ADHD or Bipolar, I'm confused?

[hockeymom89]

I have been doing a lot of reading and I am quite confused on whether a child would be ADHD or Bipolar. My daughter is almost 13, as time goes by the behaviors get worse. As a infant she needed no sleep. napped about 30 minutes twice a day until she was about 9 months old and then 1 nap for about 30 minutes.I took away naps around 15 months other wise she never would go back to sleep atnight. as it was we had a hard time getting her to sleep at night, and she woke sometimes once a night and other nights up to 8times. she has always had a temper, quick to anger and very stubborn. when she was in grade three she gained about 30 pounds in two months. she started to get teased at her school and she started to lash out at kids in anger more. her opinion was and still is that if someone makes her mad she can do the same thing back.about 2 years ago we started having daily occurances of tempertantrums, yelling at me, screaming when we went near her. she was too big for me to pick up, if i told her to go to her room she would just tell me to "make her" our household was in an constant state of upheaval. small things seemed to trigger these moods. a simple thing would set her off, like telling her no to going to a friends, or that it was bed time. at this point she was going to sleep at about 12 at night and then she could not get out of bed in the morning. she was on clonidine for getting to sleep but it did not work most imes. she was irritable and would cry over the tiniest thing. i was the brunt of her anger most times. she would threaten to kill her self when she was in these rages. she had counselling and we found that it was not working. she did not want to go. we started her on paxil 18 months ago and found that there was a big difference. we tried her on celexa but she seem to be so irritable, noises bothered her, like if you were eating near her. plastic bags rubbing against her legs sent her into a tirad. no one liked her, we all hated her, she was better off dead. i got her off the celexa and back on the paxil. her teacher at her school was not much help and she was harrased and bullyied by her. i told the teacher that we did not know what we were dealing with, that there was a possibility of "bipolar" she told me that my daughter needed to get over it. Now it is getting worse. The principal asked me " gee, what did you do to piss God off?" have you thought she may be scziophrenic! You should withdrawal her from school!"THis all happened after her second suspension.

So far in the last month, my daughter had been kicked out of school three times. Once (one day)for something that her friend said. the second time for gossiping about another student.(three days) this last time (five days) for supposedly making prank calls from the school (she denies this) and for hitting two kids in the head with a recorder when she was throwing it around. We now have to go infront of the school board. I am at my wits end. We believe that she is being unfairly punished and that her medical issues are not being considered. I have been doing alot of reading about Bipolar, everything i read mentions ADHD. My question is does anyones else's children behave as listed below. We have an excellent doctor and I have not had her tested as i did not want her labelled and was afraid of a bipolar diagnosis.

These are the things she does:
has no impulse control, if it pops into her head she will say it
has no fear
constantly talking
jumps from one thing to the other in conversations
sometimes talks so fast others dont understand her
will interupt conversations or put in her comments whether it is adults talking or kids
will appear to be on a high, sometimes when she eats certain things, will get really goofy, silly and can not calm down on her own
when she says something wrong, she will act like what was wrong with what she said and then a while later it will dawn on her and she will be remourseful
when asked why she acts like she does she says"i dont know"
she will lie easily to get out of trouble
will say things in the heat of anger and not remember saying them
before being on the paxil,- she had to have everything neatly organized and arranged, now not really a big concern as long as no one touches her stuff.
will go into a temper tantrum and stay in it for quite a while, yelling at all of us in the house, insulting us, swearing at us.
she does not seem to have any manias, other then her goofy times,
one minute she is happy and the next she will be upset because of something she did or something someone said to her.
doesnt think before she does stuff
is easily talked into to doing stuff even when she knows it is wrong.
she can sit and watch tv for hours on end but without the paxil she can not do math
when she gets in trouble she brings stuff up that is not related, about her brother or others people.
she has low self estem and often talks negatively about herself.
she is always on the go. and likes to be around people all the time. needs her friends with her or on the phone, bounces form one activity to the other.
most people that know her say that she is very niave and gulible,
The other night she was tired and she got very mad when i told her she could not go to her friends, it was 10 pm. she threw a tantrum for about an hour.

Sorry for the long story. Needed to vent. Thanks. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Just knowing that others are in the same place as myself is very helpful.

