely. And almost every day I think about how much easier my life would be if I just got over it.
One winter's day in 1993, I tried to practice letting this go. We were having a big snow storm - a "nor'easter" as they call them in Boston. It had been a bad winter, and this meant there was already almost a foot of snow on the ground during these now blizzard-like conditions. Sam was a year and a half old, and a very busy and curious boy. His giftedness and hyperness made for a lot of mess during the day. He would empty everything out of the cabinets, organize them, sort them, stack them, and then destroy them. He did this with all his toys too. And he moved fast. Then, he would start taking pieces from the piles of destruction, organize them in some other way, and start lining the stairs with them. No walking surface was safe, unless I followed behind him, picking up the debris.
Today, I said to myself, is the perfect day to give myself a break and let the house go. No one can get in or out in this weather. It'll be just us, and I will let this all go until he goes to bed. I didn't even clean up the tray on his highchair right away. I was living dangerously! And though it made me a little uneasy, it was kind of nice to take a break - and I felt secure knowing no one could come over and "catch" me.
And then, the doorbell rang. What? Who could possibly be out in the storm? Was there some sort of emergency? For fear that someone might be in need of help, I sucked it up and answered the door. Before me stood a 10 year old girl, looking very much not in need of help.
"Are you okay?," I asked curiously.
"Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?" she asked cheerfully.
"Excuse me?" I asked. "What did you say?"
"I'm selling Girl Scout cookies. Do you want to buy any?" she repeated.
"Why are you out in this weather? Why would anyone be out in this storm?" What kind of parents would allow their child to venture out on a day like this?, I thought.
"Exactly," she proclaimed, "I've got the leg up on the competition. No one else will be out selling today!"
"Well at least come in and get out of the cold," I held the door opened a bit wider.
She walked into my house and looked around at the debris Sam had created with an air of disgust. "Well," she huffed, "somebody's been making a mess." I looked into her judgmental eyes and wondered if she was real. Was this Type-A Girl Scout a figment of my imagination - some hallucination of my deep subconscious, sent to scold me and make me feel guilty and dysfunctional for letting my house go? I wanted to defend myself. Yell out, "but it was just one day, I swear. Only because of the snow storm. I'll never do it again. I promise." It was all I could do not to pinch her to find out if she was an illusion.
"So, can I put you down for a few boxes of Thin Mints?" she persisted.
Suddenly I became very annoyed with her. Who was she to judge my one day off? She was the crazy one, out selling cookies in a blizzard! So I turned her down.
"Hum," she snorted, as she turned on her heels and left. Even though I was proud of myself for getting rid of her, I was still uneasy with guilt for having exposed my dirty house to someone - especially someone who clearly thought me a bad parent and a bad housekeeper for doing so. I have always wished I had bought a box of cookies from her, just to see if she would come back and deliver them - to confirm that she was for real.
But what I know to be very real are the feelings of guilt and shame we often unknowingly pass on to our children. Currently, my children seem ashamed of nothing. Sometimes this is almost a little embarrassing - like the times Tommy is willing to tell complete strangers that he is bipolar. I think better that than having him run around making beds and wiping counters all day. In fact, if anything, what I have to worry about is that my kids will associate a clean house with crazy people.
I often think that Tommy's bipolar is a gift in this way. A challenge to break the cycle of shame; a challenge to share it with the world on a blog. Who knows what could happen next? Bravery is so much more powerful than shame. If you live near me and plan to stop by, beware! I may start to leave the beds unmade.
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wannabe Soccer Mom
One Saturday morning I had a particularly annoying time with appointments. All three kids needed to see the Psychiatrist, including Sam whose ADHD meds needed adjusting, and the Primary couldn't get it right. The shrink didn't have back-to-back appointments, so I had to make separate trips. And he only sees patients on Mondays and Saturdays, and Monday after-school appointments are hard to get! So, three trips it was. A good friend of mine called me when I was in the car, coming back from one of the trips. I expressed my annoyance with my Saturday. "So what," he said, "at least you're not on a soccer field."
Excuse me? A soccer field? He had the gall to compare running back and forth to the shrink with a soccer game? It was not the back and forth I was necessarily complaining about (though, who needs it). It was the fact that all three of my children needed to go to the psychiatrist's office, and on a Saturday! Saturdays are supposed to be for team sports and birthday parties. Did he have any idea how much more I would rather be at a long, boring, dragged out, parents fighting, possibly hot or rainy soccer game? Soccer games are for "normal" people. And not being able to participate in them reminds me, in a painful way, that my kids have issues.
My kids' sensory defensiveness has always prevented them from playing team sports. Too many people in their body bubbles, too much commotion going on visually, too much noise, too much competition, too much anxiety. They do, however, get their share of skiing, hiking, swimming, gymnastics, yoga, trampoline and biking - anything without a lot of screaming and random, unexpected balls coming at you. We have provided them with activities and outlets (between the therapy appointments), yet I have always felt badly that, despite the minivan, I'm not a "real" soccer mom. Not just because soccer games are for "normal" people, but because I feel like my kids might be missing out on something. The sportsmanship, the camaraderie, the chance to make new friends.
I remember a friend of ours whose second child has severe Downs Syndrome. Her first born son and Sam were the best of friends in first grade. She kept saying to me "we gotta sign them up for soccer, you don't want them to get behind in those skills. Soccer seems to be the game. We gotta get them signed up." Their first day, Sam's sensory bells went off; he got into a "fight or flight mode," and misbehaved in order to avoid being kicked at by hoards of over-excited 6 year-olds. I remember her telling me that they would not be carpooling with us any more due to Sam's disinterest in the sport and his bad behavior. I was not, in her mind, soccer mom material. And with 10 years perspective I can guess that maybe her second son having a severe disability had something to do with what I thought, at the time, was a major overreaction to Sam's inability to engage.
On the other hand, I have a friend whose child has emotional disabilities, and he is a fabulous soccer player. She is pleased because it is a healthy outlet for him, and he is proud that he is gifted player. But, I suspect it doesn't ease her pain around his issues. When I get real, I know that it's not like soccer is some magic bullet that makes all of our struggles and secrets go away. Another friend, again with a special needs kid (her oldest has Tourette's and major Sensory Integration Dysfunction), was the one who set me straight. I asked her if her youngest was on the popular team that a lot of kids from our school play on. "Nope," she said in a casual and unconcerned voice, "my kids can't play team sports. Doesn't suit their constitution." Thank you, friend, for reminding me that "it is what it is," and that's just going to have to be okay, soccer or no soccer.
Read more...
Excuse me? A soccer field? He had the gall to compare running back and forth to the shrink with a soccer game? It was not the back and forth I was necessarily complaining about (though, who needs it). It was the fact that all three of my children needed to go to the psychiatrist's office, and on a Saturday! Saturdays are supposed to be for team sports and birthday parties. Did he have any idea how much more I would rather be at a long, boring, dragged out, parents fighting, possibly hot or rainy soccer game? Soccer games are for "normal" people. And not being able to participate in them reminds me, in a painful way, that my kids have issues.
My kids' sensory defensiveness has always prevented them from playing team sports. Too many people in their body bubbles, too much commotion going on visually, too much noise, too much competition, too much anxiety. They do, however, get their share of skiing, hiking, swimming, gymnastics, yoga, trampoline and biking - anything without a lot of screaming and random, unexpected balls coming at you. We have provided them with activities and outlets (between the therapy appointments), yet I have always felt badly that, despite the minivan, I'm not a "real" soccer mom. Not just because soccer games are for "normal" people, but because I feel like my kids might be missing out on something. The sportsmanship, the camaraderie, the chance to make new friends.
I remember a friend of ours whose second child has severe Downs Syndrome. Her first born son and Sam were the best of friends in first grade. She kept saying to me "we gotta sign them up for soccer, you don't want them to get behind in those skills. Soccer seems to be the game. We gotta get them signed up." Their first day, Sam's sensory bells went off; he got into a "fight or flight mode," and misbehaved in order to avoid being kicked at by hoards of over-excited 6 year-olds. I remember her telling me that they would not be carpooling with us any more due to Sam's disinterest in the sport and his bad behavior. I was not, in her mind, soccer mom material. And with 10 years perspective I can guess that maybe her second son having a severe disability had something to do with what I thought, at the time, was a major overreaction to Sam's inability to engage.
On the other hand, I have a friend whose child has emotional disabilities, and he is a fabulous soccer player. She is pleased because it is a healthy outlet for him, and he is proud that he is gifted player. But, I suspect it doesn't ease her pain around his issues. When I get real, I know that it's not like soccer is some magic bullet that makes all of our struggles and secrets go away. Another friend, again with a special needs kid (her oldest has Tourette's and major Sensory Integration Dysfunction), was the one who set me straight. I asked her if her youngest was on the popular team that a lot of kids from our school play on. "Nope," she said in a casual and unconcerned voice, "my kids can't play team sports. Doesn't suit their constitution." Thank you, friend, for reminding me that "it is what it is," and that's just going to have to be okay, soccer or no soccer.
Read more...
Monday, July 14, 2008
Meds, Meds & More Meds
Right after I met with Sam's Neuropsychologist about the results of his exam, I pulled into the pick-up line at Natick Montessori. Waiting for Tommy and Will to be brought to the car, the directress, Karen, who knew me well, took one look at me and said, "pull over!" I was clearly a mess. "What the heck is wrong?," she said in a concerned voice. Not only had Dr. Hentoff told me that Sam had ADHD, but he told me I should medicate him. Medicate him? The most I had ever given him was an antibiotic for an ear infection. Medicate my baby? Was he out of his mind? I was seriously distressed, and broke into inaudible sobs, as I tried to tell her what was wrong. I was so lucky she was the first person I saw - reasonable, knowledgeable and compassionate, she talked me through it, and I was able to calm down enough to pick up my children.
In the days that followed, I talked to the Head of Sam's school, our Pediatrician, and did some thorough research via the Internet. I talked to a few other parents whose children had ADHD. One friend whose child has a severe reading disability said to me, "if I could give him a pill in the morning to make this easier, you'd have to chain me down not to do it." I was so frightened it would change who he was, his identity. He's a genius, and his identity was pretty much wrapped up in that. What if it made him stupid or too tired to think? What if he wasn't Sam anymore? Yet, the disorder was causing trouble in school, and had always caused me much exhaustion at home.
In the end, my husband and I agreed to try giving him a psycho-stimulant drug in addition to some behavior mod & feedback methods. We started a med trial initiated by our Pediatrician, who gave him a small dose of Concerta. Nothing happened. The Dr. upped the dose a bit. Miraculous! He was like a new kid - in a good way. His impulse control was completely in check and his focus was significantly improved. And he was everything wonderful he had ever been before. This was in 4th grade; he is now going into 11th grade, and all we have had to do is adjust the dose as he grows.
Little did I know that Sam's med trial should have been entered the Guinness Book Of World Records as the easiest med trial ever. One drug, one dosage adjustment, and we were done! And with such fabulous results and no side effects. After the med trials we have suffered with Tommy and Will it is now unimaginable to me. It was luck, dumb luck.
Every parent of an emotionally challenged child has to, at some point, make the decision as to whether or not they want to medicate their child. There are a plethora of them available, and Dr.'s don't seem shy about prescribing them. There are also a plethora of opinions available to help you make you decision. And after having three kids on very different medications and having three very different med trials, here is my two cents.
This is when I found out just how lucky we were with Sam. In comparison, Tommy's med trials have been nasty little hair balls. Bipolar with comorbidities is a completely different beast. He suffered some bad side effects before we found the right "cocktail." And this is a "cocktail" that requires constant monitoring and adjustment as he grows and changes developmentally. Not to mention it took almost 2 years to hit a homer. His gait and balance have been affected, his vision has gone blurry and sometimes doubles and he has become nauseous many times. Some meds that are supposed to help his bipolar symptoms by stabilizing his moods have made him more angry and violent. Some have made him tired and hungry, and he has gained weight (often the biggest complaint about bipolar anti-psychotic medications).
You, of course, have to trust you Doctor, and even if you think you trust him, medication trials are good way to find out what kind of doctor he really is. Our first psychiatrist was much too over zealous in trying new meds and increasing the dosages, causing Tommy a good deal of suffering because of bad side effects. He also did stupid things like prescribe him an antidepressant, without first stabilizing his mood cycles. Apparently, as we found out, this can cause a bipolar person to go into a very mixed state of euphoria and violence. This was the day I got the frantic phone call from the school reporting that Tommy was picking up metal folding chairs and hurling them at people while screaming obscenities. Yes, I left right away to go pick him up.
We soon found a much better Psychiatrist, who lowered Tommy's meds and got us started from a lower point from which to build. He always makes sure we take the time to slowly increase the dose and give each med a full chance to build up in the system before moving on. He is big into baby steps. He is also very talented and insightful about mixing meds, something our first Dr. was terrible at.
Tommy is on, or has tried, a total of 14 medications: Trileptal, Tegretol, Zonegran, Lamictal, Topamax, Depakote, Abilify, Celexa, Lithium, Rispredal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Neurontin, and Wellbutrin. Phew. Many meds, many different doses and combinations, but we finally have a cocktail that works, at least for now. What worked? Well, we never saw the effects of Tegretol, as it gave him a rash. Lithium and Abilify do not work without using Trileptal as a base drug and Rispredal is like the cherry on top. Tommy had exaggerated symptoms of irritability, anger and violence on Zonegran, Lamictal, Topamax, Depakote, Zyprexa, and Seroquel. There was a lot of throwing up on Neurontin. And Celexa was the one he was on when he instigated the famed "hurling of the metal chairs" incident. But, if his mood cycles had been stabilized this may not have happened. And it is not to say that if we tried Depakote again, for example, that it would not work fabulously now, two years later. Meds can also take a dive when difficult cycles arise. For example, Tommy has a very hard time with seasonal changes (many bipolar people do), especially the arrival of spring. You can always be certain that at least one of his meds will need adjusting as the crocus start to bloom.
