My advice is to have him reevaluated by a professional and treat the bipolar first. Then treat the adhd. The right doctor and medication should not make him druggie, it should control his "situations".
He is so young to have to suffer unneccesarily. They have really come far the past years with bipolar and children. They used to not diagnose it and say it didn't exist in children.
Your son does not need to have such tough times. Make an appointment to reevaluate him and begin treatment before school starts!
Please come back and update us about how both he and you are doing!!
Beth
My son is also ADHD/Bipolar. Don't be afraid to change doctors if you aren't satisfied with one. My son went through so many different medications!! Unfortunately, he was still out of control. At age 15 he went to a specialty boarding school. He has been there 6 months and is doing great! He will be on minimum meds when he graduates the program. Good luck to you. I hope you find a doctor outpatient that can come up with the right meds for your son!!
If anyone is interested in a great residential program, see http://ellen.parentshelpingteens.com
You are getting some good advice. You need a board certified child psychiatrist then one step more, you need one who is both sympathetic and experienced with pediatric bipolar. Not all are. One possible way if you are near a major city is to check with the medical school to see who might be on the facility and deals with this. If nothing else, they are normally on top of the latest advances. Also look for clinics at major teaching hospitals. Pediatric Bipolar is both difficult to correctly diagnose, it is tricky to treat and we really do not know an awful lot about it at this stage. It wasn't too many years ago when it was believed that Pediatric Bipolar did not exist, that the earliest onset was later adolescence.
You may have to keep working. Research the subject so you can be your child's advocate-become an expert. If you don't take this role, no one else will and your child could fall between the cracks.
keep on plugging, it is worth it.
Diz
My son was 5 when he was diagonsed with ADHD/BIPOLAR and well he is 11 now and about a year ago i took him off his meds because i didnt think he need them any more WRONG he is very worse now but the meds keep him druggy all the time can you help