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An Answer, at Last
It was a few weeks before Michael was to start fifth grade, and the Bonises were at wit’s end. Then the child psychiatrist came to the conclusion that Michael had all the signs and symptoms of juvenile bipolar disorder. He prescribed an antiseizure drug that stabilizes moods.That evening, after everyone else was asleep, Janice got on her laptop and went to the website of the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. She scrolled to the list of symptoms. “Rapidly changing moods, explosive rages, separation anxiety, sleep problems, defiance of authority,” she read, saying to herself, This is my kid! It was a revelation.
In the chat room, she found other mothers in similar situations. She learned about the book many parents consider a bible, The Bipolar Child: The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood’s Most Misunderstood Disorder, by Demitri Papolos, MD, and Janice Papolos. She ran out to buy it.
“It helped me put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” says Michael’s mother. “Once you know what it is, you can treat it. I’m not upset to know that Michael has bipolar disorder. It was more upsetting that I wasn’t smart enough to recognize the symptoms.”
Soon after the start of fifth grade, Michael and Janice visited Dr. Papolos at his Westport, Connecticut, office. When Michael met privately with the doctor, the child revealed a startling secret he had never shared with anyone: He was hearing loud voices telling him to hurt his mother, and he had seen monsters and frightening men chasing him. Children with bipolar disorder can experience hallucinations and delusions and have often been misdiagnosed as schizophrenic.
At Dr. Papolos’s suggestion, Michael saw a neuropsychologist for further testing. Both doctors agreed that Michael had bipolar disorder. “Children with the disorder veer from being irritable, easily annoyed and angry, to silly, goofy and giddy, and then just as easily descend into low-energy periods that they experience as intense boredom, followed by depression and social withdrawal, often with self-recrimination and suicidal thoughts,” says Dr. Papolos. “They suffer from severe separation anxiety, generalized anxiety and panic disorders, as well as obsessive-compulsive symptoms, including hoarding and ritualistic requests for reassurance.”
Why hadn’t any professional diagnosed it earlier? Janice asked Dr. Papolos. He used the analogy of the blind men feeling an elephant. Obsessive behaviors, depression and anxiety are only parts of the illness. If you look at them individually, you miss the fact that they are all part of the same disorder.
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