Will has been another story all together. We have tried medications to control his anxiety and his ADHD. Our former Dr. (the one we dumped) told us that because Concerta had worked so well for Sam, that we were almost sure to get a good reaction in Will. Wrong. In fact, we have tried five different ADHD meds for Will and none of them has worked. They either did nothing at all or made him angry and irritable. The psycho-stimulant drugs we have tried are Concerta, FocalinXR, Adderall and plain old Ritalin. In addition, he had a rare and serious behavioral side effect to one, Strattera, which is the only non-stimulant ADHD drug we have tried. Since then, we have given up on medicating him for ADHD and have focused on OT, BT, Cranial Sacral treatments, and we may try Acupuncture. He has been on two medications for anxiety - Zoloft and Paxil. He has been successful on Paxil. He may respond better to ADHD meds when he is older, who knows? The point is you can never shut to door, no matter how unpleasant your experiences have been when it comes to medicating a child.
Read more...
In the days that followed, I talked to the Head of Sam's school, our Pediatrician, and did some thorough research via the Internet. I talked to a few other parents whose children had ADHD. One friend whose child has a severe reading disability said to me, "if I could give him a pill in the morning to make this easier, you'd have to chain me down not to do it." I was so frightened it would change who he was, his identity. He's a genius, and his identity was pretty much wrapped up in that. What if it made him stupid or too tired to think? What if he wasn't Sam anymore? Yet, the disorder was causing trouble in school, and had always caused me much exhaustion at home.
In the end, my husband and I agreed to try giving him a psycho-stimulant drug in addition to some behavior mod & feedback methods. We started a med trial initiated by our Pediatrician, who gave him a small dose of Concerta. Nothing happened. The Dr. upped the dose a bit. Miraculous! He was like a new kid - in a good way. His impulse control was completely in check and his focus was significantly improved. And he was everything wonderful he had ever been before. This was in 4th grade; he is now going into 11th grade, and all we have had to do is adjust the dose as he grows.
Little did I know that Sam's med trial should have been entered the Guinness Book Of World Records as the easiest med trial ever. One drug, one dosage adjustment, and we were done! And with such fabulous results and no side effects. After the med trials we have suffered with Tommy and Will it is now unimaginable to me. It was luck, dumb luck.
Every parent of an emotionally challenged child has to, at some point, make the decision as to whether or not they want to medicate their child. There are a plethora of them available, and Dr.'s don't seem shy about prescribing them. There are also a plethora of opinions available to help you make you decision. And after having three kids on very different medications and having three very different med trials, here is my two cents.
- your med trial could be long and difficult, and this is hard on everyone involved
- make sure you have tried enough alternative treatments - don't turn to meds first
- meds that worked one day may not the next, as your child grows or his metabolism changes
- there can be side effects that outweigh the good
- keep an ongoing table of medications, dosages, dates taken and reactions. Keep it updated. Save all med bottles or labels of meds your child has tried, but did not succeed on, for backup reference. The ones that are working will be easy to find in your medicine cabinet.
- what's good for the goose is not always good for the gander - one kid in the family may have success with a drug and the other can react badly
- some meds might not work alone, but work wonderfully as part of a "cocktail" - this requires a lot of testing and tweaking
- people will judge you for giving your child medications (most of these people do not have children who need medication). You have to decide that the possibility of stabilizing your child is more important to you than their opinions are.
- always try new meds over vacations, or at least, on weekends (or considering keeping him home from school) in case things blow up
- When trying something new, ask your Dr. for free samples. In case it does not work, at least you have not spent (often your highest tier) co-pay on it.
- make sure the school knows what meds your child is on
- slow and steady wins the race - one Dr. we had poured too many meds on Tommy at once, and it was a disaster
- children who are in the habit of taking their meds when they are young are much more likely to be med compliant adults
This is when I found out just how lucky we were with Sam. In comparison, Tommy's med trials have been nasty little hair balls. Bipolar with comorbidities is a completely different beast. He suffered some bad side effects before we found the right "cocktail." And this is a "cocktail" that requires constant monitoring and adjustment as he grows and changes developmentally. Not to mention it took almost 2 years to hit a homer. His gait and balance have been affected, his vision has gone blurry and sometimes doubles and he has become nauseous many times. Some meds that are supposed to help his bipolar symptoms by stabilizing his moods have made him more angry and violent. Some have made him tired and hungry, and he has gained weight (often the biggest complaint about bipolar anti-psychotic medications).
You, of course, have to trust you Doctor, and even if you think you trust him, medication trials are good way to find out what kind of doctor he really is. Our first psychiatrist was much too over zealous in trying new meds and increasing the dosages, causing Tommy a good deal of suffering because of bad side effects. He also did stupid things like prescribe him an antidepressant, without first stabilizing his mood cycles. Apparently, as we found out, this can cause a bipolar person to go into a very mixed state of euphoria and violence. This was the day I got the frantic phone call from the school reporting that Tommy was picking up metal folding chairs and hurling them at people while screaming obscenities. Yes, I left right away to go pick him up.
We soon found a much better Psychiatrist, who lowered Tommy's meds and got us started from a lower point from which to build. He always makes sure we take the time to slowly increase the dose and give each med a full chance to build up in the system before moving on. He is big into baby steps. He is also very talented and insightful about mixing meds, something our first Dr. was terrible at.
Tommy is on, or has tried, a total of 14 medications: Trileptal, Tegretol, Zonegran, Lamictal, Topamax, Depakote, Abilify, Celexa, Lithium, Rispredal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Neurontin, and Wellbutrin. Phew. Many meds, many different doses and combinations, but we finally have a cocktail that works, at least for now. What worked? Well, we never saw the effects of Tegretol, as it gave him a rash. Lithium and Abilify do not work without using Trileptal as a base drug and Rispredal is like the cherry on top. Tommy had exaggerated symptoms of irritability, anger and violence on Zonegran, Lamictal, Topamax, Depakote, Zyprexa, and Seroquel. There was a lot of throwing up on Neurontin. And Celexa was the one he was on when he instigated the famed "hurling of the metal chairs" incident. But, if his mood cycles had been stabilized this may not have happened. And it is not to say that if we tried Depakote again, for example, that it would not work fabulously now, two years later. Meds can also take a dive when difficult cycles arise. For example, Tommy has a very hard time with seasonal changes (many bipolar people do), especially the arrival of spring. You can always be certain that at least one of his meds will need adjusting as the crocus start to bloom.
Will has been another story all together. We have tried medications to control his anxiety and his ADHD. Our former Dr. (the one we dumped) told us that because Concerta had worked so well for Sam, that we were almost sure to get a good reaction in Will. Wrong. In fact, we have tried five different ADHD meds for Will and none of them has worked. They either did nothing at all or made him angry and irritable. The psycho-stimulant drugs we have tried are Concerta, FocalinXR, Adderall and plain old Ritalin. In addition, he had a rare and serious behavioral side effect to one, Strattera, which is the only non-stimulant ADHD drug we have tried. Since then, we have given up on medicating him for ADHD and have focused on OT, BT, Cranial Sacral treatments, and we may try Acupuncture. He has been on two medications for anxiety - Zoloft and Paxil. He has been successful on Paxil. He may respond better to ADHD meds when he is older, who knows? The point is you can never shut to door, no matter how unpleasant your experiences have been when it comes to medicating a child.
Read more...
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
I'm Not Your Pet!
One evening, riding home in the car, Tommy and Will perched in the middle seats of the minivan, I heard Tommy pestering the hell out of Will. "Please Will, Will you need to play Monopoly with me when we get home. Please Will, you have to Will. You need to Will. Please Will. Will, I am making you. You are going to play Monopoly with me when we get home. I am going to be the banker. We will set up the board as soon as we get home. Will, you are going to play with me Will!"
Tommy finally took a breath, and Will screamed out, "Tommy, I'm not your pet! You can't just make me do everything you want all the time."
And though it is true that Will is certainly not Tommy's pet, he is, in fact, Tommy's only real friend. Imagine the pressure of being someone's only friend, and yet that friend has the power an older brother has over you - an older bipolar brother at that. You love him, you feel sorry for him, you even have fun with him, but you feel controlled by him. He can be threatening and explosive, and you know how upsetting that is to the entire rest of the family. You are constantly caught between the obligation you feel to appease him and the momentary feeling of independence you get when you are finally fed up enough to scream, "I'm not your pet!"
Of course, my heart bleeds for Tommy. He has not developed socially the way Will has. Kids don't outwardly dislike him, they just kind of ignore him. Will plays very age appropriately with his friends, and he is very popular. It is hard to allow him to have play dates here. Tommy tries to hone in, does not connect, often erupts and causes a scene. Will gets angry because Tommy is spoiling things, and Tommy gets angry because someone else has taken Will away from him.
This balancing act is pretty hard to maintain. There are only so many times you can request to have the play date "over at your house." And Will's interests are much more varied than Tommy's. Tommy obsesses on one activity for days and weeks, while Will is much more balanced. He does not want to play Pokemon for the 50th time that week. I am ashamed to say, I have resorting to bribing Will into playing with Tommy at times. "I'll give you a dollar for every game of Yu-Gi-Oh you play with him, I swear." How shameful is that? Anything to get a moment's peace.
He used to have friends when he was younger. His disease had not developed enough to set him apart at that point, and four year-olds don't usually notice the quirkiness of others - they are too focused on themselves. But as his friends matured and progressed socially, he did not. He has been enrolled in two peer social skills classes. We give him constant feedback verbally on how other's might interpret his actions and words. We talk about it in therapy all the time. But, what ever magic switch is supposed to turn on, has not yet.
Earlier this week, his Psychiatrist said to me, "you know, some people are fine being alone. They never become terribly social." That terrified me and comforted me at the same time. I'm sure Ted Kaczynski had no friends either. And I don't see a child who is full of joy and happiness. I'm always thinking "maybe next year, he will connect with someone in class, maybe soon someone appropriate will move into the neighborhood."
On the other hand, maybe the shrink is right, and I just need to have more patience? If he never has friends, maybe he will grow successfully into that role? Meanwhile, I need to keep helping Will say "no" and helping Tommy accept the answer. And the bribes - gotta stop the bribing!
Read more...
Tommy finally took a breath, and Will screamed out, "Tommy, I'm not your pet! You can't just make me do everything you want all the time."
And though it is true that Will is certainly not Tommy's pet, he is, in fact, Tommy's only real friend. Imagine the pressure of being someone's only friend, and yet that friend has the power an older brother has over you - an older bipolar brother at that. You love him, you feel sorry for him, you even have fun with him, but you feel controlled by him. He can be threatening and explosive, and you know how upsetting that is to the entire rest of the family. You are constantly caught between the obligation you feel to appease him and the momentary feeling of independence you get when you are finally fed up enough to scream, "I'm not your pet!"
Of course, my heart bleeds for Tommy. He has not developed socially the way Will has. Kids don't outwardly dislike him, they just kind of ignore him. Will plays very age appropriately with his friends, and he is very popular. It is hard to allow him to have play dates here. Tommy tries to hone in, does not connect, often erupts and causes a scene. Will gets angry because Tommy is spoiling things, and Tommy gets angry because someone else has taken Will away from him.
This balancing act is pretty hard to maintain. There are only so many times you can request to have the play date "over at your house." And Will's interests are much more varied than Tommy's. Tommy obsesses on one activity for days and weeks, while Will is much more balanced. He does not want to play Pokemon for the 50th time that week. I am ashamed to say, I have resorting to bribing Will into playing with Tommy at times. "I'll give you a dollar for every game of Yu-Gi-Oh you play with him, I swear." How shameful is that? Anything to get a moment's peace.
He used to have friends when he was younger. His disease had not developed enough to set him apart at that point, and four year-olds don't usually notice the quirkiness of others - they are too focused on themselves. But as his friends matured and progressed socially, he did not. He has been enrolled in two peer social skills classes. We give him constant feedback verbally on how other's might interpret his actions and words. We talk about it in therapy all the time. But, what ever magic switch is supposed to turn on, has not yet.
Earlier this week, his Psychiatrist said to me, "you know, some people are fine being alone. They never become terribly social." That terrified me and comforted me at the same time. I'm sure Ted Kaczynski had no friends either. And I don't see a child who is full of joy and happiness. I'm always thinking "maybe next year, he will connect with someone in class, maybe soon someone appropriate will move into the neighborhood."
On the other hand, maybe the shrink is right, and I just need to have more patience? If he never has friends, maybe he will grow successfully into that role? Meanwhile, I need to keep helping Will say "no" and helping Tommy accept the answer. And the bribes - gotta stop the bribing!
Read more...
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Knowledge is Power - Telling Them They're Bipolar
Sam, currently 16, knew from the time he was diagnosed in fourth grade with ADHD, that he had it and what it meant. He understood why he had to take his pills every morning, and he saw the difference they made. Kids have been getting diagnosed with, and treated for, ADHD since I was a kid in the 60's (my brother has it). It seems like a disorder that has been de-stigmatized and none of us is terribly uncomfortable speaking of it. A good friend of mine whose son was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) at the time, confided in me and made sure I swore not to share with anyone. I said I understood because Sam had a diagnosis as well, and I was aware that people often have confidentiality issues. She thought it was ridiculous to make the comparison - ADHD and OCD carried entirely different stigmas! And they do.
We had figured out Tommy and his younger brother Will had Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) when Tommy was in first grade and Will was in preschool. We had no trouble telling Tommy and Will that they had SID, and explaining what it meant. It did not seem to be a scary diagnosis. In fact, having "sensory issues" almost seems to be in vogue these days. We did not know at this point that Tommy was also Bipolar. The SID diagnosis helped Tommy to understand why things were so different for him and why he could not go to school at the time. It seemed like a reasonable explanation for what was going on, and several other kids in school suffered from the same thing.
