Children With Bipolar Disorder: How to Break Down Barriers and Work Effectively Together

Last summer I read The Bipolar Child [ D. F. Papolos & J. Papolos, 2002 ] and said, you know, this really fits him. And we took it to our psychiatrist at the time, who pooh-poohed the idea: "You know, those people don't know what they are talking about. And they're not scientists." ... He put him on Depakote; when I told him it worked, he was surprised. He kept saying ... [my son] was ... attention deficit disorder... We ended up calling the police one night because he tried to put his foot through the window; he wanted to jump through the window... We decided we had enough ... of broken walls and of the kids getting hurt. And we took him to [the local crisis center] ... and they found him a bed at ... [the local inpatient treatment facility]. And then ... we fought with the insurance company for two days before we could get him in for a medication review. We went through twelve days with him at ... [the inpatient treatment facility] and us at home... The medication was real scary. They took him off some, added some; we'd see him, he'd be totally out of it ... then we would come back the next day and he would be shaking. -Parent of a 10-year-old child with bipolar disorder