ADHD or Bipolar | ADHD Information

When my son took adderall xr and then when we tried strattera, we had problems similar to what you describe.

Adderall xr made him aggitated, angry, got in people's faces.

Strattera made him depressed and he told me he wanted to kill himself.

We stopped both of these meds the same day it occurred.

It has never happened again.

I just wanted to mention this in case it is med related. Everyone is different and these meds affects them differently as well.

That is all.

Thanks for all the replys I really appreciate them.  I am still very confused and have no idea if it's bipolar or something else.  Yesterday was the first day on Intuniv and DS had a major tantrum last night.  He wanted to wrestle with my husband and got right in his face about it, they ended up banging heads, my husband yelled at my son who went over the edge.  My husband told him to go take a bath and his just lost it.  When I got up to the bathroom  he was screaming at the top of his lungs at me and refusing to take a shower.  This went on and on.  I remained calm, actually surprised myself, and stuck with it.  It was horrible.  I am ashamed to say this but at one point my DS said he wanted to kill me and my husband.  That just totally destroyed me.  I told him if he said things like that they would put him in a hospital and he would never see us again and he cried.  We did the bath but by the end I was a wreck.  I am at the bottom right now and can't see the top.  Hearing him say that was unbearable.  Tomorrow we have an IEP meeting at school and I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through this.  I am in no way saying it is ok for a kid to threaten to kill someone else, but I just want to tell you that before medication, my son would use words like: stupid, hate, kill, I wish you were dead, etc. every time he was having a meltdown.

I feel like I started it, because I explained to him that using the word hate was so horrible, it was like wishing that person were dead. I was trying to stop him from saying he hated me, his brother, someone at school, etc.

Unfortunately, this plan backfired. His twisted logic turned hate into kill. I couldn't stand hearing my 5yr-old say such a hateful thing. It just about broke my heart.

Now, for the good news. Since we found the right med, the tantrums that would lead to this kind of language are almost non-existent. We've had a few meltdowns, but I equate them to the night-terrors he used to get when he was little.

The OT told us that in that place, you have to help your child move out of the limbic system into the cerebral cortex. I used this method the last time he had a tantrum, and it only took about 10 minutes to pull him back to the real world. But, again, we are finding the meds help, so this was a rare occurrence.

Thanks everyone- We went back to the doctor AGAIN yesterday.  DS was horrible AGAIN for the doctor.  The first two times we went to this new doctor DS was on Risperdal and Tenex (which was helping but making him very sleepy).  This time DS was only on Risperdal.  We weaned him off the Tenex per doctor's insturstrucitons and boy or boy did the doctor get a good look at his ADHD in all it's glory!!  His impulse control was totally off the charts, hyper and very annoyed to be there.  School says his behaviors has been "cycling" from tired, to hyper, to working, to non compliant, to irritated (not in that order).  Told the doc. and again I got "OH!"  We talked about the bipolar issue again and it's still unclear.  He asked what my son was like before we started meds compared to now without meds.  I couldn't answer because he was 4 1/2 when he started meds and now is 10.  It's hard to compare because he's changed so much and had so much therapy for his Asperger's.  So we still aren't sure if it's ADHD or Bipolar.  I guess we'll discuss that more in 2 weeks when we go back again.  Uggg!  Doc did say if it's bipolar we need to treat that first then the ADHD because lots of ADHD meds argivate the bipolar.  Uggg!...again.  So on that note we're trying Intuniv for 2 weeks.  Fingers crossed everyone...we really need a break ...

There are actually vast distinctions between Bipolar disorder and ADHD but only an astute clincian is capable of making a differential diagnosis. Bipolar disorder is highly genetic so the child is definitely at higher risk for having it. Also, an inaccurate diagnosis of ADHD can be made when in fact the child has bipolar instead. When ADHD med's fail to work repeatedly and the child's symptoms are getting worse instead of better on ADHD med's, that raises a red flag. There are many different scenarios but an astute professional should be able to target the problem.  Hang in there bkrusen and please keep us posted.

There are doctors who will diagnosed both adhd and bipolar. It is know that you treat the bipolar first then go back and treat the adhd.

You would need a specialist to help you since so many doctors still don't believe children can be bipolar.  Like they all of a sudden come down with it.

Depression and anxiety are also common with adhd'ers. Just a thought/comment. Things were much calmer yesterday.  No outbursts or tantrums!  Hopefully it was a one time thing and won't be a repeat episode.  Thanks for the support!My 6 year old DD is diagnosed with ADHD and dyspraxia. She was diagnosed a year ago.  We have tried focalin XR and inutiv. Both worsened her temper tantrums and did not help her focus. We have no confirmed cases of bipolar in either side of the family. Although there are a couple of family members (an uncle of mine and his daughter) we suspect are bipolar.

Quote from bkrusen:

"School says his behaviors has been "cycling" from tired, to hyper, to working, to non compliant, to irritated (not in that order).  "

I hear this from my daughter's teachers as well.

It's frustrating!  I wonder if I should try another med. like vynanse. (Vynanse works for my son and husband) Any thoughts?

When my son was first diagnosed the doctor said they needed to rule out bipolar because the treatment for ADHD can aggravate the bipolar unless it's treated first.  She said one of the big signs that he is not bipolar is that even though he has some MAJOR meltdowns, fits, and emotional breakdowns they didn't last long and he went from one mood to the other quickly. 

One time we were in the waiting room at her office and my son had a complete meltdown (pretty common for him in a doctor's office waiting room!)and everybody in the building heard.  I took him outside to calm down and about 15 minutes later he was just fine and smiling again.  With him it's always like a light switch is flipped.  He may have a fit that lasts 1/2 hour but when he calms down it's very sudden (like flipping a switch).  When we went back in the building she said "Well if you've ever wondered if he's bipolar don't worry anymore...he's not"  She said if he was bipolar he wouldn't be able to calm down that fast and the meltdowns would last much longer.  He wouldn't be able to jump from one mood to the other so quickly. 

Hope this info helps a little!

My doc said the same thing. He says DS has mood swings. Totally different than bipolar.

My DS was diagnosed as ADHD and Aspergers at age 4 1/2 and we've been treating things as such since (he's now 10).  We recently started with a new psychiatrist because his meds have failed him and we are having a HORRIBLE time finding new ones that work for him.  While going through our family history the doctor made an "Oh!" comment when he saw that my husbands side of the family has a few cases of bipolar in it.  He says ADHD and Bipolar manifest very similarly in children and said nothing more.  I'm wondering if anyone has any experiences with this?  Is anyone's child diagnosed Bipolar?  What does it look like in children?  I've read a lot on the web but it's always helpful to hear from others first hand.

We received our diagnosis of ADHD at the age of 8.  My son now is being treated for ADHD/Bipolar, however, his diagnosis is ADHD only.   His moods would go from one extreme to the other.  Bipolar disorder runs in my husband's family. I wish I could give you more help, but I too am trying to understand it.

I too was told that adhd and bipolar manifest similarly, but that drs don't like to or want to diagnosis a child with bipolar.

My son currently takes 40 mgs of strattera and 5 mgs of abilify.

my daughter was dx with adhd at age 8 and after meds stopped working and having a very hard time finding the right med we ended up with a bipolar dx at age 14. She is now off the adhd meds and taking 2mg abilify and 75Welbutrin and doing very well.   Any ideas on adhd with bipolar...... I tried lithium.. did not work.... then adderal and that didnt help... felt wired on both..

Vwrnr
Oneortheother,  What do you mean by the OT saying movie out of the limbic and into the cererbral cortex?  How do you help your child do that?