The brain is a vicious little bugger

[lookout123]

I've had a couple of PM's recently asking about Lil Lookout's progress so I figured I'd better get around to updating you all.

I originally took LL to a psychologist because he appeared to be withdrawing from things he enjoyed and his emotions were touchy at best. He hovered between sad and angry most of the time and there was evidence that he was processing external stimuli in completely incorrect ways.

We met with a child specialist I've known and trusted for some years. Parents, grandparents, and teachers all filled out the surveys to describe his behavior and the results were amazing. LL scored off the charts in Anxiety and Depression and scored highly in all the other areas of concern as well. While a history of depression runs in my family the doctor pointed out that LL's results were nearly textbook ADHD. I pointed out that he's never hyper, at which point I learned a kid doesn't have to be hyper to be ADHD. The doctor also asked us to take LL off Singular, which he's been on to control his severe allergies which can trigger his asthma. He'd been taking Singular since he was 3 or 4.

The biggest question mark was whether his anxiety and depression were causing ADHD like results or whether his ADHD was causing elevated anxiety and depression. We set several follow up appointments for counselling and just kept moving along.

Within two weeks we had a totally different child. The singular was flushed out and it became apparent that the depressive tendencies of singular had suppressed a lot. LL is extremely hyper. He can't sit still long enough to even eat a bowl of cereal. He couldn't even hold a clear conversation without chasing tangents. His emotions were just running rampant. He'd go from laughing to sobbing to screaming and back to happy in the space of twenty minutes.

After talking with the psychologist we decided it was time for medication, at least until he has time to learn some coping techniques. We went to the pediatrician with the formal diagnosis and reports. He laughed it off and said everybody is a little ADHD, "just get him exercising more". He's not our pediatrician anymore. We went to a well known practice that only deals with ADHD. They ran every test and survey known to man and came to the same conclusion we already had plus one more concern. Oppositional Defiant Disorder. WTF? They said it was a possibility and something worth monitoring.

LL has been on his medication for two months now with minor tinkering for the proper dose for him. First it was too low, then too high, now we're doing pretty well in the middle. While more hyper and fidgety than he used to be, he is miles ahead of where he was before the medication. He can focus well enough to stay on task with only gentle reminders and we can actually have conversations again.

The downside is that while the focus part of the problem seems to be improving other areas are getting worse. Suddenly the kid is tanking at school, he's developing a mean streak, there is absolutely nothing too small for him to want to argue about, and he is still on an emotional pendulum. His most recent test results combined with counselling sessions have raised a new question. The symptoms he is now presenting are very very consistent with Bipolar Disorder. They don't diagnose that at this age but he is on the grid for that. The psychologist and the ADHD specialist are not connected by anything other than this patient but they agree on what they are seeing.

Either LL has ADHD with severe oppositional defiant disorder combined or he has brain chemistry consistent with Bipolar Disorder. Either way he is pretty well fucked right now. I almost long for the days when he was on singular. He may have been depressed but everything else was in check.

Anyway, that's my update.