We did not consider the Bipolar diagnosis until Tommy was in 2nd grade. And initially, we called it a mood disorder. Once we had concurred with his docs and therapists that Bipolar was the problem, we did not tell him. The label seemed much more serious and frightening to us than anything else we had dealt with. We feared that if he (or we) told people he had this, other parents would not want their children to play with him. In the shame, secrecy and confusion department, Bipolar was in a completely different league than the ADHD and SID diagnoses.
About three fourths of the way through third grade Tommy seemed mature enough to handle it. He had had a lot of therapies and was stable on meds. By this time we had become much more comfortable ourselves with the label Bipolar. We went to great pains to educate ourselves on the illness and were gifted with a much greater understanding of it. Our son was not, and should not, be an outcast - he simply had an illness that needed treatment. We took on the attitude, as cliché as it sounds, that if someone wanted to end a friendship over this, they were not worth having as friends.
The first time Tommy shared with someone that he was bipolar was a "nails on a black board" incident - I cringe when I think of it. He was invited to a friend's birthday party, a friend who he had not seen in a while, and a friend who was a girl. Her older brother was also celebrating his birthday. The parents convinced us to go out to dinner and relax - Tommy would be fine. Besides, we had our cell phones with us. I did not realize at the time I dropped him off that the dynamic would be all girls his age, all boys several years older. Tommy was odd man out.
The older boys started throwing water balloons and using squirt guns and would not listen to Tommy when he asked them to stop. He jolted into "fight or flight" mode from the sensory overload and the lack of control and expectations. He picked up rocks and started throwing them at the older boys. The Dad asked him to stop, and when he did not he grabbed him, dragged him into the house, locked the two of them in a bedroom and tried to calm him down. Tommy just kept screaming "I'm Bipolar, I'm Bipolar," over and over again. The Dad didn't much care what Tommy was; he just wanted him to stop throwing rocks. Getting that cell phone call at the restaurant was not exactly a "feel good moment."
But there have been true "feel good moments" now that he has this knowledge and has accepted it as part of his identity. Tommy goes to a reading lab at his school. Several other boys from his class go in at the same time. The reading specialist reported to me, with much pleasure that one day, that one of the boys just said aloud, "I'm dyslexic," another commented "so am I," another one replied "I have eye tracking problems," and Tommy said confidently, "I'm Bipolar." She told me "gee, I was kind of wishing I had a disorder to brag about!"
In fact, every other time since the rock throwing incident that Tommy has shared this information with people, it has been in a positive light. And, fortunately, it has always been received in that spirit. Every person who has shared those experiences with me has been almost as proud of him as I am. I am proud of everyone who accepts our differences. And the thing that makes me happiest is to see how Tommy feels empowered to be who he is. His acceptance of himself has been a more graceful process because of that knowledge. He is less angry and confused than he used to be. Part of this comes with meds and therapies, and part of this comes with accepting and owning his identity. He feels as if he has more control over something inside of him, something that most certainly gets out of control. He can name it, label it and own it. So, I think telling Tommy was the right thing to do; but that might just be because it worked out so well.
Read more...
We had figured out Tommy and his younger brother Will had Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) when Tommy was in first grade and Will was in preschool. We had no trouble telling Tommy and Will that they had SID, and explaining what it meant. It did not seem to be a scary diagnosis. In fact, having "sensory issues" almost seems to be in vogue these days. We did not know at this point that Tommy was also Bipolar. The SID diagnosis helped Tommy to understand why things were so different for him and why he could not go to school at the time. It seemed like a reasonable explanation for what was going on, and several other kids in school suffered from the same thing.
We did not consider the Bipolar diagnosis until Tommy was in 2nd grade. And initially, we called it a mood disorder. Once we had concurred with his docs and therapists that Bipolar was the problem, we did not tell him. The label seemed much more serious and frightening to us than anything else we had dealt with. We feared that if he (or we) told people he had this, other parents would not want their children to play with him. In the shame, secrecy and confusion department, Bipolar was in a completely different league than the ADHD and SID diagnoses.
About three fourths of the way through third grade Tommy seemed mature enough to handle it. He had had a lot of therapies and was stable on meds. By this time we had become much more comfortable ourselves with the label Bipolar. We went to great pains to educate ourselves on the illness and were gifted with a much greater understanding of it. Our son was not, and should not, be an outcast - he simply had an illness that needed treatment. We took on the attitude, as cliché as it sounds, that if someone wanted to end a friendship over this, they were not worth having as friends.
The first time Tommy shared with someone that he was bipolar was a "nails on a black board" incident - I cringe when I think of it. He was invited to a friend's birthday party, a friend who he had not seen in a while, and a friend who was a girl. Her older brother was also celebrating his birthday. The parents convinced us to go out to dinner and relax - Tommy would be fine. Besides, we had our cell phones with us. I did not realize at the time I dropped him off that the dynamic would be all girls his age, all boys several years older. Tommy was odd man out.
The older boys started throwing water balloons and using squirt guns and would not listen to Tommy when he asked them to stop. He jolted into "fight or flight" mode from the sensory overload and the lack of control and expectations. He picked up rocks and started throwing them at the older boys. The Dad asked him to stop, and when he did not he grabbed him, dragged him into the house, locked the two of them in a bedroom and tried to calm him down. Tommy just kept screaming "I'm Bipolar, I'm Bipolar," over and over again. The Dad didn't much care what Tommy was; he just wanted him to stop throwing rocks. Getting that cell phone call at the restaurant was not exactly a "feel good moment."
But there have been true "feel good moments" now that he has this knowledge and has accepted it as part of his identity. Tommy goes to a reading lab at his school. Several other boys from his class go in at the same time. The reading specialist reported to me, with much pleasure that one day, that one of the boys just said aloud, "I'm dyslexic," another commented "so am I," another one replied "I have eye tracking problems," and Tommy said confidently, "I'm Bipolar." She told me "gee, I was kind of wishing I had a disorder to brag about!"
In fact, every other time since the rock throwing incident that Tommy has shared this information with people, it has been in a positive light. And, fortunately, it has always been received in that spirit. Every person who has shared those experiences with me has been almost as proud of him as I am. I am proud of everyone who accepts our differences. And the thing that makes me happiest is to see how Tommy feels empowered to be who he is. His acceptance of himself has been a more graceful process because of that knowledge. He is less angry and confused than he used to be. Part of this comes with meds and therapies, and part of this comes with accepting and owning his identity. He feels as if he has more control over something inside of him, something that most certainly gets out of control. He can name it, label it and own it. So, I think telling Tommy was the right thing to do; but that might just be because it worked out so well.
Read more...
Monday, July 7, 2008
HELP! My Brother's Bipolar: A Sibling's Burden
One day during a typical argument between my bipolar son, Tommy, and his younger brother, Will, Will yelled out, in a spiteful tone, "well YOU'RE bipolar!" "Mommmm, Will called me Bipolarrrr," was Tommy's response. Just lovely, I thought. We have had a thousand conversations about this, discussed it in therapy, and had given ourselves the proverbial pat on the back for helping to de-stigmatize the disease in our children's minds. And after all, Will was a champ of a brother. He never once complained about going to school every day for three and half months when Tommy was on "leave". He played with, shared with and loved Tommy in a heartwarming way. But the tyranny was getting to be too much. I recognized that sick feeling I get when I decide I'm a bad parent - those words "what kind of a mother are you - who left you in charge of these rugrats anyway?" echoed in my brain. But, I sucked it up and did what I could.
We've had conversations about how "Bipolar" is not a bad word, just a disease. But I understand why it makes Will mad, because the illness effects Tommy's behavior. And that behavior effects Will. "But he was on a rampage Mom, a serious rampage." Well," I responded, "think of it as Tommy having the stomach flu. If he threw up on you, you would be annoyed and grossed out, but you would not tease him about it." "Yeah, well stomach flues go away," said Will dispiritedly. I knew at that moment he wanted to wish Tommy away, "disparate" him to a far away land, like some scene from Harry Potter.
There is no doubt the burdens these siblings have are unnaturally heavy and complex. I know my 3 other sons have felt resentment, shame, guilt, anger, hurt, helpless, sympathy, pride and confusion. How are they supposed to feel? I guess like us, but less empowered. I have felt these things as well. But I have the power to pick up the phone, to make an appointment with his shrink, to take him to behavior therapy, to chose to medicate him, to keep him out of school if he is on the edge, and to love him unconditionally.
When Tommy reached a certain age, I think he was almost 9, his level of self-awareness and reflection was far above normal. All the therapies he had been in for so long were paying off. We reinforced our conviction that he has nothing to be ashamed of, and that his illness is not his fault. We told him he was in charge of deciding who to tell, and who not to tell, that he was bipolar. It shouldn't matter, but if the situation called for it, he really should be comfortable sharing. He needed to be prepared though that some people may not be educated on the disease and may react negatively. We shared this information with his brothers and told them that it was Tommy's business, and if they wanted to tell someone they should ask Tommy first. Just like Tommy does not have the right to share Sam's grades with anyone else. Tommy seemed empowered by this decision, and his brothers seemed to understand the ground rules.
And then it happened. One afternoon, a few weeks later, we stayed a bit after school so the boys could play on the playground with some friends. Shortly after we started, Tommy ran up to me and and yelled, "Mom, Will told his best friend I am bipolar!" Will ran up behind him trying to intercept the tattle. I turned to Will ready to scold him, until I saw the desperate look on his face, and then he burst into tears, mumbling and gasping that he "didn't mean to, please don't be mad, please don't punish me." My heart bled from a thousand different places at that moment, and my my empathy went to Will. He had for one glorious moment held something over Tommy's head. For once in his life, Tommy was not in charge - Tommy was not calling the shots. Will had knowledge, and knowledge is power, and he used that power, until Tommy had tattled. And once I looked at him, he felt all the guilt, despair and self-hatred you get from betraying someone you love. I had no intention of punishing him; he was punishing himself just fine. I took this little heap into my arms and consoled him. I told him "it's okay, we all make mistakes," I knew he didn't mean to hurt Tommy.
Later that night, when he had calmed down, I talked to him, as we had many times before, about what it meant to be Tommy's brother. But this time I think it resonated a little more poignantly. I acknowledged how hard it is to be a brother, let alone to someone with a mental illness. I told him how proud we are of him and how grateful we are to have him. I try to remind Will and Sam of that as many times as I can remember to, without it sounding like an empty and manufactured compliment.
I hope it sinks into their souls, but they are only children. I am sure many of the negative feelings are still alive and well. Yet, each time something like this happens, we grow, move on, and lighten the burden a bit.
Read more...
We've had conversations about how "Bipolar" is not a bad word, just a disease. But I understand why it makes Will mad, because the illness effects Tommy's behavior. And that behavior effects Will. "But he was on a rampage Mom, a serious rampage." Well," I responded, "think of it as Tommy having the stomach flu. If he threw up on you, you would be annoyed and grossed out, but you would not tease him about it." "Yeah, well stomach flues go away," said Will dispiritedly. I knew at that moment he wanted to wish Tommy away, "disparate" him to a far away land, like some scene from Harry Potter.
There is no doubt the burdens these siblings have are unnaturally heavy and complex. I know my 3 other sons have felt resentment, shame, guilt, anger, hurt, helpless, sympathy, pride and confusion. How are they supposed to feel? I guess like us, but less empowered. I have felt these things as well. But I have the power to pick up the phone, to make an appointment with his shrink, to take him to behavior therapy, to chose to medicate him, to keep him out of school if he is on the edge, and to love him unconditionally.
When Tommy reached a certain age, I think he was almost 9, his level of self-awareness and reflection was far above normal. All the therapies he had been in for so long were paying off. We reinforced our conviction that he has nothing to be ashamed of, and that his illness is not his fault. We told him he was in charge of deciding who to tell, and who not to tell, that he was bipolar. It shouldn't matter, but if the situation called for it, he really should be comfortable sharing. He needed to be prepared though that some people may not be educated on the disease and may react negatively. We shared this information with his brothers and told them that it was Tommy's business, and if they wanted to tell someone they should ask Tommy first. Just like Tommy does not have the right to share Sam's grades with anyone else. Tommy seemed empowered by this decision, and his brothers seemed to understand the ground rules.
And then it happened. One afternoon, a few weeks later, we stayed a bit after school so the boys could play on the playground with some friends. Shortly after we started, Tommy ran up to me and and yelled, "Mom, Will told his best friend I am bipolar!" Will ran up behind him trying to intercept the tattle. I turned to Will ready to scold him, until I saw the desperate look on his face, and then he burst into tears, mumbling and gasping that he "didn't mean to, please don't be mad, please don't punish me." My heart bled from a thousand different places at that moment, and my my empathy went to Will. He had for one glorious moment held something over Tommy's head. For once in his life, Tommy was not in charge - Tommy was not calling the shots. Will had knowledge, and knowledge is power, and he used that power, until Tommy had tattled. And once I looked at him, he felt all the guilt, despair and self-hatred you get from betraying someone you love. I had no intention of punishing him; he was punishing himself just fine. I took this little heap into my arms and consoled him. I told him "it's okay, we all make mistakes," I knew he didn't mean to hurt Tommy.
Later that night, when he had calmed down, I talked to him, as we had many times before, about what it meant to be Tommy's brother. But this time I think it resonated a little more poignantly. I acknowledged how hard it is to be a brother, let alone to someone with a mental illness. I told him how proud we are of him and how grateful we are to have him. I try to remind Will and Sam of that as many times as I can remember to, without it sounding like an empty and manufactured compliment.
I hope it sinks into their souls, but they are only children. I am sure many of the negative feelings are still alive and well. Yet, each time something like this happens, we grow, move on, and lighten the burden a bit.
Read more...
Feeling Like a Castaway: The Need to Build Community
Tommy started his current Montessori school as a "first year" in the Junior Elementary program (grades 1-3, in a mixed age classroom) in November of '04. Not long after he was in the classroom, maybe 6 weeks, he was asked to leave school for an indefinite amount of time because of his unacceptable behavior (see Getting the Diagnosis for more details). At this time we only knew we needed to get him support for his sensory issues; we did not know he was bipolar. But we knew something was clearly not right.