________________

[feelbad]

You know, in reading your story,i kept going from one of my kids to the other with regard to the behavior that your daughter is exhibiting.Son #1,is 21 and was just dxed with ADHD.and son #2,just went through an inpatient stay at a mental health facilityand was Dxed with a form of bi polar disorder.The bi polar situation was brought on by a very strong sensitivity to any SSRI we tried for him to try and treat his depression.All of the signs that you just went into with regard to the manic type of behavior,was exactly how son #2 was acting while taking different types of SSRIs during this past year.prozac was the first,he had a huge change in behavior,total change in personality,he went from a warm, caring child with a really great sense of humor to a very cold and uncaring child who really didn't care about anyone but himself.after getting him off of the prozac, we tried lexapro which went fine until his depression started to get a little worse(his behavior still was not back to the norm with this drug either, but it had gotten a little better)and we upped the dosage ,this resulted in another anger explosion,and we went off of the lexapro and on to effexor,well two weeks after we started him on that, he had this anger explosion from hell which resulted in our livingroom looking like a scene from COPS.But we got him admitted to one of the best mental health facilitys for kids in our area.this whole past year i felt that my son was indeed just very sensitive to the SSRIs but the drs never listened to me,but in the end, that is pretty much what his final dx was.He was taken off the effexor and put on depakote and the difference in his behavior is truely amazing.my son is back, the smiles and the laughter and he no longer is ignoring his dog.The difference in him is really astounding when I think back to how he was.the way you explained your daughters behavior is exactly how my son had been this whole past year.

now son #1 was just Dxed with the ADHD and the behavior that you talk about when your daughter was younger is my son to a T.and his school years were very chaotic and he was constantly into some kind of trouble and getting suspended.he also would say things before he really thought about what he was saying and got into loads of trouble with that mouth.it wasn't until I was filling out the forms for son #2,to determine if HE had ADHD that i saw just about all the symptoms in son #1.i knew right then that he had ADHD.Everything just fit.and son #2 turned out just to be borderline.

Both of my sons grew up in a caring home and i honestly don't know just what caused all of this to happen but it did.I really think you need to get your daughter into a facility where she can be closely monitored and evaluated by a team of professionals.she really does sound like she might have some form of a bi polar disorder.i kinda freaked out when they said that my son had this .I mean what a Dx you know?But it is just the same as having any other type of condition and it CAN be dealt with and treated with the right meds.at the very least, your daughter needs to be on some type of mood stabilizer like depakote.It has worked wonders for my son.He is much happier and much more productive.

You know, when i asked my son earlier on while he was still on the SSRIs,just why he was acting like this he told me that he didn't know,just like your daughter.is she seeing a good physcotherepist?she really needs to hook up with someone who is willing to really get to the root of the problem.and the best way to do that,really is to have her admitted to a facility that will do that for her.going through that list in your post, i could connect every single thing to my son.that lack of impulse control was a real biggie.

my heart goes out to you as I know exactly what you are going through here, i really do.Everything just feels so unstable and out of control.and you are scared for your child.are you seeing a therepist at all?If you are not, you need to.My therepist has helped me so much to deal with this past year.I have also been dealing with some major medical problems with myself so i have been dealing with alot of crap.i am suprised some days that I am not in a facility myself you know?

well, I hope this helped you somewhat.Don't worry about 'labels",and just get your daughter properly Dxed, on the right meds,and with a good therepist.Please keep me updated on how things are going hockeymom.i hope things go well from here. Take care, Marcia

[secondaltosing]

Hi Hockeymom,

My nephew is bipolar. He is 10 now but was diagnosed a few years ago. There is a good organization called Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. They have a lot of resources available to get questions like yours answered, in my experience. Their web site is www.****.org. Good luck!

[HiddeninMyself]

That is my Aunt. Completely. She's 42, and was diagnosed with Manic Depressive (also known as bipolar) just about 2 or 3 years ago. She was put on medicine, and is the nicest, sweetest person you'll ever want to meet. I'd get her to a doctor for proper diagnosis.

[bearboy]

ADD and Bi Polar disorder are very diffrent, but can be present together.
I have adult add, and bi polar type II...