Bipolar Discussed on Dr. Phil Today

Today Dr. Phil will couselor a family who includes a biplor child.

I will report back on it later!

Aggrivated and Irritable

Those are the two moods that prevailed yesterday. He was so irritable that every peep, look, movement made him feel very annoyed. That makes it hard for us to do much around here. After doing his homework (which actually went pretty smoothly), he threw the Wii remote and knocked down the fake trees (poor, poor trees) and lost his Wii privileges for the week.

I am heading out to pick the boys up from school now. Wish m luck that today went well and this afternoon will be incident free.

Sarah:)

Another Saturday Morning Episode

Today was a doozy. This is what became of my living room (and kitchen) this morning. Charlie was doing fine…until I told him it was time to clean his room. Talk about a radical change of mood. On his way to his room he cleared off the kitchen table and sent things flying around the room, knocked over two fake trees, a book crate, a big glass/wood picture frame, a picture from the wall and a whole glass full of milk and spewed every nasty thing he could think to call me. BUT, he didn’t try to hurt me or his brother, so we are making some progress I think.

After a few minutes in his room he bolted outside. He’s never given me reason to think he’d do anything dangerous outside, so I allowed him to head outside. He turned on the hose and sprayed things for over an hour. I kept watch from inside to ensure he wasn’t hurting anyone/anything/himself.  Normally I would have physically forced him to come inside and go to his room. I didn’t do that this time and I think the outcome was better.

After all was said and done (about 2.5 hours in all), he came in and was pleasant enough and ready to talk. He acknowledged how Ryan and I must have felt during his rage and cleaned up all of his messes. He said he doesn’t even realize when he’s doing that rage stuff until he’s calmed down. It really is like a caged animal.

The rest of the day was very smooth. He was not allowed to do anything the rest of the day, so he helped me prep the walls for painting and lots of other household chores with not so much of a complaint the rest of the day.

This roller coaster ride is not easy, that’s for sure!

Sarah:)

The Glacier

Charlie met with his counselor today. Up to this point, I know Charlie has liked his new male counselor, but I wasn't quite sure what was actually getting accomplished other than him drawing a few things here and there. However, today was different. There was a real break through.

Charlie actually told me what they talked about today. Part of what they talked about was a glacier. His counselor said the top of the glacier is like anger and rage. The bottom, and much bigger part of the glacier that you can't see, is sadness, unhappiness and boredom. Wow! That really illustrates what he is going through! I'd never thought of it in that concrete way before, all though I have told Charlie that his anger has to do a lot with sadness that he doesn't know how to properly deal with.

I'm so glad that today was the way it was, and I can't say that for a lot of our days!

Sarah:)

He's Back!

If you're reading this, most likely you'll understand what I mean.

He's back today. The real deal. The real child I know. He's kind, nice, patient, agreeable, pleasant, sweet, funny and many more sweet adjectives.

He is his authentic self today and for that I am so thankful!

Sarah:)

Our Saturday Morning Bipolar Episode

Oh man. Life is stressful. I feel like I might just be going crazy! This morning brought upon an issue that never seems to end. Charlie cannot swallow pills despite months and months of practicing. Yes, the pediatrician, psychiatrist, friends and family say that he can swallow them, but I don't see any of those people trying with him and see him work hard at trying. Because he can't swallow pills I either have to crush them up or sprinkle the capsule contents on food.

Last night he tried swallowing tic-tacs with three large glasses of water. I said he'd tried enough and would crush the pills (for an ear infection) into some pudding. He put it in his mouth and gagged and threw up the pudding, medicine and at least 1.5 glasses of water mixed with some old milk all over the kitchen floor. An hour or so later he tried again and was fine.

Fast forward to this morning to the flat out refusal to take the medicine (all of it). He proceeds to close himself in both hall closets and then in the big cupboard in the kitchen. He throws out the dog food and dog treats and knocks over the garbage can. He shouted all the bad things he could think of to call me: stupid, mean, bad, horrible and "all the other words I can't think of to call you". Meanwhile I sat calm and still right outside the cupboard and told him he needed to take his medicine. He banged the cupboard door on me and the wall, tried to break the shelf above him and threw pieces of dog food at me. Being calm and not going ballistic on him was very, very difficult. He sucker-punched me and I grabbed his leg and told him he is not to hurt me.

After about 70 minutes of this, he said he would take his medicine but only the sprinkles. At this point, I don't give a rats a$$ about his ear infections and just NEED him to take his Depakote. He did and then went to his room.

He asked if we could make string bracelets, I made a mistake. I should have said we'll make them. Instead I told him that I had told him last night at bedtime that he needed to pick up his room before he came out this morning. Of course that wasn't done so I told him after he picked up his room we could make the bracelets. He melted down on his bed and told me he doesn't know why is acting like this. Talk about breaking my heart!

I'm still holding firm on the room/bracelet thing, but decided to let him and brother watch TV which is usually very soothing for Charlie.

Did I make the right decisions or not? It is so hard to tell. Today I am very sad about this that is making Charlie (and Ryan and me) miserable.

Right at this moment all is calm and peaceful and for that I'm thankful.

Sarah:)

Bipolar Mysteries is on Tonight!

I know it's weird that I get excited to see this show, but it makes me feel like we're not the only family that struggles with this. So you know what I'm going to be doing at 9PM!

Depakote vs. the Bipolar Child

It just doesn't seem right. Why is it that the kids who would have the most resistance to taking medicine, have to take medicine? Don't answer that, it's just  rehtorical question.

We just had a one-plus-hour stand off. He takes the Depakote sprinkles because he cannot swallow pills (yet). We ran out of pudding so he had to take the sprinkles with peanut butter sandwiched between two crackers. I was tired of waiting for him to take it and stop the stalling tactics (bathroom break, give me five more minutes, I'm thirsty, another bathroom break and repeat this sequence over and over). He finally sat down to eat the cracker sandwich with medicine. I stepped out of the room and he said he ate it and was done.

I did not believe that he ate the sprinkle sandwich like he said he did, so I looked in the trash can. Surprise, surprise, there it is was. My first instinct was to go confront him on this. I didn't though. I went to him and told him I found it in the trash can and he needs to go take it and that I've poured a glass of milk for him to help him wash it down.

After several minutes had passed, I reminded him again and told him if he chose not to take his medicine now, he would have to stay in his room until he was ready to take it. He reluctantly sat at the table and ate it.

I told him that we would talk about his deceitful act later. It's always such a fine line between getting him to take his medicine as he should and holding him accountable for his behavior that sometimes he's not really in control of.

All seems peaceful in the house at the moment...but I have to talk to him about his lie and I know that that will bring on some real anger. I think I'll wait to tackle this one until dad is home. That's not wimping out, right?

Sarah:)