After I got the phone call mid-morning that December day I dreaded getting to school for fear of what state I would find him in, and who the casualties would be this time? Classmates, teachers, administrators - anyone could have been in his path. In those same moments I wanted time to stop, I could not drive the car fast enough to get there and take him away from everyone. The head of school sat me down and told me he had threatened to hit a boy over the head with a metal shovel, because the child tried to take it from him. She said it was a safety issue and he had to leave. But more importantly, because of several incidents in the last few weeks (including throwing books at a teacher's head), it was clear that Tommy was not a classic behavior problem and was asking for help. He could not come back to school until he had gotten that help and was stable. We were new in town, and I had no idea where to turn. I asked her for names, and she sheepishly gave me a short list of some psychologists, but said she could not personally vouch for any of them. (See Finding the Hard to Find Therapist for how this played out.) She also suggested looking at some other schools.
And off Tommy and I went, both of us with tears in our eyes. My husband out of town, all I had was a cell phone to cry into. I was alone and terrified, and my son no longer had a school to go to. But yet I had this uncomfortable connection to the school because my younger son, Will, was still there. I immediately concluded that I must be the only one at the school who did not have "normal" children. Tommy must have been the first ballistic child they had ever tried to deal with. Nothing was even vaguely said about other such incidents with other "not-normal" children. Not one therapist, clinic or resource was definitively pointed to. Who was going to help me help this child? And who could ever understand what I was going through?
Understandably, because of privacy concerns, schools are not willing to share names and information with you about other parents who have tackled similar problems. You only hear these things through the grapevine, and I did not have a grapevine at the time. No support group existed within the community, and if it did, they did not advertise themselves. God knows what people had heard or what they were saying about Tommy. No one approached me about it or offered any help. If he had broken his legs, or had been hospitalized with an appendicitis, no one would have been shy about asking me how he was or if they could bring by dinner, take Will for a playdate, etc. Many parents of Bipolar children (and children with a variety of special needs) live in secrecy while trying to make progress and help their children get stable. And even with Will still at the school, I felt completely shut off - a shunned member of Tommy's community. Like we were some sort of criminals.
Since I went to the school every day to drop off and pick up Will, I bravely went by Tommy's classroom on a regular basis and checked his parent mail box (which was a hanging file folder inside a file box). I tried to feel like I was still part of the classroom, because I knew in my heart that Tommy would be back. Yet the other parents and the teachers rarely spoke to me. I sensed some parents wanted to ask me where Tommy was but did not feel comfortable enough. He seemed to have something wrong with him that they considered unspeakable. One parent told me years later that she thought Tommy had just gone to another school. I really only got to speak to the teachers via the head of school, when I would schedule a progress meeting with them and Tommy's therapists.
One day, about a month and a half into his absence, I stopped by the classroom to pick up my parent mail. And something happened that stopped my heart and brought tears to my eyes. His parent folder was gone. They had removed it! What did this mean? Were they saying we were not worthy enough to know what was going on in the classroom? Not even worthy of a book club notice or a call for brownies for next Tuesday's bake sale? Or worse yet, much worse, were they trying to tell me they were never going to let Tommy back into the classroom? Was this their way of saying good bye forever? Hadn't they noticed that I was picking up the mail every day? I mean someone was emptying that folder. I felt more cut off and dejected than I had felt at any point during this whole terrible process. Yet, I felt like we somehow deserved it, and I was too embarrassed to ask exactly why they had removed it. Thinking about how I felt then still sends a wave a nausea through my stomach.
With three and a half years perspective, my guess is that they were just trying to save some paper. But people need to think about what kinds of messages small actions send to those in crisis. These actions definitely cause reactions in us. Conversely, a simple "are you guys hanging in there?" can lighten our day. We need support, and we need community. Things like Bipolar, Asperger's, Anxiety, Depression and OCD need not be naughty words. I would make the suggestion to anyone who is going through problems with a child, to tell your teachers, administrators and therapists that it is okay to give your name to other parents. Make sure to give your teachers and administrators all the names and numbers of Therapists and Doctors you have used, and your level of success with them. Start a support group, and make yourselves known.
Over the years I have dealt with this, I have finally connected with other parents who have special needs children (in the emotional and neurological sense), and it has made all the difference in the world. Those parents have built community by starting a support group and by speaking openly about their children's issues. Most all of the parents I have asked, have felt as alone and helpless, at one point, as I did that day they took the folder away. I am blessed to have finally come into a community.
Writer's Note: This post paints a dark picture of Tommy's removal from school. It was, in fact, a very dark time for me. Tommy was out of school this first year for a little over 3 months. I would like to note however that the school, we as a family, and our gifted therapists, have come a very long way in assimilating Tommy back into the school. Tommy has healed a great deal since then. I think the school has made tremendous progress in dealing with these types of challenging children and has tried to educate its teachers and make extraordinary accommodations. At this time, I would never send Tommy to any other school. My other postings more accurately describe how we got to the point we are at now.
Read more...
After I got the phone call mid-morning that December day I dreaded getting to school for fear of what state I would find him in, and who the casualties would be this time? Classmates, teachers, administrators - anyone could have been in his path. In those same moments I wanted time to stop, I could not drive the car fast enough to get there and take him away from everyone. The head of school sat me down and told me he had threatened to hit a boy over the head with a metal shovel, because the child tried to take it from him. She said it was a safety issue and he had to leave. But more importantly, because of several incidents in the last few weeks (including throwing books at a teacher's head), it was clear that Tommy was not a classic behavior problem and was asking for help. He could not come back to school until he had gotten that help and was stable. We were new in town, and I had no idea where to turn. I asked her for names, and she sheepishly gave me a short list of some psychologists, but said she could not personally vouch for any of them. (See Finding the Hard to Find Therapist for how this played out.) She also suggested looking at some other schools.
And off Tommy and I went, both of us with tears in our eyes. My husband out of town, all I had was a cell phone to cry into. I was alone and terrified, and my son no longer had a school to go to. But yet I had this uncomfortable connection to the school because my younger son, Will, was still there. I immediately concluded that I must be the only one at the school who did not have "normal" children. Tommy must have been the first ballistic child they had ever tried to deal with. Nothing was even vaguely said about other such incidents with other "not-normal" children. Not one therapist, clinic or resource was definitively pointed to. Who was going to help me help this child? And who could ever understand what I was going through?
Understandably, because of privacy concerns, schools are not willing to share names and information with you about other parents who have tackled similar problems. You only hear these things through the grapevine, and I did not have a grapevine at the time. No support group existed within the community, and if it did, they did not advertise themselves. God knows what people had heard or what they were saying about Tommy. No one approached me about it or offered any help. If he had broken his legs, or had been hospitalized with an appendicitis, no one would have been shy about asking me how he was or if they could bring by dinner, take Will for a playdate, etc. Many parents of Bipolar children (and children with a variety of special needs) live in secrecy while trying to make progress and help their children get stable. And even with Will still at the school, I felt completely shut off - a shunned member of Tommy's community. Like we were some sort of criminals.
Since I went to the school every day to drop off and pick up Will, I bravely went by Tommy's classroom on a regular basis and checked his parent mail box (which was a hanging file folder inside a file box). I tried to feel like I was still part of the classroom, because I knew in my heart that Tommy would be back. Yet the other parents and the teachers rarely spoke to me. I sensed some parents wanted to ask me where Tommy was but did not feel comfortable enough. He seemed to have something wrong with him that they considered unspeakable. One parent told me years later that she thought Tommy had just gone to another school. I really only got to speak to the teachers via the head of school, when I would schedule a progress meeting with them and Tommy's therapists.
One day, about a month and a half into his absence, I stopped by the classroom to pick up my parent mail. And something happened that stopped my heart and brought tears to my eyes. His parent folder was gone. They had removed it! What did this mean? Were they saying we were not worthy enough to know what was going on in the classroom? Not even worthy of a book club notice or a call for brownies for next Tuesday's bake sale? Or worse yet, much worse, were they trying to tell me they were never going to let Tommy back into the classroom? Was this their way of saying good bye forever? Hadn't they noticed that I was picking up the mail every day? I mean someone was emptying that folder. I felt more cut off and dejected than I had felt at any point during this whole terrible process. Yet, I felt like we somehow deserved it, and I was too embarrassed to ask exactly why they had removed it. Thinking about how I felt then still sends a wave a nausea through my stomach.
With three and a half years perspective, my guess is that they were just trying to save some paper. But people need to think about what kinds of messages small actions send to those in crisis. These actions definitely cause reactions in us. Conversely, a simple "are you guys hanging in there?" can lighten our day. We need support, and we need community. Things like Bipolar, Asperger's, Anxiety, Depression and OCD need not be naughty words. I would make the suggestion to anyone who is going through problems with a child, to tell your teachers, administrators and therapists that it is okay to give your name to other parents. Make sure to give your teachers and administrators all the names and numbers of Therapists and Doctors you have used, and your level of success with them. Start a support group, and make yourselves known.
Over the years I have dealt with this, I have finally connected with other parents who have special needs children (in the emotional and neurological sense), and it has made all the difference in the world. Those parents have built community by starting a support group and by speaking openly about their children's issues. Most all of the parents I have asked, have felt as alone and helpless, at one point, as I did that day they took the folder away. I am blessed to have finally come into a community.
Writer's Note: This post paints a dark picture of Tommy's removal from school. It was, in fact, a very dark time for me. Tommy was out of school this first year for a little over 3 months. I would like to note however that the school, we as a family, and our gifted therapists, have come a very long way in assimilating Tommy back into the school. Tommy has healed a great deal since then. I think the school has made tremendous progress in dealing with these types of challenging children and has tried to educate its teachers and make extraordinary accommodations. At this time, I would never send Tommy to any other school. My other postings more accurately describe how we got to the point we are at now.
Read more...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Diagnosis, Part 3: Finally, We Got to Bipolar
In first grade, when Tommy was "suspended" from school, he received OT (Occupational Therapy) several times a week. (See The Diagnosis, Part II: SID and Feeling Like a Castaway: The Need to Build Community) At the time, we also started seeing a Behavior Therapist (BT), Nathan. I knew that sensory issues were not the only problem he was having. If you looked at the last year, he had moved across the country and had watched a woman he adored crumble to pieces. He had finally accepted his new school, and then it abandoned him by going bankrupt. Many children would have trouble coping with that. However, Tommy's classmates and brothers were having a much easier time letting go.
He would talk to us about getting a million dollars and reopening the school, and paying for his teacher's move back from Florida. He would come up with elaborate financial plans and draw designs for a new campus. (This might be a good time to mention that Tommy is very gifted in math). Nathan pretty quickly diagnosed him with an Adjustment Disorder, which lasts about 3-6 months. I agreed with diagnosis, and still do. However, we began to wonder why Tommy's behavior was still so severe well after 6 months. His sensory issues were improving, but again, not at the rate you would expect given how much OT he was getting.
In addition, we had a handful of other testing done. He had had a Neuropsych exam and testing, which revealed very little. She noticed he had an eye tracking problem and dysgraphia (like dyslexia, but with handwriting). Both of which are really OT problems. We saw a Behavioral Ophthalmologist to work in conjunction with the our OT, Becky to help his eye tracking issues. We also did something called Auditory Integration Training to help his overloads. Becky said that she had never seen a child, who was not Autistic, with such severe auditory overloads. His eye tracking was improving and his auditory overloads became noticeably less severe. Nathan was also working on Tommy's behavioral reactions to things that were not effecting him so severely anymore. Since he had learned how to react in negative ways to these stimuli, we feared he would continue to act negatively even if the stimuli were not so troublesome to him.
Four months later, in March, he was able to return to school part time. He was often able to have successful part time days, but more often than I would have liked, I got "the phone call." He was still raging and disturbing the other children, and he would only chose math work to do; no writing, language arts or social studies. He refused to go to Spanish, Art, and sometimes Music. He got very upset if he was not eating lunch with the same people every day, and transitions were still dreaded by both the teachers and myself.
As that summer progressed, Becky, Nathan and our family continued to work with Tommy in BT, OT and Behavioral Ophthalmology. We did all of these therapies at home, as well as in appointments with the therapists. We also changed his diet to include more protein and less carbs, especially sugar. I had a hair analysis test done on him to see if he was deficient in any nutrients. They recommended calcium, magnesium, zinc and fish oil. I also had complete allergy testing done, which revealed things I already knew, like certain kinds of pollens and cats. This felt like a 24/7 effort on many people's parts, especially mine. Yet, mid-summer Becky, Nathan and I looked at each other and asked, "Why are we still afraid to send this child back to school in the fall?"
It was the rages and rapid mood swings that most concerned us, along with his complete inflexibility and almost OCD like phobias over things he had decided were no good for him. Things like the kinds of foods he ate, where and when he expected to be somewhere, the tactile fears about creams, lotions, the wrong socks, etc. all still haunted him (and us). He could go into a rage so quickly that even a therapist as trained and astute as Becky would be taken off guard when suddenly Tommy would take the stretchy therapy band they were working with, wrap it around her neck and scream that he was going to strangle her and blow up the clinic if she changed her mind about getting to use the trampoline next. He would get so violent and angry at home, that I would have to lock him out on the front porch for fear he would hurt his younger brother. He would never run away, but always pounded forcefully on the door, screaming to let him back in. Finally, he would run out of steam, and I knew it was safe to bring him back into the house.
His (what we now know as mania) was also not being addressed by the therapies he was getting. His speech was rapid, interrupting him would cause great irritability and he became hyper-focused on particular and specific activities. All kids have favorites, but his were over the top - like obsessions.
