Daughter ADHD with Mood Disorder

Please tell me you are taking her to a psychologist as well!!! Meds alone will not help her, she needs to learn ways to cope with ADHD as well as her moods and there is no way meds can do this alone. A really great psychologist is in Clear Lake area---Gretchen Browne. I highly recommend therapy in combination with meds! good luck!

Hello, I have been on Seriquil before and from me it made me figety, restless, I actualy felt druged. I have also been on Depakote and I know it takes atleast a week to 2 weeks for it to realy start working. Also if your child is Bi-Polar, learn your childs mania, depresion or manic. My husband says he can tell when I am manic cause I go through a spending spell but my bad times are when I am depressed and for me a anti-depresent is great. Before my ant-depresnt I was taking Abilify. It worked very good for about 7 or 8 months. One thing I do know is some times for bi-polar, meds can work great for a while some times not long at all. Once again this is adult use.

My stepson whom my husband and I raised was put on Depakote at 11 years of age. He is bipolar and ADHD. He is now 18 yrs. old. Depakote did wonders for him!!! It was like having a totally different child, which was a relief for both us and him. Now that he is out of our house, he decided to stop taking his meds, and he is back to being very unstable. (This is very predictable for bipolar, and a never-ending issue once they are not supervised in taking their meds.) I hope you have a very good psychiatrist who specializes in children. They tend to be rare. If you need a name, I know a fabulous doctor, but he is on the northwest side of Houston.

One book that helped my husband a great deal in coming to terms with his son's illness, and in learning some good things to do is a book by Danielle Steele. I don't remember the name of it, but it is a non-fiction book. Her son was bipolar and it tells the story of his life, and the challenges they faced in helping him.

Don't give up. I have two kids on meds. They both WANT to take the meds to help them at school. The oldest (14) is on Depokote and it really helps him. The youngest takes seraquil to help him sleep through the night (he has terrible nightmares when he doesn't take it). Stay on the meds and stay in touch with your doc. If these don't seem to help, try something new. Soon you will see the results and so will your daughter. You may also want to try therapy for her. It will help her to get a handle on what she is feeling (she probably is as confused as you are). Therapy may help you as well to understand what is going on with her and how this disorder works. It really helped me to deal with my kids better when I understood (as much as anyone can) what is happening to their minds and bodies. Best of luck and don't give up; your patience and consistancy will pay off. Another resource is your school counselor; they have a lot of knowledge and books that you can borrow.

I don't know much about Depakote, but my sister has severe ADHD and a borderline personality disorder and my dad is bi-polar. So I do know that no matter what the meds, not everyone reacts the same and it sometimes takes several tries to find the right meds with the right dosage. So you may do some waiting and some trial and error.

My sister has severe mood swings so I know what you are going through. Hang in there, I'm sure you will find the right meds for her!

The good news is my sister is now an adult and a productive member of society. She has grown out of a lot of the mood swings and ADHD behavior (although they are sometimes still there below the surface.) AND she is not on medication. So there is hope!

Hello, I have a 9 yr old ADD/Bipolar Disorder boy I am fostering asnd going to adopt from CPS. This child has been thru alot, he is on Folcalin once a day and Respirol for Bipolar. This med is a god send. The differance is day and night without his meds. If your meds dont seem to be working, ask for a differant meds. Each child is differant but the symptoms are the same. He has emotional outbursts that can turn into drama fits. Good Luck!

Hello B.,
I don't know much about that particular drug but my brother has/had ADHD and OCD. He's now 19 and is able to control a little better but he was on Zoloft and B6. The B6 was to replace what his brain couldn't hold on to and then during the school year my parents added Zoloft to help him pay attention in class. It was a slow release so there wasn't an extreme mood change when it wore off because it would ware off slowly. My parents tried every drug the doctor suggested and many of them were great when they worked but then would all of a sudden it would stop working and there were extreme mood changes from screaming and hitting things to being so violent that my father and brother would have to hold him down to keep him from hurting himself or others and then once the episode was over he would be in a very deep sleep for hours other times he would go into a comma like state and stare at the ceiling for hours. Doctors didn't know what to do so my dad did his own research and found my brother was lacking in B6 and needed a lot more than a regular person. Regular people get enough through foods but someone with ADHD/OCD/ADD can't store B6 in the brain which basically controls attention span and I believe a few other things. You should really talk with my dad about it. My parents can relate so well with what you are going through and he can help majorly. Don't worry he's not Joe Blow off the street he's actually done some great research including being on the team trying to find a cure for AIDS. If you'd like his phone number let me know.

B.,

with drugs come serious Side Effects, I hope you do look into natural alternatives for your daughters sake.

Scientist believe that many behavior disorders start with deficient nutrition, which is the first area in which XANTHONES help children. this has a wide array of vital nutrients.
you can read/see/hear testimonies on www.InsideMangosteen.com/Juliza (this is not my site)
read about them and how this can help your child.

For dr's audios,
www.dailyhealthjuice.com

email me tecuento123 at yahoo . com
I have several articles including TIME magazine that speak of the why's and how's

good luck,
Oly

First of all, I praise you for taking good care of your daughter and taking her to the doctor! Also, please please have her see a counselor on a regular basis.

My 14 year old son has bipolar and adhd,, when he was 5 they put him on depakote and he gained A LOT of weight. After that happened, I heard from several parents that it happened to their child too. SO, be very careful about her weight and if she gains it.

And like another person said in a previous reply, with some children it takes some 'experimenting' with several medications before you get it just right. With my son, we ended up taking him off of ALL medications and he seems to be better without it! go figure.