Length: 606 words (2.2 pages)
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Fourteen a Day Keeps the Depression Away

What is Bi- Polar disorder? It is a condition formerly known as Manic Depressive Disorder that involves depressive episodes along with periods of elevated moods known as mania. Symptoms of mania include an abnormally elevated mood, irritability, an overly inflated sense of self-esteem, and distractibility. Persons experiencing an episode of mania are generally talkative, have a decreased need for sleep, and may engage in reckless or risk-taking behaviors.
What is it like for a child that is diagnosed with Bi- Polar disorder? One of the many challenges a child with this disease faces is attending school. I have a young person in my life that was diagnosed with this disorder at the age of four and has been on medication since. He is now thirteen and is in the 7th grade. A characteristic of his particular disorder is that his IQ is considered that of a genius and last year in the 6th grade he was even accepted into the Mensa Society. Every morning, afternoon, and evening he is expected to ingest a handful of various mood-stabilizers. He talks to everyone, but more often his self, and stays up all night watching cartoons. He does not have any friends and his medications have caused him to become overweight. Should young children take so much medicine that they need uppers and downers? He has never been removed from them all at once but every few months they take him off one thing and then he starts some new miracle drug. There is no inclination what kind of person this child would be without medication in his system that alters his emotions and personality.
This child has been diagnosed with Bi- Polar disease, ADHD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Oppostional Defiance Disorder. I ask myself if he really has all these conditions or if all young children get hyper sometimes. He cries because he can?t figure out how to use his vocabulary word in a sentence. He throws a conniption fit when the loops of his shoelaces aren?t tied exactly symmetrical. I have gone back and forth for years trying to determine what he needs. Up to the age of four he would get so frustrated that he would lash out. A cat scan revealed that he has seizures in the frontal lobe of his brain that cause him to become aggravated and sometimes violent. He would bang his head on the floor and even spoke of how it would be better to never exist. Suicidal tendencies are very common in adults and teenagers with Bi- Polar Disorder. Will this medication keep him from wanting to hurt his self? These manic episodes have yielded a very intelligent child whose mood alternates with his medication rather than the events in his life.
Now almost 10 years later he has accepted that he will have to take medication every day of his life to fight off his emotions. Is it easier for the families and teachers of children with this disorder to medicate the child? Yes- but it also benefits the child in that they have a little more control over their actions, words, and behavior. A negative aspect is that when these children get in trouble they attribute the blame to the disease other than accepting responsibility for their actions. How can we be sure though, after all this time, that he and other children diagnosed at a young age haven?t developed the skills necessary to cope with their ever changing emotions? Under the advice of many doctors we may never know what he would be like without taking fourteen pills a day.