We (my husband and our therapists) decided to take Tommy to a Psychiatrist for an evaluation. Becky and Nathan came with us so the Dr. could get the perspective from all of us and understand what kind of work and therapy Tommy had been doing. We met first alone with him, and then he met Tommy at the next session. He diagnosed Tommy with a mood disorder and put him on a mood stabilizing drug, Tegretol. We have since had many drug trials - good and bad. The question of whether or not to medicate your child is such a hot topic, and we have had so many experiences with it, that I will devote another posing to it.
As time progressed, Nathan began to take more seminars on childhood mental illness and brain research. He also did a lot more reading and research on the subjects. He shared a lot of this information with me. One day while we were doing play therapy at the park, I was reading about the symptoms of childhood bipolar. It hit me like a cast iron frying pan over the head. "Nathan," I pulled him aside, "this is SOOO Tommy!" It didn't freak me out at all. It was relief. There was a name for this behavior! Nathan had been thinking the same thing, but was counting, I think, on me to figure it out in short order. He was a little nervous, "Are you OK with this? Is this scaring you?" "NO," I cried, "he's still the exact same person he was five minutes ago, before this occurred to me. It doesn't change who he is, just how we might treat him. This could lead us down all sorts of paths we haven't explored before." So there it was - my child was Bipolar and I knew it. (We soon confirmed this with the Psychiatrist.) It was not shocking and terrifying. I just felt like we had taken one more leap, a rather large one this time, through the journey we were on with him. Though my feelings about it, and my level of acceptance with it, change all the time, I can remember feeling a great sense of relief in the park that afternoon.
Read more...
He would talk to us about getting a million dollars and reopening the school, and paying for his teacher's move back from Florida. He would come up with elaborate financial plans and draw designs for a new campus. (This might be a good time to mention that Tommy is very gifted in math). Nathan pretty quickly diagnosed him with an Adjustment Disorder, which lasts about 3-6 months. I agreed with diagnosis, and still do. However, we began to wonder why Tommy's behavior was still so severe well after 6 months. His sensory issues were improving, but again, not at the rate you would expect given how much OT he was getting.
In addition, we had a handful of other testing done. He had had a Neuropsych exam and testing, which revealed very little. She noticed he had an eye tracking problem and dysgraphia (like dyslexia, but with handwriting). Both of which are really OT problems. We saw a Behavioral Ophthalmologist to work in conjunction with the our OT, Becky to help his eye tracking issues. We also did something called Auditory Integration Training to help his overloads. Becky said that she had never seen a child, who was not Autistic, with such severe auditory overloads. His eye tracking was improving and his auditory overloads became noticeably less severe. Nathan was also working on Tommy's behavioral reactions to things that were not effecting him so severely anymore. Since he had learned how to react in negative ways to these stimuli, we feared he would continue to act negatively even if the stimuli were not so troublesome to him.
Four months later, in March, he was able to return to school part time. He was often able to have successful part time days, but more often than I would have liked, I got "the phone call." He was still raging and disturbing the other children, and he would only chose math work to do; no writing, language arts or social studies. He refused to go to Spanish, Art, and sometimes Music. He got very upset if he was not eating lunch with the same people every day, and transitions were still dreaded by both the teachers and myself.
As that summer progressed, Becky, Nathan and our family continued to work with Tommy in BT, OT and Behavioral Ophthalmology. We did all of these therapies at home, as well as in appointments with the therapists. We also changed his diet to include more protein and less carbs, especially sugar. I had a hair analysis test done on him to see if he was deficient in any nutrients. They recommended calcium, magnesium, zinc and fish oil. I also had complete allergy testing done, which revealed things I already knew, like certain kinds of pollens and cats. This felt like a 24/7 effort on many people's parts, especially mine. Yet, mid-summer Becky, Nathan and I looked at each other and asked, "Why are we still afraid to send this child back to school in the fall?"
It was the rages and rapid mood swings that most concerned us, along with his complete inflexibility and almost OCD like phobias over things he had decided were no good for him. Things like the kinds of foods he ate, where and when he expected to be somewhere, the tactile fears about creams, lotions, the wrong socks, etc. all still haunted him (and us). He could go into a rage so quickly that even a therapist as trained and astute as Becky would be taken off guard when suddenly Tommy would take the stretchy therapy band they were working with, wrap it around her neck and scream that he was going to strangle her and blow up the clinic if she changed her mind about getting to use the trampoline next. He would get so violent and angry at home, that I would have to lock him out on the front porch for fear he would hurt his younger brother. He would never run away, but always pounded forcefully on the door, screaming to let him back in. Finally, he would run out of steam, and I knew it was safe to bring him back into the house.
His (what we now know as mania) was also not being addressed by the therapies he was getting. His speech was rapid, interrupting him would cause great irritability and he became hyper-focused on particular and specific activities. All kids have favorites, but his were over the top - like obsessions.
We (my husband and our therapists) decided to take Tommy to a Psychiatrist for an evaluation. Becky and Nathan came with us so the Dr. could get the perspective from all of us and understand what kind of work and therapy Tommy had been doing. We met first alone with him, and then he met Tommy at the next session. He diagnosed Tommy with a mood disorder and put him on a mood stabilizing drug, Tegretol. We have since had many drug trials - good and bad. The question of whether or not to medicate your child is such a hot topic, and we have had so many experiences with it, that I will devote another posing to it.
As time progressed, Nathan began to take more seminars on childhood mental illness and brain research. He also did a lot more reading and research on the subjects. He shared a lot of this information with me. One day while we were doing play therapy at the park, I was reading about the symptoms of childhood bipolar. It hit me like a cast iron frying pan over the head. "Nathan," I pulled him aside, "this is SOOO Tommy!" It didn't freak me out at all. It was relief. There was a name for this behavior! Nathan had been thinking the same thing, but was counting, I think, on me to figure it out in short order. He was a little nervous, "Are you OK with this? Is this scaring you?" "NO," I cried, "he's still the exact same person he was five minutes ago, before this occurred to me. It doesn't change who he is, just how we might treat him. This could lead us down all sorts of paths we haven't explored before." So there it was - my child was Bipolar and I knew it. (We soon confirmed this with the Psychiatrist.) It was not shocking and terrifying. I just felt like we had taken one more leap, a rather large one this time, through the journey we were on with him. Though my feelings about it, and my level of acceptance with it, change all the time, I can remember feeling a great sense of relief in the park that afternoon.
Read more...
The Diagnosis, Part 2: Sensory Integration Dysfunction
When I read the recent article in Newsweek Magazine on childhood bipolar, the thing that I kept saying to myself is "This kid has SID in spades!" SID stands for Sensory Integration Dysfunction. They say "He was pulling his clothes like he wanted to get out of his skin," he covers his ears at even normal volume sounds and he was unable to have his bare feet touch the grass as a baby. Maybe they know Max has it, and are dealing with it, but the article never mentions it. They mention OCD, ADHD and ODD, but never SID.
Every child I have come to know who has neurological issues, also has SID. And Tommy is no exception. In fact, this was his first "real" diagnosis (besides reflux). Upon reflection, I can see that he showed symptoms of it early on. One day when he was a few months old something unusual happened. Tommy's room was a stars and moon theme, and I had one navy blue sheet that was at the bottom of my stack in the linen closet. I had always had a white sheet in his crib, but he had gone through the whole pile with reflux spit ups that day, and I was down to my last sheet. When I laid him down in his crib, he screamed bloody murder. He was absolutely terrified. I kept picking him up, calming him down, and then putting him in the crib again - again he would scream in absolute terror. There did not seem to be anything obviously wrong with him, and it finally occurred to me (call it mother's intuition) that it was the sheet. I got a white one out of the laundry and changed it; he was fine when I put him back down.
Even before he was a toddler, he loved the vacuum. I would have to leave it out and plugged in at all times, for a couple of years, so he could turn it on and off. He loved the hum, rhythm and vibration it provided as input to his sensory system. One day at a friend's house, her baby dropped his pacifier. I noticed she picked up a different type of pacifier and put it in this mouth. I was shocked. Then I noticed she had more than one type of bottle. "How can you do that?" I asked in amazement. "Do what?," she was confused. "Change binkies and bottles like that? He will take both?" "Yeah, he's flexible," she said. "Hum, not a word I would use to describe Tommy."
When he was about a year old, I tried to make plaster hand prints of the kid's hands for Father's Day. When I put Tommy's hand in the plaster, he ran around the house screaming like a mad man, wildly trying to shake the plaster off his hand. It was like I had put his hand in fresh dog poop. And the worst mistake I ever made was letting Sam take a bath with Tommy after he had gotten some bath foam at the drugstore. Again, Tommy was terrorized, and this time he was trapped in the tub! I grabbed him and got him out as soon as possible, but it was a while before he was calmed down.
We figured Tommy was just oversensitive to certain stimuli and that he would grow out of it. However, as he moved into preschool, symptoms persisted and evolved. He had severe difficulties with drops offs and other transitions, like coming in from the playground. He used to bury his gloves in the sand, thinking they would let him stay out there until he found them again. Auditory overloads seemed to be bothering him now also. Of course these difficulties caused bad behaviors. At a particularly dicey drop off, he got into what I now know to be a "fight or flight" situation, and when his teacher held him back, he bit her very hard.
We talked to the teachers about possible causes, perhaps he had sensory issues and needed to see an OT (Occupational Therapist). Perhaps he needed a neuropsych exam and other evaluations. But, he was too young for most of these evaluations. And we wondered still if he would mature out of these things; lots of kids in preschool can't come in from the playground or sit comfortably in circle. As we investigated the possibility of an OT eval, we found out our insurance did not cover the cost. We lived in Wellesley, MA at the time, and so I contacted the school department. Wellesley, and many schools in Massachusetts, has excellent special ed and early intervention programs due to a state mandate, Chapter 766.
But, summer was about to start, and they did not do testing or give services in the summer, unless it is already in an existing IEP to do so. Meanwhile, over the summer things changed for us, and we decided to move to New Mexico. We moved to New Mexico at the end of September that year, and the boys started a new school.
My luck, the first day of school they were making paper mâché hot air balloons. Tommy touched the goopy paper mâché and freaked out. I got called in for a conference our very first day of school. Transitions continued to be difficult, tactile defensiveness had grown into an unwillingness to wear many types of cloths, especially those with tags, only certain kinds of socks, a phobia about any type of cream, lotion, sunscreen or ChapStick. He also had publicly embarrassing blow ups when we would try to get his hair cut and severe meltdowns when we would try to clip his nails. Only one type of shampoo would do and he refused to use toothpaste when he brushed his teeth. In addition, he craved oral feedback and chewed on anything he could - cups, shirts, toothbrushes, straws, etc. He chewed a ridiculous amount of gum. And his auditory overloads were getting worse. For instance, he would start to hum or whistle loudly whenever a truck passed the car and he would cover his ears and scream when things got loud at a birthday party. It even showed up in his food choices. Only certain textures would do, and he wanted all his cooked food ridiculously hot. He would decide he liked a certain food, but then would only eat it if I prepared it.
Shortly after we moved here, I called KidPower, the OT clinic highly recommended by people I spoke to at the school. There is, unfortunately, a serous shortage of OT's in NM. The waiting list for the eval was 6 months or more. Then, after you got the eval, you had to get on another waiting list to be assigned to a therapist. We got on a waiting list and waited, and waited.
In the meantime, the school my children were attending went out of business. Unfortunately, Tommy had developed an unusually strong attachment to one of his teachers, who was also the co-founder of the school. When the school went under, she had a nervous breakdown, the beginning of which she did in front of the kids. She ended up moving to Florida, and never said goodbye.
This is when we transferred to our current Montessori school. This is the school he was "suspended" from a few weeks after starting. (See Feeling Like a Castaway: The Need to Build Community) He could not returned to school without a diagnosis and proof of improved behavior. I called KidPower and asked if my child not being able to go to school was considered an emergency (I certainly considered it an emergency), and could he be moved to the top of the waiting list? They got him in pretty quickly, and it was no surprise that he was diagnosed with severe SID. We were able to start working with a fabulous therapist right away, and Tommy went to OT as much as possible, sometimes a couple of times a week.
Tommy still goes to OT today. SID is still a significant part of his life. SID and bipolar are a powerful combination of illnesses. They play off each other like two evil villains in superhero cartoon. Unlike a cartoon though, these bad guys usually win over the hero your child is capable of being. That is, until you treat them.
For more specific information on treatments see the series of postings "All the Therapies We Have Tried".
Read more...
Every child I have come to know who has neurological issues, also has SID. And Tommy is no exception. In fact, this was his first "real" diagnosis (besides reflux). Upon reflection, I can see that he showed symptoms of it early on. One day when he was a few months old something unusual happened. Tommy's room was a stars and moon theme, and I had one navy blue sheet that was at the bottom of my stack in the linen closet. I had always had a white sheet in his crib, but he had gone through the whole pile with reflux spit ups that day, and I was down to my last sheet. When I laid him down in his crib, he screamed bloody murder. He was absolutely terrified. I kept picking him up, calming him down, and then putting him in the crib again - again he would scream in absolute terror. There did not seem to be anything obviously wrong with him, and it finally occurred to me (call it mother's intuition) that it was the sheet. I got a white one out of the laundry and changed it; he was fine when I put him back down.
Even before he was a toddler, he loved the vacuum. I would have to leave it out and plugged in at all times, for a couple of years, so he could turn it on and off. He loved the hum, rhythm and vibration it provided as input to his sensory system. One day at a friend's house, her baby dropped his pacifier. I noticed she picked up a different type of pacifier and put it in this mouth. I was shocked. Then I noticed she had more than one type of bottle. "How can you do that?" I asked in amazement. "Do what?," she was confused. "Change binkies and bottles like that? He will take both?" "Yeah, he's flexible," she said. "Hum, not a word I would use to describe Tommy."
