"frontal lobe"

I take a B-complex every morning. I cut down ( not completly out ) my caffine intake. Being diabetic I cant eat sugar so no desserts or anything like that. I avoid fast food and have it rarely. Excercise has been a huge help for me. It helps control the manic mood swings, and gives me the ability to sleep better at night. Sexuality plays a big role in bipolar disorder. Hypersexuality is not uncommon ( and I would hate to say suffer because I dont think I suffer at all ) and I suffer from that too. Instead of trying to tame that beast I lead a very active sex life, even when I was single there are other means to....ummm...curb that maddness. That in turn helps me sleep. Proper sleep was a huge key for me. There would be times where I would over stimulate my brain. Calming my brain down at night by not over stimulating it has helped alot. I avoid tv, and reading unless its my text book for school.

As for diet you have to really stop and make a concious choice there. Do I eat salad and raw foods all day long? Heck no! I love a good greasy cheese steak as much as the next girl. But I also have to make sure its not an all the time thing. Do I eat an apple and peanut butter for a snack or scarf down a bag of potato chips. I go for the apple with peanut butter.

For my son I know he and any other child would choose to eat fruit snacks and snack cakes all day long. I just dont keep them in the house. I dont buy kool aid but only 100% fruit juice and keep bottles of water stocked in the fridge. If you surround your child with healthy choices they will choose them. I keep bowls of fruit out in the open for them to get when ever they want them.

When my nephew was 10 all his hair fell out. ALL of it. My sister was obviously frantic, and had all kinds of doctors and tests. I told her to go see the dietitian at the large health food center in the area. She changed his diet. It was CHEESE. They finally figured it out and confirmed it with the doctors. Not milk or any other dairy, just cheese. His hair grew back and he's fine. Diet is so important.

Just read this thread..sorry for the delay in this.

I wish I had a catch-all answer. Every BODY is different. I can only say what works for me. I spent years int he classroom as an elementary teacher and as a school administrator. Ive seen it all. Now I work in holistic health and wellness.

Our food is poisoned people...that is an unfortunate FACT> I had many of the bipolar, adhd and especially the autistic children go GLUTEN FREE. This did indeed make a HUGE difference in behavior, attitude, focus,etc.

The original wheat seed really no longer exists. It has been replaced with a genetically modified version. The same is true of the original corn seed.

Diet is HUGELY important and I have noticed such a dramatic change when going gluten free....not just in the kids whose parents took the time and energy to try it, but definitely in myself too. i keep it simple...NOTHING processed. If it doesnt come off of a tree, walk or grow on the earth, then I dont eat it. Simple as that.

what??? no pasta anymore?? what do you have for Sunday dinners now?

:o

haha Pasta Sunday has become Salad Sunday for the past 14 months now. I cook it for everyone else, but I dont eat it. I made the grave mistake after trying past while being gluten free for about 10 months....and was never so sick in my life. My body said hell to the no!!!! Cant torture myself that way again.

I wonder if homemade marinara tastes good on crisp greens???

;)

I just want to add that no one can see diabetes either. There is a dramatic increase in that too. No one can see it either.

Diet has a clear role in the management of it too.

It may also require medication for management......


PHYSICAL conditions that affect the brain seem to get targeted. As well as the parents get blamed more. (I don't hear of any parents getting comment about how if they'd have been a better parent their kid wouldn't have diabetic issues....) They also have gotten the short end of the research dollars.

Its like anything else Patti. You're a nurse and you've seen it all. I just think think the drug companies are really out of control and this entire country is over medicated. All I have to do is tell my doctor I've been nervous due to my divorce and I have a script for the Benzo of my choice. I cut out coffee and increased gym time. When I'm totally unmanageble, I'll THINK about the pill.

Ands let's not forget that there are many less than stellar parents, who are happy to medicate a child that may require they give up the 12 pack and the boy/girlfriend and spend time with their kids.

Ohhh..AwesomeAgain.....right on..I so agree

Awesome, true, but unless you've been there with a kid with issues you don't have a clue how aweful it can be.

It's great if you have extended family and friends to help, but my ex lost his job in our hometown and we moved to a new area when my son was 6 months old. When the issues came up....I was TOTALLY on my own. The few friends that I'd made through a mother's group...quickly left. My ex hit the bar to deal with the stress, and I went into stress meltdown.

It broke my marriage. We'd been together for 20 years. The relationship wasn't perfect, it had it's issues, but this KILLED it.

I got to hear how other parents were "proud of how their child was developing", and "he just needs some disappline", and it would be better if you "spent some time with him".

My son never needed meds. His issue was pretty unique, and he's doing great now, but I understand.

