I sincerely think my little sister is bipolar, but no one will listen to me?!
Question: I've looked up symptoms and have been doing so for a while. She can go from being so loving one minute to violent the next. She has extremely low self esteem, she's only 8 and already spends hours in the bathroom while crying about being "fat." She'll be super hyper one day and just want to sleep the next. She's impossible to get up in the mornings, she'll scream and yell, hitting people and calling us all names.She's always super aggressive. We've tried every kind of discipline thinkable, none of it has worked. Just a few minutes ago she was laying beside me and I was showing her pictures of my friends on the computer and we were having fun. She had a sudden mood swing and decided I was "stupid and too ugly to even have friends" before throwing some of my stuff and stomping out. She's very irritable, one wrong thing and she'll attack you. She has an extreme social phobia called selective mutism. It runs in the family, my dad, brother, two uncles, and biological grandfather all have bipolar disorder. My mom and I both have clinical depression, and I have anxiety if it helps. She has more of the symptoms, I just didn't have room to list them all. What do you think?
Answers: I've looked up symptoms and have been doing so for a while. She can go from being so loving one minute to violent the next. She has extremely low self esteem, she's only 8 and already spends hours in the bathroom while crying about being "fat." She'll be super hyper one day and just want to sleep the next. She's impossible to get up in the mornings, she'll scream and yell, hitting people and calling us all names.She's always super aggressive. We've tried every kind of discipline thinkable, none of it has worked. Just a few minutes ago she was laying beside me and I was showing her pictures of my friends on the computer and we were having fun. She had a sudden mood swing and decided I was "stupid and too ugly to even have friends" before throwing some of my stuff and stomping out. She's very irritable, one wrong thing and she'll attack you. She has an extreme social phobia called selective mutism. It runs in the family, my dad, brother, two uncles, and biological grandfather all have bipolar disorder. My mom and I both have clinical depression, and I have anxiety if it helps. She has more of the symptoms, I just didn't have room to list them all. What do you think?
Wow....that's a lot of detail....and thank you for that. What we typically deal with in the emergency medical field is KNOWN bipolar situations. We do have anti-depressant drugs we may use, but it has to fit with what their already taking. It's very rare for us to have to diagnose a problem such as that, but your sister is showing a number of indicators of that disorder. Unfortunately it's mostly a life long problem, but very well controlled with proper medication. Your further details may reveal more of the typical symptoms of bipolar.
Based on what you've said she should see a doctor for evaluation as soon as she can...Medication usually takes several weeks to begin to work. What a change it makes. There's nothing wrong with knowing what you have.
The sooner one knows, the sooner really good treatment options can be prescribed.
A real manic episode can be diagnosed if three or more of the symptoms exist most of the day. every day for two weeks or more. It this has happened it's time for her to see a psychiatrist. Now I don't mean by saying that, that it means anything but being evaluated. A psychiatrist is the doctor that makes that diagnoses.
Bipolar typically starts when you've very young and it is a brain related affection.
You can take the lead here by taking notes of everything you think she's going through that may be related to a manic event. Regardless of weather you think it fits or not, write it down, with dates and time of day. You need to start this right away. It will be useful for the doctor to see your notes. Let him or her decide what's useful and what's not...
Your sister may need some medical help....you can help her by taking these notes and get your mom to make an appointment..
Remember as always...you can't treat anything until you know what it is....Don't guess with this Ms.Broken Doll. Do it for you and your sister.
Keep me posted if you want. I'll give you all the information I can about this...
Charlie c.
talk to a teacher or couselor then.
tell your sister.. tell a doctor.. tell one of your sister's friends.. tell someone you trust that your parents would believe if they told them
It has, unfortunately, become en vogue to diagnose people with Bipolar depression.
Your sister may very well suffer from it. I would urge you to take her to see a doctor for a proper diagnosis to be made.
It is highly probable that she does indeed suffer from Bipolar disorder- and, IMO, there are other dynamics at play here as well. It is extremely difficult to ascertain what may be going on. It could be numerous things. It could be Borderline personality disorder, schizo-affective disorder, or Bipolar, and possibly a mood disorder as well.
Co-morbidity is very common in people with mental illness, so it is probably an amalgamation of a few disorders working at once.
Good luck. Take care.
I think you should get you little sister to a naturopath/homeopath straight away!!