When he was about a year old, I tried to make plaster hand prints of the kid's hands for Father's Day. When I put Tommy's hand in the plaster, he ran around the house screaming like a mad man, wildly trying to shake the plaster off his hand. It was like I had put his hand in fresh dog poop. And the worst mistake I ever made was letting Sam take a bath with Tommy after he had gotten some bath foam at the drugstore. Again, Tommy was terrorized, and this time he was trapped in the tub! I grabbed him and got him out as soon as possible, but it was a while before he was calmed down.
We figured Tommy was just oversensitive to certain stimuli and that he would grow out of it. However, as he moved into preschool, symptoms persisted and evolved. He had severe difficulties with drops offs and other transitions, like coming in from the playground. He used to bury his gloves in the sand, thinking they would let him stay out there until he found them again. Auditory overloads seemed to be bothering him now also. Of course these difficulties caused bad behaviors. At a particularly dicey drop off, he got into what I now know to be a "fight or flight" situation, and when his teacher held him back, he bit her very hard.
We talked to the teachers about possible causes, perhaps he had sensory issues and needed to see an OT (Occupational Therapist). Perhaps he needed a neuropsych exam and other evaluations. But, he was too young for most of these evaluations. And we wondered still if he would mature out of these things; lots of kids in preschool can't come in from the playground or sit comfortably in circle. As we investigated the possibility of an OT eval, we found out our insurance did not cover the cost. We lived in Wellesley, MA at the time, and so I contacted the school department. Wellesley, and many schools in Massachusetts, has excellent special ed and early intervention programs due to a state mandate, Chapter 766.
But, summer was about to start, and they did not do testing or give services in the summer, unless it is already in an existing IEP to do so. Meanwhile, over the summer things changed for us, and we decided to move to New Mexico. We moved to New Mexico at the end of September that year, and the boys started a new school.
My luck, the first day of school they were making paper mâché hot air balloons. Tommy touched the goopy paper mâché and freaked out. I got called in for a conference our very first day of school. Transitions continued to be difficult, tactile defensiveness had grown into an unwillingness to wear many types of cloths, especially those with tags, only certain kinds of socks, a phobia about any type of cream, lotion, sunscreen or ChapStick. He also had publicly embarrassing blow ups when we would try to get his hair cut and severe meltdowns when we would try to clip his nails. Only one type of shampoo would do and he refused to use toothpaste when he brushed his teeth. In addition, he craved oral feedback and chewed on anything he could - cups, shirts, toothbrushes, straws, etc. He chewed a ridiculous amount of gum. And his auditory overloads were getting worse. For instance, he would start to hum or whistle loudly whenever a truck passed the car and he would cover his ears and scream when things got loud at a birthday party. It even showed up in his food choices. Only certain textures would do, and he wanted all his cooked food ridiculously hot. He would decide he liked a certain food, but then would only eat it if I prepared it.
Shortly after we moved here, I called KidPower, the OT clinic highly recommended by people I spoke to at the school. There is, unfortunately, a serous shortage of OT's in NM. The waiting list for the eval was 6 months or more. Then, after you got the eval, you had to get on another waiting list to be assigned to a therapist. We got on a waiting list and waited, and waited.
In the meantime, the school my children were attending went out of business. Unfortunately, Tommy had developed an unusually strong attachment to one of his teachers, who was also the co-founder of the school. When the school went under, she had a nervous breakdown, the beginning of which she did in front of the kids. She ended up moving to Florida, and never said goodbye.
This is when we transferred to our current Montessori school. This is the school he was "suspended" from a few weeks after starting. (See Feeling Like a Castaway: The Need to Build Community) He could not returned to school without a diagnosis and proof of improved behavior. I called KidPower and asked if my child not being able to go to school was considered an emergency (I certainly considered it an emergency), and could he be moved to the top of the waiting list? They got him in pretty quickly, and it was no surprise that he was diagnosed with severe SID. We were able to start working with a fabulous therapist right away, and Tommy went to OT as much as possible, sometimes a couple of times a week.
Tommy still goes to OT today. SID is still a significant part of his life. SID and bipolar are a powerful combination of illnesses. They play off each other like two evil villains in superhero cartoon. Unlike a cartoon though, these bad guys usually win over the hero your child is capable of being. That is, until you treat them.
For more specific information on treatments see the series of postings "All the Therapies We Have Tried".
Read more...
The Diagnosis, Part 1: Reflux Came First
Tommy had issues from the day he was born. I had had an extremely difficult pregnancy, most of which was spent on bed rest, and he was born via emergency c-section as my kidneys and liver were starting to fail. Immediately following the surgery, my body was more exhausted than it had ever been. That night, I was thankful for my morphine drip and the nursery down the hall. I truly needed an uninterrupted, drug induced sleep. At about 3am I woke up to the sound of a screaming baby. I mumbled at my husband, "is there a baby in here?" "Well," he said, "I have been down visiting him in the nursery. Every time he eats he is so uncomfortable and fussy, and he throws up a lot. I just couldn't leave him down there."
Well, of course he couldn't, and Tommy stayed with us for the rest of our time in the hospital. And so began our life with reflux. Sam had a lot of stomach problems when he was a baby, but he never threw up. He was just uncomfortable and clearly had trouble digesting. This lasted less than a year. Tommy's reflux, on the other hand, was severe as a baby, and noticeably bothered him until he was about 4 years old. He still has episodes today. He threw up so much that when friends who wanted to hold him came over, we would cover them in a large bath towel, so that they would not leave covered in unacceptably smelling, partially digested formula. No matter what I ate, my breast milk did not agree with him, and soy formulas did not work either. He could keep down about half of what he ate with the super hypo allergenic, predigested formulas Nutramigen and Alimentum. We used to keep a separate sponge at the kitchen sink, just for cleaning up "baby spew," as we called it. I would always make sure it was blue, so if someone went to clean up the mess with the real kitchen sponge, I could yell "blue for spew." He always wore a bib, and the bib was constantly soaked. One day I called the GI specialist in tears, "I've gone through 32 bibs, and it's only 2:00 in the afternoon!"
He does not drink milk even today, and this has helped some. However, I have had him tested for many food allergies and for Celiac, and all have come back negative.
He was not what they call a "happy spitter". I was told by our Pediatrician and our Pediatric GI specialist that such spitters exist. He was extremely fussy and uncomfortable. He had an upper GI, a lower GI and a pH probe done. All indicated the same thing, severe reflux. He slept on his stomach with the top of his crib mattress propped upwards by folded towels, so he would not choke. Many times I would find him lying in a puddle of puke. I would run and fill up my basin with warm water and Johnson's Baby Wash and gently give him a sponge bath. Then I would have to change his clothes and bibs, and the waterproof pads I would lay over his sheets.
People always used to say things to me like, "Oh my baby had that; 3 months and it was gone," or "Don't worry, babies grow out of that in 9 months, maximum." None of these things held true for Tommy. I would find myself getting pissed at these people, the Dr.'s and the universe, when he was still erupting like a diet coke and Mentos experiment at 12 months. I resented the fact that I could not settle down with and cuddle my baby without being soaked in a lake of vile smelling, curdled spew. If I had known then what was in store for us, I would not have wasted the energy getting so angry over reflux.
We tried several medications: Zantac, Pepcid, Propulsid and Prilosec. His life would have been a living hell without these medications, and his risk of esophageal cancer as an adult would be much higher. He finally stopped throwing up 30-40 times a day when he was about a year old. And thank goodness, because once he started on solids, those baby spews got grosser and grosser. But he still needs Prilosec today or he has uncomfortable stomach episodes.
No therapist or doctor I have taken him to has ever been surprised that he had (still has) reflux. They all tell me that it is common in children who suffer from mental or neurological illnesses. I have read that 50-70% of autistic children suffer from reflux. The relationship between reflux and mental and neurological disorders is not something I have researched much. But, it might well be a topic worth exploring. However, in the scheme of things to come, reflux was the least of our problems.
When Will was born, unfortunately, the same thing happened all over again. At least we had the bibs on hand! Though the baby story is almost identical, Will grew out of his reflux at an earlier age and is not bothered by it today. At least I have been able to put the bibs away for good!
Read more...
Well, of course he couldn't, and Tommy stayed with us for the rest of our time in the hospital. And so began our life with reflux. Sam had a lot of stomach problems when he was a baby, but he never threw up. He was just uncomfortable and clearly had trouble digesting. This lasted less than a year. Tommy's reflux, on the other hand, was severe as a baby, and noticeably bothered him until he was about 4 years old. He still has episodes today. He threw up so much that when friends who wanted to hold him came over, we would cover them in a large bath towel, so that they would not leave covered in unacceptably smelling, partially digested formula. No matter what I ate, my breast milk did not agree with him, and soy formulas did not work either. He could keep down about half of what he ate with the super hypo allergenic, predigested formulas Nutramigen and Alimentum. We used to keep a separate sponge at the kitchen sink, just for cleaning up "baby spew," as we called it. I would always make sure it was blue, so if someone went to clean up the mess with the real kitchen sponge, I could yell "blue for spew." He always wore a bib, and the bib was constantly soaked. One day I called the GI specialist in tears, "I've gone through 32 bibs, and it's only 2:00 in the afternoon!"
He does not drink milk even today, and this has helped some. However, I have had him tested for many food allergies and for Celiac, and all have come back negative.
He was not what they call a "happy spitter". I was told by our Pediatrician and our Pediatric GI specialist that such spitters exist. He was extremely fussy and uncomfortable. He had an upper GI, a lower GI and a pH probe done. All indicated the same thing, severe reflux. He slept on his stomach with the top of his crib mattress propped upwards by folded towels, so he would not choke. Many times I would find him lying in a puddle of puke. I would run and fill up my basin with warm water and Johnson's Baby Wash and gently give him a sponge bath. Then I would have to change his clothes and bibs, and the waterproof pads I would lay over his sheets.
People always used to say things to me like, "Oh my baby had that; 3 months and it was gone," or "Don't worry, babies grow out of that in 9 months, maximum." None of these things held true for Tommy. I would find myself getting pissed at these people, the Dr.'s and the universe, when he was still erupting like a diet coke and Mentos experiment at 12 months. I resented the fact that I could not settle down with and cuddle my baby without being soaked in a lake of vile smelling, curdled spew. If I had known then what was in store for us, I would not have wasted the energy getting so angry over reflux.
We tried several medications: Zantac, Pepcid, Propulsid and Prilosec. His life would have been a living hell without these medications, and his risk of esophageal cancer as an adult would be much higher. He finally stopped throwing up 30-40 times a day when he was about a year old. And thank goodness, because once he started on solids, those baby spews got grosser and grosser. But he still needs Prilosec today or he has uncomfortable stomach episodes.
No therapist or doctor I have taken him to has ever been surprised that he had (still has) reflux. They all tell me that it is common in children who suffer from mental or neurological illnesses. I have read that 50-70% of autistic children suffer from reflux. The relationship between reflux and mental and neurological disorders is not something I have researched much. But, it might well be a topic worth exploring. However, in the scheme of things to come, reflux was the least of our problems.
When Will was born, unfortunately, the same thing happened all over again. At least we had the bibs on hand! Though the baby story is almost identical, Will grew out of his reflux at an earlier age and is not bothered by it today. At least I have been able to put the bibs away for good!
Read more...
Instilling Fear
Probably the most valuable lesson I have learned when it comes to my kids is that you should never let someone instill fear in you that your child is not capable of something he is. Just because he is Bipolar, has emotional delays or ADHD does not mean that he is not much more capable than you, and others, think he is. I think this happens all the time, with therapists, teachers and parents. The best example I have of this is a school the boys attended when we first came to Albuquerque.
All my children had been schooled in Montessori back east, and Albuquerque Country Day School (ACDS) was the first non-Montessori school we had ever seriously considered for our boys. There was only one Montessori school within reasonable driving distance from our new home (though there were others further away), and I did not care for the Directress. ACDS presented itself as a school for all children. They emphasized that they could educate a child who was either years ahead or behind in various subjects, and that children worked at their own pace. They also claimed that they could accommodate children with many different types of learning styles and learning issues (such as ADHD). The school and the classrooms were very small. At the time I was mostly concerned about Sam. He was in 6th grade and I was very worried about his emotional and social development, especially since we had just moved here. I also wanted to make sure he could work at his own pace, since he was so far ahead in most subjects. (Being at a Montessori school for the whole of his elementary years allowed him to do that.) There are three large Prep schools in town for grades 6-12, but I was afraid they were too big and overwhelming for Sam. He needed a small, personal and nurturing environment. The head of school convinced me that ACDS could provide all that.
As a bonus, the school was grades preschool to 12th. Tommy and Will could go there as well. Given they were used to working at their own pace, and that Tommy seemed to be having some transition and sensory issues, it seemed like a catch all. As we continued at the school, Sam seemed to be well adjusted, but he had no friends, and many of his classes were "beneath" him. He was taking English with the 7th graders, yet they were working on grammar that he had done two years earlier. The only thing he seemed to be up to speed on was math, and that was because he was teaching himself. It was basically an independent study in Geometry.
Tommy was the one having most of the issues. He was in kindergarten. His inability to transition was causing frequent melt downs, and his teacher did not seem to have a lot of tolerance for it. She also disagreed with me that he had sensory issues and believed it was all behavioral. She discouraged me from getting an OT eval, but I got on the waiting list for the well known OT clinic here called KidPower. Tommy was also frustrated with the low level of reading and writing that they were giving him, and the even lower level of math that they provided.
Will was far ahead of his classmates in the preschool room, but he was proving himself to be quite social, and he really invested his time in developing those skills. I thought about moving both Tommy and Will to one of the Montessori schools that was a far commute. I was still too afraid to think of Sam in a larger environment. I felt like he would be eaten alive at one of the large Prep schools, but I was increasingly concerned about his academics. He could not keep teaching himself everything. The Head of School kept promising me that Sam would be more challenged; that they would develop a better curriculum for him. One of the parents was going to come in and teach him Java, and he could join an English class with even older students. Sam was not socially adapt enough for a larger environment, he convinced me.