I hear ya Patti and I'm sorry it has to be so hard. It continues to be difficult for me without my husband of 20 years WITHOUT children. As Namaste said, we are all unique and each situation is different. I hope the doctors treat each child as unique and don't just mass diagnose these kids. And adults.

call me an old schooler, and I will take the flack on this......., I DO agree that some children are in need but I also think that many just need their ass whooped and the boundaries set...... it is very easy to blame ADHD.ADD and bi-polar on just plain old bad berhavior.....

Looks like this has been a controversial thread. I know this issue caused friction in my past marriage. Our oldest was diagnosed informally when he was 2, of having ADHD. I took him to a child psychiatrist when he was in kindergarten and yes, he had ADHD. So does his dad. We had so many struggles over whether to medicate him. The ex was against it, but he wasn't the one dealing with the things my son would do at school. He was at times, a danger to others since he was so impulsive, couldn't concentrate and was held in from recess often. He missed out on field trips and all kinds of sports because his grades suffered. It is kind of hypocritical that society generally wants kids to be in sports in order to keep them out of trouble. School sports, though, demands good grades. So kids not getting good grades are exempt from sports. My son was great at them in practice but was not allowed to play in the games. His grades simply weren't there. He had all kinds of "carrots" to use as motivation, but really struggled. When he was on meds, he did better, was much calmer. Unfortunately, since he wasn't on meds soon enough, he alienated people and ended up befriending other kids with problems and then grew up to hang out with non-achievers, pot heads etc. Now I know looking at this that it may seem this may have been a discipline issue. It wasn't. You can't beat ADHD out of a kid. You can ground them till kingdom come and what happens is a child who grows up with very poor self esteem which is what happened to our son. His teachers always commented on how respectful he was, a big teddy bear, but that he wouldn't hand things in. I often found his things completed in his backpack, but he didn't turn them in. At 21, he is supposedly finishing up charter school this year. I am not holding my breath. He refuses to get a job and makes tons of excuses not to. I've thrown him out of my apartment because I couldn't afford to keep him without him contributing something. He found places to land and still attends school when he is interested in the subject. He wouldn't get his GED. His choices are all his at this point. When we had him on meds, he looked anorexic. He was under a psychiatrist's care. He opted to go off of them as a teen and gained so much weight that he had a very unhealthy body image. He began working out when he turned 18, to the point where he started body building and running. So he lost the weight naturally and looks great. The gist is, you don't always WHAT to do for sure...to medicate or not. In spite of him looking very healthy, he has high blood pressure. This may be the result of the meds he used to take (adderal and guanfacine). I took him off of them in the summers. I don't know. I know it caused a huge rift in my marriage, but then it was doomed anyway. I forgot to mention that I was a substitute teacher for 10 years, and mostly spent time long term subbing in special ed classes where I saw kids who where challenged with many medical problems...autism, ADD, ADHD, and a host of other things. I don't feel there is much I could have done to change the outcome of my son at this point in his life. I know he is very talented, bright and capable. He gets interested in something and excels. Then he loses interest. I hope the light bulb goes on for him sometime soon. I've always been supportive of him and am still proud of him and let him know. Big hugs to all of you facing the decision to medicate or not, regardless of what is going on with their peers.

Yes, this is a controversial thread and intentionally touched the open wound that so many have because wrongfully this topic is treated as tabu.

We have to talk about it, we have to share experiences and we must open the book to post our opinion.

We either feel we have it, or we were diagnosed with it, or our child was diagnosed with it or we see more often than not relationships breaking because of similar behavior on our partners and we don't know how to approach.

Since most cases of a behavior deviation are felt by someone other than self, it is extremely important to have an EXCELLENT doctor testing and offering the options.

There are also good doctors, bad doctors and those who simply do not take the necessary studies in hand when meds are an option to prescribe the right med for each case.

Although meds can work for correctly diagnosed children/adult, we must address that not all meds prescribed have the right dosage for that particular child or adult. We see more often when the medication is removed from the person that this person will change.

If the medication was impacting negatively, because it was not the right medication for this person, the person will change and feel better, feeling that no medication is needed at all.

If the medication helps and the person feels a tremendous difference for the better, becomes focused, has ability to develop into a happy person, this individual at some point feels so good that they think medication is no longer needed. This happens mostly with young adults or adults who are able to control the intake. They simply stop.

Here is the concern: these meds affect the chemistry in the brain.

If the right medication is not the one prescribed, the person taking it may not excel or just do so for a period of time.

If the medication that was properly prescribed is stopped at some point, how do we know the reaction of our brain chemistry?

There aren't enough studies yet to evaluate these bullet points. It is ongoing and I am so glad that we here, in this forum, are able to openly discuss and share.

So many relationships end up in divorce or a break up because of reactions that either we couldn't identify as other than bad behavior and take the right approach.

Was our ex or stbx acting up momentarily and then coming back to his or her senses or is there more that either they or us were not able to recognize and treat?

How do you know that that doctor or tests are directing to the right med to my child, my spouse, my loved one?