bipolar

[jamie390]

Speaking from an educator's point of view I would have to make a point about some children's behavior issues while at school.  I teach in a very low income school where children for one reason or another do not have the proper medication needed for various circumstances.  I have a child with bipolar in my classroom and I also have a liscensure in mild to moderate disabilities.  My kindergartener throws tantrums and I have to walk on needles while he is at school to be sure he gets the most instructional time as possible each day.  But if he doesn't like what's going on in the room (for no particular reason he can control) he will run out of the room/wet himself/shut down/be aggressive/etc.  There is no telling what he is going to do, so I have to protect myself and my students when this happens and either contain him until I can get further assistance to remove him from the room or just let him run around the school while I continue to teach.  It is ridiculous to keep up with something that should require a constant aide.  It is not healthy for anyone in the situation, not the student, not me, not his classmates, not his family, and not the administration.  Sometimes actions need to be taken...don't get me wrong, I am not about medicating children because they are "talkative" or "hyper"; children are children... but you have to trust the educators you have your child with for a minimum of 8 hours each day and respect their education.  Everyone watches out for their children, but when you're a teacher you have 23 of them...


This discussion is related to 5 year old not ready for kindergarten?.

[margypops]

I totally agree with all Steph4302 has said in his post ,you can get plenty of feedback regarding this online.and the scandal of overmedication and misdiagnosis..

[Steph4302]

I did not mean to offend you and am certainly glad that your son responded well to medications and treatment. Hallucinations are not part of a bipolar diagnosis making your son's condition much more severe and dangerous. The likelihood of a 5 year old child having a diagnosis of BP is highly, highly rare. My anger comes from misdiagnosis of children at this age and having them put on psychotropic medications without examining the side effects. Medications like Lithium and Depakote have NEVER been tested on children with the side effects being unknown. I have a brother who was misdiagnosed with every disorder under the sun by numerous docs and specialists in the chicagoland area and put on psychotropics at a young age - only to be properly diagnosed at age 16 - but the damage from the meds was done. It hurts me to think of all of the children who may end up like my brother b/c bipolar disorder has become the diagnosis of choice instead of ADHD these days. I apologize if I offended you.

[margypops]

I stand by my original post regarding the Diagnosing of children with ADD and ADHD , The article I read it in meant what I said and I did not misinterpret it.A New York Doctor and Child psychiatrist Peter Breggin has a web site regarding some of the problems ,  he regards the overmedication as a catastrophe if you go to Breggin.com you will see what he has to say.

[Ione]

Hello.  I appreciate the sentiment that too many kids are medicated with this that and the other.  I DO have a bipolar child whom we adopted.  His birth family has a history of this illness.  My son has mood swings and he hallucinates --was doing all of this before medication. He also tried to walk in front of a moving SUV and heard voices telling him to throw himself out of the car when it was going down the highway. YES, young kids CAN have bp and you need to get good medical advice and go through testing to determine if it is bp or something else.  Teachers can only tell you about their behavior in school.  My son was diagnosed just before his sixth birthday.  If he was not on meds, he would be dead right now.  BP kids also need therapy to manage their condition, and the whole family needs to learn how to manage the illness.  My life has been hellish since my little boy became sick.  Sorry--but you don't know what you are talking about.

[Steph4302]

A 5 year old diagnosed with bipolar disorder? that's absurd and ridiculous. even more so if he is given psychotropic medications.

Google the pbs video titled "The Medicated Child."

[jdtm]

No, I am correct.  Teachers do NOT diagnose nor do school officials.  As I stated before, if teachers in your area are doing this, it is illegal.  If you reread your quote it states that teachers may be "driving" the practice of diagnosing but it does not say that teachers or school officials are diagnosing any disorder/illness.  As I stated before, teachers can only describe behaviours - what the parents decide to do is their business.  Oh - and as a teacher, I totally understand and empathize with the original poster's comments.

[margypops]

Actually it is happening a lot, here is one statement from the paper regarding Elizabeth J. Roberts a Medical Doctor and child psychiatrist in California, "Well -intentioned but misinformed Teachers and , parents using the Internet and hurried Doctors are all part of a complex system that drives the current practise of Misdiagnosing and overmedicating children.They seem to believe that if a boy wriggles in his seat and wilfully defies his Teacher's rules he has ADHD.

[jdtm]

I think there is too much nowadays of Teachers and Schools "Diagnosing" ADD and AHDD

I don't know what happened - must have hit "post" before I was through writing.  Anyway, Teachers and Schools do NOT diagnosis nor should they even "suggest" a possibility of a disorder.  Teachers are allowed to describe behaviours only, so if the above is occurring in your school district; then there is a problem.  

[jdtm]

think there is too much nowadays of Teachers and Schools "Diagnosing" ADD and AHDD

[margypops]

You have a valid point here ,this child with " BiPolar is probably on some strong medication that is making the acting out worse, and of course the other children should not have to be subjected to the upsetting behavior perhaps the Parents should be told to address the matter, I think there is too much nowadays of Teachers and Schools "Diagnosing" ADD and AHDD and too much misdiagnosing going on to which many children are put on Drugs to keep them quiet and "attentive", in fact it has reached epidemic proportions and most children have problems that could be addressed by better Parenting skills and better Child/parent interaction