The Head of School's wife ran the lower school and took a special liking to Tommy. Though we did not enjoy his kindergarten teacher there, he would have the Head's wife next year in 1st grade. She adored him. She said she understood him and was completely sympathetic to all his issues. She would protect him and lead us through the process to figure out what was going on with him. Only she would have the patience and nurturing skills to put up with everything that happened in between. The school would tolerate and accommodate whatever Sam and Tommy needed.
Well, that school never made good on any of those promises. There were many challenged and quirky children at this school. The school became enablers of difficult children. But they never really ended up helping any of these kids. Yet, they spent a great deal of energy instilling fear in the parents of these children. They worked very hard at making us believe that they were the only ones in town who would put up with, and help, our kids. They made us believe our children were capable of much less than they are!
And I am ashamed to say that I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Four years later, I still spend time beating myself up about this. How could I have been so foolish? I knew better than that. We have always been extremely involved in our children's education - we were on the Board of Directors and many committees at both Sam's and Tommy & Will's schools back east. I dedicated myself full time to my children and took pride in the attention I spent on them. Was it the stress of the move? Was it the confusion of living some place new? Was it the new and unfamiliar fear of what might be going on with Tommy? Or the old fears I had about Sam being socially delayed and perhaps having Asperger's? How could I have not seen the dysfunction in this relationship?
Well, it turns out these people were terrible at managing money as well, and the school went out of business in less than a year after we started there. There was a subset of parents who left the school because the promises that were being made to them were not being kept (causing some of the financial difficulties). But, there was a subset of parents who fought to try to keep the school running. They tried to raise money, they tried to rework classrooms, reduce space, let go of some teachers, etc. Why? Not because that school was worth saving - it truly was not. Because of fear. The Head and his wife had done such a good job of making people believe their children had no chance of surviving outside those walls that people were willing to do whatever it took to keep the place opened.
How could I have doubted Sam? He was actually a strong individual who respected and liked who he was. We made sure of that when we had sent him to his high quality Montessori school back east. They, on the other hand, spent a great deal of energy instilling a wonderful sense of self in their students. How could I think that they were the only people in Albuquerque who could help Tommy? I am still flabbergasted with the dysfunction and co-dependency of it all!
As it turned out, all these quirky kids had to go to some other school. And you know what, most of them were just fine. They stepped up to the plate and did well at other private and public schools. Sam went, and still goes, to Sandia Prep, one of the three large prep schools in town. He has been enormously successful there; I continue to be dismayed with myself for not starting him there in the first place. They have met his academic challenges, and he now has a boat load of good friends. How could he have become friends with anyone at ACDS? They were all too dysfunctional to make friends. We needed to provide him with an environment of "normalcy". And then, as most other kids did, he did what he was capable of and started living a more mainstream life, while keeping, and being proud of, his unique sense of self.
Tommy was one of the ones who did not do well at first (see Feeling Like a Castaway: The Need to Build Community). He fell apart as the school fell apart. We might have predicted that if we had known he was Bipolar. Sometimes I wonder if that school had stayed in business, would we ever have found out that Tommy is Bipolar? But, eventually Tommy stood back up on his own two feet and moved on. This is mostly because of an OT and a Behavior Therapist (and eventually his parents) who believed that Tommy was capable of doing more than many other people thought he could.
Sam recently asked me as we drove by what was once the school, in a tone that was curious, yet dismayed, "why'd you send me to that school when we first got here?" "Because I was afraid, and I am truly sorry for not seeing you for who you were," I apologized. Believe in your child, regardless of his issues, and don't ever let anyone scare you into thinking he can not survive, adapt and mature, like the rest of us. Tommy and Will are at their current Montessori school because I truly believe it is the best place for them, not because I am afraid to do anything else. Sure, a transition would be brutal, but it is amazing how much more comforted you feel when you believe there are options.
Read more...
All my children had been schooled in Montessori back east, and Albuquerque Country Day School (ACDS) was the first non-Montessori school we had ever seriously considered for our boys. There was only one Montessori school within reasonable driving distance from our new home (though there were others further away), and I did not care for the Directress. ACDS presented itself as a school for all children. They emphasized that they could educate a child who was either years ahead or behind in various subjects, and that children worked at their own pace. They also claimed that they could accommodate children with many different types of learning styles and learning issues (such as ADHD). The school and the classrooms were very small. At the time I was mostly concerned about Sam. He was in 6th grade and I was very worried about his emotional and social development, especially since we had just moved here. I also wanted to make sure he could work at his own pace, since he was so far ahead in most subjects. (Being at a Montessori school for the whole of his elementary years allowed him to do that.) There are three large Prep schools in town for grades 6-12, but I was afraid they were too big and overwhelming for Sam. He needed a small, personal and nurturing environment. The head of school convinced me that ACDS could provide all that.
As a bonus, the school was grades preschool to 12th. Tommy and Will could go there as well. Given they were used to working at their own pace, and that Tommy seemed to be having some transition and sensory issues, it seemed like a catch all. As we continued at the school, Sam seemed to be well adjusted, but he had no friends, and many of his classes were "beneath" him. He was taking English with the 7th graders, yet they were working on grammar that he had done two years earlier. The only thing he seemed to be up to speed on was math, and that was because he was teaching himself. It was basically an independent study in Geometry.
Tommy was the one having most of the issues. He was in kindergarten. His inability to transition was causing frequent melt downs, and his teacher did not seem to have a lot of tolerance for it. She also disagreed with me that he had sensory issues and believed it was all behavioral. She discouraged me from getting an OT eval, but I got on the waiting list for the well known OT clinic here called KidPower. Tommy was also frustrated with the low level of reading and writing that they were giving him, and the even lower level of math that they provided.
Will was far ahead of his classmates in the preschool room, but he was proving himself to be quite social, and he really invested his time in developing those skills. I thought about moving both Tommy and Will to one of the Montessori schools that was a far commute. I was still too afraid to think of Sam in a larger environment. I felt like he would be eaten alive at one of the large Prep schools, but I was increasingly concerned about his academics. He could not keep teaching himself everything. The Head of School kept promising me that Sam would be more challenged; that they would develop a better curriculum for him. One of the parents was going to come in and teach him Java, and he could join an English class with even older students. Sam was not socially adapt enough for a larger environment, he convinced me.
The Head of School's wife ran the lower school and took a special liking to Tommy. Though we did not enjoy his kindergarten teacher there, he would have the Head's wife next year in 1st grade. She adored him. She said she understood him and was completely sympathetic to all his issues. She would protect him and lead us through the process to figure out what was going on with him. Only she would have the patience and nurturing skills to put up with everything that happened in between. The school would tolerate and accommodate whatever Sam and Tommy needed.
Well, that school never made good on any of those promises. There were many challenged and quirky children at this school. The school became enablers of difficult children. But they never really ended up helping any of these kids. Yet, they spent a great deal of energy instilling fear in the parents of these children. They worked very hard at making us believe that they were the only ones in town who would put up with, and help, our kids. They made us believe our children were capable of much less than they are!
And I am ashamed to say that I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Four years later, I still spend time beating myself up about this. How could I have been so foolish? I knew better than that. We have always been extremely involved in our children's education - we were on the Board of Directors and many committees at both Sam's and Tommy & Will's schools back east. I dedicated myself full time to my children and took pride in the attention I spent on them. Was it the stress of the move? Was it the confusion of living some place new? Was it the new and unfamiliar fear of what might be going on with Tommy? Or the old fears I had about Sam being socially delayed and perhaps having Asperger's? How could I have not seen the dysfunction in this relationship?
Well, it turns out these people were terrible at managing money as well, and the school went out of business in less than a year after we started there. There was a subset of parents who left the school because the promises that were being made to them were not being kept (causing some of the financial difficulties). But, there was a subset of parents who fought to try to keep the school running. They tried to raise money, they tried to rework classrooms, reduce space, let go of some teachers, etc. Why? Not because that school was worth saving - it truly was not. Because of fear. The Head and his wife had done such a good job of making people believe their children had no chance of surviving outside those walls that people were willing to do whatever it took to keep the place opened.
How could I have doubted Sam? He was actually a strong individual who respected and liked who he was. We made sure of that when we had sent him to his high quality Montessori school back east. They, on the other hand, spent a great deal of energy instilling a wonderful sense of self in their students. How could I think that they were the only people in Albuquerque who could help Tommy? I am still flabbergasted with the dysfunction and co-dependency of it all!
As it turned out, all these quirky kids had to go to some other school. And you know what, most of them were just fine. They stepped up to the plate and did well at other private and public schools. Sam went, and still goes, to Sandia Prep, one of the three large prep schools in town. He has been enormously successful there; I continue to be dismayed with myself for not starting him there in the first place. They have met his academic challenges, and he now has a boat load of good friends. How could he have become friends with anyone at ACDS? They were all too dysfunctional to make friends. We needed to provide him with an environment of "normalcy". And then, as most other kids did, he did what he was capable of and started living a more mainstream life, while keeping, and being proud of, his unique sense of self.
Tommy was one of the ones who did not do well at first (see Feeling Like a Castaway: The Need to Build Community). He fell apart as the school fell apart. We might have predicted that if we had known he was Bipolar. Sometimes I wonder if that school had stayed in business, would we ever have found out that Tommy is Bipolar? But, eventually Tommy stood back up on his own two feet and moved on. This is mostly because of an OT and a Behavior Therapist (and eventually his parents) who believed that Tommy was capable of doing more than many other people thought he could.
Sam recently asked me as we drove by what was once the school, in a tone that was curious, yet dismayed, "why'd you send me to that school when we first got here?" "Because I was afraid, and I am truly sorry for not seeing you for who you were," I apologized. Believe in your child, regardless of his issues, and don't ever let anyone scare you into thinking he can not survive, adapt and mature, like the rest of us. Tommy and Will are at their current Montessori school because I truly believe it is the best place for them, not because I am afraid to do anything else. Sure, a transition would be brutal, but it is amazing how much more comforted you feel when you believe there are options.
Read more...
Childhood Bipolar & More - Online Resources
Here is a list of my favorite bipolar (plus ADHD and Sensory) resources on the web. Please feel free to suggest others in the comments section.
Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Otherwise known as CABF. Their mission is to "improve the lives of families raising children and teens living with bipolar disorder and related conditions." They have an extensive learning center and information on finding local support groups and Doctors. CABF has frequent live chats with a variety of experts. If you are interested in participating in research studies across the country, they provide lists of contacts. You need to become a member to take full advantage of the site, but it is a good one to have in your bag of tricks. Along with your membership, you will get a subscription to bpMagazine.
bpMagazine
This is a small publication that offers a lot of good information in each issue. They tend to focus more on adult bipolar, but do not exclude pediatric bipolar. Each issue provides good information on the latest research and new pharmaceuticals. There are pages on the website where you can submit articles and essays about your own experiences.
The Bipolar Child
This site by Demirti Papolos, M.D. and Janice Papolos provides support for parents of bipolar children via a newsletter, FAQ's and lists of resources. They are advocates the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation, of which Dr. Demirti is the Director of Research. The site also suggests an IEP model for bipolar students. These two are the authors of the well known, and often referred to, book The Bipolar Child. There is plenty of information about the book on their site. You can also schedule a consultation with Dr. Demirti Papolos online.
Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation
Basic information about juvenile bipolar. But more to the point, it offers you several ways to get involved in research studies, and walks you through the process.
Starfish Advocacy Association
They are a relatively new organization, providing support for parents (and teachers) on advocating for their mentally and neurologically disabled children. They have online classes and forums, extensive information on state laws, IEP's, etc. and loads of resource links. You can also hire an educational consultant via their website.
McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web
Award-winning online weekly newsletter offers superbly-written articles on the latest research, new therapies, social and legal issues, and book and movie reviews. This site also contains over two hundred articles, many on childhood-onset bipolar disorder." (From the online resource page of The Bipolar Child.) I really like this site; it has an attitude and a sense of humor. McManamy is himself bipolar and appears very knowledgeable. Very busy site with a lot of information.
NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness
The nation's leading grassroots, family oriented advocacy organization for the mentally ill. NAMI is very active politically and fights against discrimination and for access to treatment.
Tourette Syndrome "Plus"
This site is useful for parents whose children have any number of disorders and who suffer from Executive Function deficits. Dr. Leslie E. Packer authors the site and provides help for organizing homework, estimating time and making transitions. Lots of resources on behaviors and solutions. Great educational resource for both parents and teachers (as there are many classroom resources listed).
CHADD
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) is the go-to site (as well as their magazine) for people with ADHD or ADD. You'll find help on symptoms, treatments, programs and medications, as well as a variety of support options. You must join to receive the magazine. If any of your children have AD(H)D, this is a must read every month.
Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation
This organization conducts rigorous research into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of SPD (also known as SID - Sensory Integration Dysfunction). They provide education for those with SPD, their families, therapists, teachers and policy makers. They are advocates for the recognition of SPD as a special need.
Sensory Nation
If you need a link to a Sensory Integration Resource, you will find it here! If you know of one they don't have, there is a link to email it to them, and soon, the link will appear. It would be surprising not to find a sensory resource you are looking for here.
Read more...
Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Otherwise known as CABF. Their mission is to "improve the lives of families raising children and teens living with bipolar disorder and related conditions." They have an extensive learning center and information on finding local support groups and Doctors. CABF has frequent live chats with a variety of experts. If you are interested in participating in research studies across the country, they provide lists of contacts. You need to become a member to take full advantage of the site, but it is a good one to have in your bag of tricks. Along with your membership, you will get a subscription to bpMagazine.
bpMagazine
This is a small publication that offers a lot of good information in each issue. They tend to focus more on adult bipolar, but do not exclude pediatric bipolar. Each issue provides good information on the latest research and new pharmaceuticals. There are pages on the website where you can submit articles and essays about your own experiences.
