Gosh, sounds like almost everybody has had a long and bumpy road before getting the BP diagnosis. We have the same experience.

Hilary started being a problem at the end of 6th grade, about the time she started menstruating. We took her to a clinical psychologist who never told us exactly what he diagnosed her with other than ODD, but he believed in talk therapy and didn't believe in meds for kids.

She got worse rather than better, despite regular therapy sessions with him throughout 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. Even after report cards with all F's, a clumsy suicide attempt, cutting herself, violent rages, and attempts to jump out of moving cars, he didn't feel a referral to a psychiatrist was warranted.

We finally took her to a psychiatrist on our own for an evaluation of Inattentive ADD, which we had just learned about and seemed to fit. She was put on Adderoll XR. A few weeks later she ended up in juvenile detention because we had to call the police when she impulsively swallowed a bottle of mouthwash after an argument and we were concerned about poisoning. She had hit and kicked me in the process and was arrested for fourth degree assault.

When the psychiatrist learned of this, he immediately suspected BP and ordered a stop to her Adderoll and placed her on Depakote. That was how we got the diagnosis. After reading up on it, we realized that she had had typical childhood BP symptoms for some time. She was fifteen when she was finally diagnosed and treated.

We too wish she had been diagnosed much sooner, at least a year sooner. It might have made a big difference in her overall adjustment. But we are grateful we got the help she needed when we did.

JoAnn, mom to Hilary, age 17, :angelgirl , bipolar and juvenile onset diabetic
:angelluv