Behavior controlled or not

[jessica1961]

I have a 13 yr old son.  He is having problems in school and they want to send him to another school.  Continuation school.  He gets upset and shuts down in class, won't do his work and also uses bad language towards the teacher.  They are stating that this is something he can control.  I don't think it is.  I think we have to teach him how to control it and they should be accommodating him not suspending him every time he does something wrong. He has been suspended a total of 10 days and school only started on 8--24-09. He is in special ed classes, has an IEP, and has been in therapy since the beginning of the year.  He is on abilify and lamactol. We are still working on his doses.  He started these two medications in the beginning of August of this year.  He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 4 so he was taklng medications for that all this time and then when I took him to another dr. he stated he thought it was bipolar not ADHD because of the severe mood changes he had literally from total anger to tears in a matter of minutes.  He also has a learning disability so that does not help with the school work.  He is in 8th grade3 but his reading level is at 2nd grade.  He had Central Auditory testing done and they came back with significant deficit in most areas.  Can you give me any information that I can give to the school.  These are special ed teachers but they don't seem to know much about bipolar.  So it looks like it is up to me to educate them.   Any help is appreciated as I havbe another meeting with them this week to decide what to do.   Thank you Jessica

[ILADVOCATE]

Depending on what state you live in they could set up an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and also mainstream him into some standard clases. As for disability education and awareness NAMI is quite helpful but to understand the specifics of accomodations I would suggest contacting your local independent living center:
http://www.ilru.org/html/publications/directory/index.html

[adel_ezz]

Hi jessica

to convince his teachers is no big problem because you can show them the script of meds written by the pdocs. The thing even if they are convinced that he has a problem will they agree to let him stay in class?

I would focus more on his health status because he seems to possess some deficit in learning as you said. Parents usually don't agree instinctively for start that their children may have any problem of any kind until they have to face it eventually. Further perhaps the reason he cannot control his anger in class because he feels he can't follow well his teachers which makes him angry . in my view i wouldn't keep resisting their decision provided that it's for his sake and not taken as a punishement.

now for your diagnosis, yes he can have ADHD and still has it along with bipolarity. however it needs a good doc to realise the difference. i.e. i mean whether his restlesness is a secondary to bipolarity (what is called comorbidity in medicine: many symptoms come simultaneously) or it's a compounded illness i.e. BP+ADHD. because i myself was vague for a while about my situation until i was ascrtained that i only have BP and that my reslesness is a secondary.

I also wonder whether your abilify and lamictal were prescribed to you before your new pdoc decided he is BP not ADHD or it's him who changed his med from the ones suited to ADHD to these ones because these are meds for BP. I wish to draw to the fact that one can very well start having ADHD or PD (panic disorder) or OCD then turn clinically bipolar i.e. that the affective disorder was already inside him. So from this side his pdoc can be right. In my view, i agree with him if he has severe mood swings then most probably he is BP no matter what he had in the past.

Finally abilify can make him agitated with insomnia and anxiety, though it's a good AP so i would check on that. usually pdocs write along with akineton to suppress this effect. ask him. Although at his age, i would not give him so many meds and try to concentrate on one med only if possible. lamictal is ok i suppose and good for depression also, you didn't say he suffers from depression frequently.

It's really tricky, in my view psychiatry must come at the end of the flowchart when one exhausts all other possibilities i.e. after checking all other organs, so having disability in hearing or the like would it be responsible of his mood changes, i.e. i wouldn't take pills say to control my diet before i try first to control my eating habits first. try to listen well as to why the teachers made up their mind and on what basis.

sorry i wish i could help more  

good luck

[jessica1961]

He has had a full check up and he is fine.  His ears are fine he can hear it is the processing that is a problem.  His moods have stabilized with the medications and I know it takes a while to get him on the right ones and doses especially since he is 13 we have the whole growth and hormones to deal with also.  The new medications were given after he diagnosed him with the bipolar.  As far as the school I am not sure that a continuation school is the best for him.  Considering the environment and that most of the kids are there because they are problem children not necessarily due to medical issues.  My son has a very low esteem because of his learning disability and is now very aware that he is different from the other kids and tells me all the time I wish I could read better,or do better in school.  It breaks my heart. Thank you for your ideas.