Pretty much flat on my back thanks to Zoloft withdrawal - will try and post something a bit more substantial soon.
Meanwhile, in view of the debate and interest that the so-called 'Bipolar Child Paradigm' has aroused, I'd be very interested to hear directly from those who experienced severe depressive episodes and/or behaviour that approximates the current DSM definition of mania for adults, between the ages of 5 and 12. By implication, I'm interested to hear from people who had these experiences as children in the '70s, '80s and early '90s, that is well before the explosion of interest in diagnosing the condition in children.
And what position am I taking, at least initially? I believe that it is quite possible for children in this age group to suffer severe depression as well as episodes of heightened mood, activity and escaping into grandiose fantasies. Here, I'm definitely not talking about not being able to sit still in class and other such ADD cliches. I'm talking private suicide attempts, complete and utter social isolation and the valorisation of unconsciousness, and not just indulging in some serious acting-out because they don't want lamb roast for dinner.
All of these things happened to me (except for the lamb roast bit). However, in spite of this, I'm reluctant to adopt the 'Paradigm' as it stands, and would prefer to examine these phenomena in a psychosocial context. My current belief is that looking to psychopharmacology for a solution does far more harm than good where kids are involved. I may have fit the criteria for 'bipolar' as a kid, but I'm definitely not bipolar now, and looking back, it was clear that my environment, not my neurochemistry, was the problem.
Comments are welcome below, and I can be emailed directly via my profile on this blog.
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2 comments:
Hope your withdrawal symptoms abate soon!
Can't enlighten you with personal experience with childhood bipolar disorder, though I was a bit of a wild teenager.
I'm sure I could have been diagnosed with something as a teen. (I'm quite sure I was normal--also reacting to psycho-social stressors)
I could've been diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a child.I was four years old the first time I attempted suicide.That was 1977 though, and no one believed that children could experience depression or desire to end their lives.I also had boundless energy and slept little.I was extremely impulsive and yet also prohibitively fearful at times, but all of these symptoms were a reaction to my environment.
If I were a child experiencing these things now, I'm sure I'd be hopelessly drugged almost immediately.
In 1990,at the age of seventeen, I entered the MH system. Even then, my first therapist was convinced that no child that young could be depressed or suicidal.By 1990, however, those real-life experiences began to matter less.Prozac was highly popular, having been on the market here for two years at that point- so suddenly my problem was a chemical imbalance.
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