Birth Through 2 years

   Adopted at birth through an open adoption

   Home at 14 hours old

   Fairly 'easy' baby, sleeps well

   Huge appetite--finishes every bottle and cries for more

   First smile, sitting up, crawling, walking, first words either on time or developmentally early

   Moved across the country at 14 months old

   Precocious

   Moved back to West Coast at 2  1/2.

Tantrums become rages, destructive in nature

   Baby brother adopted at birth when she was 4 yr

   Rages become even worse

   See homeopath/chiropractor for help

   Ask everyone and anyone who might be an expert for help

   Pediatrician recommend psychologist that wants to do reward and punishment therapy

   See other MFT who probably doesn't believe me

   Take her to my therapist who specializes in adoption...no help

   Goes to preschool and kindergarten in a Montessori school, few problems

   Still raging at home

   At 6 goes to Montessori school for first grade...teachers wonder if she is ADHD

  Tested for ADHD with Dr. Sears, no true symptoms

   See Rebirthing Therapist who does amazing work with her

   Move to family farm 500 miles away, raging increases.

   Raging gets worse, or at best harder for me to handle

Ready to Seek "Mainstream" Help

   Tell husband that I can't take it anymore and we need to look for a psychiatrist, he agrees...many tears

   Tell rebirthing therapist we are seeking help from a psychiatrist and she agrees it's best and that she needs medication

   See psychiatrist who diagnosis her as bipolar and begins medication

   Psychiatrist refers us to MFT (Marriage and Family Therapist) who is a specialist in childhood bipolar...she is a Godsend.

   Medication has many side effects and doesn't seem to be helping the rages

   Psychiatrist thinks homeschooling is causing the rages

Need a New Psychiatrist

   The psychiatrist and I part ways

   Still in therapy

   Stop medication and change to new psychiatrist and new meds.....side effects go away quickly but rages continue

   Psychiatrist and therapist insist we hospitalize her

   Take her to hospital, very unsuccessful, doctors don't agree want to put her on antidepressants

   Bring her home immediately

   New psychiatrist says she needs to learn to control her anger (hello? Isn't that why we are here?)

   Find new psychiatrist who insists she is bipolar, ADHD and OCD. Changes meds

   Still in therapy

   Once more stable psychiatrist insists on ADHD and OCD meds....stimulant and anti-depressant (known to cause serious mania in bipolar people)

   She is very calm, creepily calm on ADHD meds but is convinced she needs to leave home (forever)

   Mixed state of mania and depression and rapid cycling ensue on ADHD and OCD meds

   Still in therapy

And, Yet Another Psychiatrist

   Find new psychiatrist, stop ADHD and OCD meds immediately

  New psychiatrist seems to be a good fit. Convinces us to try Lithium, and it works!

   She has periods of stability

   Take her to large teaching hospital to see specialist in early onset bipolar

   Specialist confirms diagnosis of bipolar, says she is most classic case of Bipolar I he has ever seen in a child, recommends new meds

   Try new meds, cause extreme mania--spinning, dancing, pressured speech, etc.

   Stick it out as long as I can handle it then insist she go back to old meds, it takes over 2 months to get her up to therapeutic dose

   Finally stable, some of the time

OK, OK, so it isn't all flowers and sunshine....but we are getting there because we are all working on being 'normal'. We all work very hard in therapy. We monitor meds carefully. We are beginning to reach out to each other. And, most of all we are accepting this "New Normal".