The Bipolar Child
This site by Demirti Papolos, M.D. and Janice Papolos provides support for parents of bipolar children via a newsletter, FAQ's and lists of resources. They are advocates the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation, of which Dr. Demirti is the Director of Research. The site also suggests an IEP model for bipolar students. These two are the authors of the well known, and often referred to, book The Bipolar Child. There is plenty of information about the book on their site. You can also schedule a consultation with Dr. Demirti Papolos online.
Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation
Basic information about juvenile bipolar. But more to the point, it offers you several ways to get involved in research studies, and walks you through the process.
Starfish Advocacy Association
They are a relatively new organization, providing support for parents (and teachers) on advocating for their mentally and neurologically disabled children. They have online classes and forums, extensive information on state laws, IEP's, etc. and loads of resource links. You can also hire an educational consultant via their website.
McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web
Award-winning online weekly newsletter offers superbly-written articles on the latest research, new therapies, social and legal issues, and book and movie reviews. This site also contains over two hundred articles, many on childhood-onset bipolar disorder." (From the online resource page of The Bipolar Child.) I really like this site; it has an attitude and a sense of humor. McManamy is himself bipolar and appears very knowledgeable. Very busy site with a lot of information.
NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness
The nation's leading grassroots, family oriented advocacy organization for the mentally ill. NAMI is very active politically and fights against discrimination and for access to treatment.
Tourette Syndrome "Plus"
This site is useful for parents whose children have any number of disorders and who suffer from Executive Function deficits. Dr. Leslie E. Packer authors the site and provides help for organizing homework, estimating time and making transitions. Lots of resources on behaviors and solutions. Great educational resource for both parents and teachers (as there are many classroom resources listed).
CHADD
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) is the go-to site (as well as their magazine) for people with ADHD or ADD. You'll find help on symptoms, treatments, programs and medications, as well as a variety of support options. You must join to receive the magazine. If any of your children have AD(H)D, this is a must read every month.
Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation
This organization conducts rigorous research into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of SPD (also known as SID - Sensory Integration Dysfunction). They provide education for those with SPD, their families, therapists, teachers and policy makers. They are advocates for the recognition of SPD as a special need.
Sensory Nation
If you need a link to a Sensory Integration Resource, you will find it here! If you know of one they don't have, there is a link to email it to them, and soon, the link will appear. It would be surprising not to find a sensory resource you are looking for here.
Read more...
Childhood Bipolar & More - Reading List
Here is the list of books I recommend on the subjects of childhood bipolar, Sensory Processing Disorder (or Sensory Integration Dysfunction), ADHD and learning differences. Some will help you distinguish the co-morbidities your child may suffer, along with bipolar. There are so many others out there, which is a great thing - this would not have been the case many years ago, but I have so little time left in the day to read. So, please feel free to suggest other titles in the comments section.
The Bipolar Child: The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder -- Third Edition
by Demitri Papolos, MD is a must read for any parent who suspects their child may have the disorder. This book is often thought of as the authoritative source on the subject. Your child, even if he has bipolar, will not have every symptom in the book! The coverage is very comprehensive. If nothing else, it leaves you feeling like things could certainly be worse! At any rate, every parent of a bipolar child should own this book.
Kids in the Syndrome Mix of ADHD, LD, Asperger's, Tourette's, Bipolar and More!: The One Stop Guide for Parents, Teachers and Other Professionals
Help for those who are trying to differentiate between disorders and co-morbidities. A kind of spring board book that will lead you down other paths.
Intense Minds: Through the Eyes of Young People with Bipolar Disorder
Ever wonder what is going on inside you bipolar child's mind? This book is, I believe, the first of its kind. It weaves the thoughts and fears of several bipolar children together to give you an emotional look inside their world.
The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, Revised Edition
The absolute bible for SPD (a.k.a. Sensory Integration Disorder (SID)). Carol Stock Kranowitz is a former preschool teacher who has since become an authority on SPD, and an absolute hero of mine. When we started at KidPower (an Occupational Therapy clinic in Albuquerque), they gave us, as they do all new parents, a copy of this book. It opened up my world and helped me to understand the chaos that was Tommy's life. I still refer to it today, three and half years later.
The Out-of-Sync Child has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Integration Dysfunction
The absolute must have accompaniment to the book above. Like having lamb without mint jelly. This book is chock full of FUN activities to add to your child's "sensory diet" at home. And they are divided into the appropriate deficit categories (like vestibular, auditory, oral, etc.). What's more, they're all doable - most with easy to find and inexpensive materials. I have been making use of this book for almost four years.
The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child
A fascinating look at these kids (my kids, perhaps yours?) who are wired differently. Thom Hartmann looks at these children as gifts to society. He views them as divergent thinkers who are necessary for humanity to succeed and evolve. You will see the gift that your child is to this world after reading this book. He explores how best to support them and help them succeed.
Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD
A book by Daniel G. Amen, M.D., founder of the Amen Clinic in California, that will help you sort out your whether or not your child has ADHD instead of, or in addition to, bipolar, or some other disorder. One thing I like about this book is that it does take a somewhat holistic approach to the subject. He does not just suggest medications, but diet changes, supplements and other alternative methods of treatment.
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children
Wendy Mogel is a therapist who discovered that many of the traditions and rituals of Judaism could be applied to basic parenting in a changing world. I am not Jewish, but you do not have to be to get what you need to out of this book. It is really about making your own traditions and rituals with your children, and following the commonsense laws of parents being in charge and children needing to be supported and guided. Your kids don't need any more friends, but they do need good parents. Her form of Behavior Therapy is very inspiring (and doable).
A Mind at a Time
Well known author Mel Levine has long been a source of inspiration and information for parents and teachers alike. He is a professor and authority on learning and development in children. I first found this book when I was trying to find help for Tommy's dysgraphia and language processing disorder. Any parent can benefit from his wisdom.
Read more...
The Bipolar Child: The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder -- Third Edition
by Demitri Papolos, MD is a must read for any parent who suspects their child may have the disorder. This book is often thought of as the authoritative source on the subject. Your child, even if he has bipolar, will not have every symptom in the book! The coverage is very comprehensive. If nothing else, it leaves you feeling like things could certainly be worse! At any rate, every parent of a bipolar child should own this book.
Kids in the Syndrome Mix of ADHD, LD, Asperger's, Tourette's, Bipolar and More!: The One Stop Guide for Parents, Teachers and Other Professionals
Help for those who are trying to differentiate between disorders and co-morbidities. A kind of spring board book that will lead you down other paths.
Intense Minds: Through the Eyes of Young People with Bipolar Disorder
Ever wonder what is going on inside you bipolar child's mind? This book is, I believe, the first of its kind. It weaves the thoughts and fears of several bipolar children together to give you an emotional look inside their world.
The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, Revised Edition
The absolute bible for SPD (a.k.a. Sensory Integration Disorder (SID)). Carol Stock Kranowitz is a former preschool teacher who has since become an authority on SPD, and an absolute hero of mine. When we started at KidPower (an Occupational Therapy clinic in Albuquerque), they gave us, as they do all new parents, a copy of this book. It opened up my world and helped me to understand the chaos that was Tommy's life. I still refer to it today, three and half years later.
The Out-of-Sync Child has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Integration Dysfunction
The absolute must have accompaniment to the book above. Like having lamb without mint jelly. This book is chock full of FUN activities to add to your child's "sensory diet" at home. And they are divided into the appropriate deficit categories (like vestibular, auditory, oral, etc.). What's more, they're all doable - most with easy to find and inexpensive materials. I have been making use of this book for almost four years.
The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child
A fascinating look at these kids (my kids, perhaps yours?) who are wired differently. Thom Hartmann looks at these children as gifts to society. He views them as divergent thinkers who are necessary for humanity to succeed and evolve. You will see the gift that your child is to this world after reading this book. He explores how best to support them and help them succeed.
Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD
A book by Daniel G. Amen, M.D., founder of the Amen Clinic in California, that will help you sort out your whether or not your child has ADHD instead of, or in addition to, bipolar, or some other disorder. One thing I like about this book is that it does take a somewhat holistic approach to the subject. He does not just suggest medications, but diet changes, supplements and other alternative methods of treatment.
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children
Wendy Mogel is a therapist who discovered that many of the traditions and rituals of Judaism could be applied to basic parenting in a changing world. I am not Jewish, but you do not have to be to get what you need to out of this book. It is really about making your own traditions and rituals with your children, and following the commonsense laws of parents being in charge and children needing to be supported and guided. Your kids don't need any more friends, but they do need good parents. Her form of Behavior Therapy is very inspiring (and doable).
A Mind at a Time
Well known author Mel Levine has long been a source of inspiration and information for parents and teachers alike. He is a professor and authority on learning and development in children. I first found this book when I was trying to find help for Tommy's dysgraphia and language processing disorder. Any parent can benefit from his wisdom.
Read more...
Introduction and Cast of Characters
Welcome to My Bipolar Baby. This blog is about the experiences I have had raising "challenging children". I have given birth to three wonderfully demanding boys and have helped to raise a fourth, my step son (who, I have to admit, has hardly been a challenge at all). My hope is that parents and teachers of unusual (often times difficult) children can get something out of my experiences. Our family has been dealing with such things as ADHD, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Anxiety, Bipolar, learning differences and disabilities, and academic giftedness (particularly in math) for the last 16 years. People often hear pieces of my story, or ask for specific advice, and say things like "you should write a book," or "why don't you have a blog?"
So, here it is. Some of my postings are a bit more clinical and meant to be informative to those seeking answers (like the three part posting on The Diagnosis). Many are emotional and poignant snap shots coming from the slide show of our lives. They are about school, and friends, and what it is like to be the parent of a challenging child, or the brother of a bipolar boy. My hope is that they capture the tragedies and triumphs of raising such children. Please share this blog with anyone you might think could benefit from it.
Please know that I am not a trained or licensed therapist or a doctor. Though I have spent a great deal of time researching, reading and asking for professional advice, mostly, my knowledge comes from living it - being in the moment with these children as we all struggle to make things right. I am, as many of us are, self-taught.
It is easiest to read these posting knowing who the children are and what issues they struggle with. Let me say they were all difficult babies. They all had reflux and digestive problems (especially Tommy), and none of them particularly liked sleep (especially Sam).
Sam is my first born and is now 16 years old. He suffers from ADHD, Sensory Integration Dysfunction and is highly gifted academically. I believe he is one of the smartest people I will ever know. He had been socially delayed for many years, and at one point I feared he had Asperger's. He is now very social in high school, yet he is still somewhat "emotionally unintelligent".
Tommy is my second born, and could not be a sweeter and more empathetic child - when he is himself. He is now 10 years old. He has several diagnoses, most importantly (in that it effects the biggest parts of his life) is Bipolar. He also suffers from Sensory Integration Dysfunction (including eye tracking issues and auditory overloads), and learning disabilities. He is also gifted in math (though not to the degree Sam is).
Will is my third born and is 8. He is handsome, athletic and blessed with a good sense of humor. He suffers from ADHD and Anxiety. He is an overall bright kid, working above grade level (again, especially in math). Being the youngest of these boys, and so close in age to Tommy, has been the biggest challenge in his life. He can often act impulsively and inappropriately at times.
Ben is my step son and has no diagnoses. He is almost 23 years old and will graduate college with a degree in Computer Science in December '08. He is also academically gifted, mostly so in math and science. However, he is the best reader and writer of the bunch. His main stream behavior and attitude have been a source of comfort over the years.
(I will note that as I work to get this blog up and running, I have focused on Tommy and his Bipolar diagnosis, as this has been the most demanding and time consuming part of my life as a parent. But, I intend to discuss a variety of topics related to all my children as time goes on.
Please enjoy, comment and pass along to others.
Read more...
So, here it is. Some of my postings are a bit more clinical and meant to be informative to those seeking answers (like the three part posting on The Diagnosis). Many are emotional and poignant snap shots coming from the slide show of our lives. They are about school, and friends, and what it is like to be the parent of a challenging child, or the brother of a bipolar boy. My hope is that they capture the tragedies and triumphs of raising such children. Please share this blog with anyone you might think could benefit from it.
Please know that I am not a trained or licensed therapist or a doctor. Though I have spent a great deal of time researching, reading and asking for professional advice, mostly, my knowledge comes from living it - being in the moment with these children as we all struggle to make things right. I am, as many of us are, self-taught.
It is easiest to read these posting knowing who the children are and what issues they struggle with. Let me say they were all difficult babies. They all had reflux and digestive problems (especially Tommy), and none of them particularly liked sleep (especially Sam).
Sam is my first born and is now 16 years old. He suffers from ADHD, Sensory Integration Dysfunction and is highly gifted academically. I believe he is one of the smartest people I will ever know. He had been socially delayed for many years, and at one point I feared he had Asperger's. He is now very social in high school, yet he is still somewhat "emotionally unintelligent".
Tommy is my second born, and could not be a sweeter and more empathetic child - when he is himself. He is now 10 years old. He has several diagnoses, most importantly (in that it effects the biggest parts of his life) is Bipolar. He also suffers from Sensory Integration Dysfunction (including eye tracking issues and auditory overloads), and learning disabilities. He is also gifted in math (though not to the degree Sam is).
Will is my third born and is 8. He is handsome, athletic and blessed with a good sense of humor. He suffers from ADHD and Anxiety. He is an overall bright kid, working above grade level (again, especially in math). Being the youngest of these boys, and so close in age to Tommy, has been the biggest challenge in his life. He can often act impulsively and inappropriately at times.
Ben is my step son and has no diagnoses. He is almost 23 years old and will graduate college with a degree in Computer Science in December '08. He is also academically gifted, mostly so in math and science. However, he is the best reader and writer of the bunch. His main stream behavior and attitude have been a source of comfort over the years.
(I will note that as I work to get this blog up and running, I have focused on Tommy and his Bipolar diagnosis, as this has been the most demanding and time consuming part of my life as a parent. But, I intend to discuss a variety of topics related to all my children as time goes on.
Please enjoy, comment and pass along to others.
Read more...
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