Bipolar?

Dakota had another one of those out of control episodes before school last Thursday. The new medications he was taking was out of his system at this point. He was screaming and crying again. He was saying that school was a bad, bad place. I had to ride along with John to hold Dakota's arms so he wouldn't unbuckle himself on the way to school. He was determined he wasn't going to school, and had to be dragged inside. At this point, we were late again. We went into the office and asked if Dakota could talk with the school counselor (she helped to calm Dakota down last time). The counselor was busy though, so the receptionist said that she would have her come talk with Dakota a little later – though I later found out that she never came and talked with him. While we were there in the office, Mikayla farted really loud. It was so embarrassing. She didn't seem the least bit embarrassed about it, but everyone in the office heard. Anyway, I walked Dakota up to his classroom and talked with his teacher for a minute. By that time, Dakota had calmed down.

After I got back home, something told me to do research about children with Bipolar. John and I really think that's what he has. There are a lot of symptoms of Bipolar disorder in children that I never realized went along with that. Here are some of the common symptoms of it that Dakota has:

• Rages & explosive temper tantrums
• Marked irritability
• Separation anxiety
• Distractibility
• Silliness, goofiness
• Depressed mood
• Low self-esteem
• Oversensitivity to emotional or environmental triggers
• Difficulty getting up in the morning
• Bed-wetting
• Obsessional behavior
• Excessive daydreaming
• Compulsive behavior
• Learning disabilities
• Poor short-term memory
• Lack of organization
• Fascination with gore or morbid topics
• Paranoia
• Headaches

I called and talked with Dakota's behavioral doctor in Omaha. Apparently Bipolar disorder isn't her expertise and she told me to find a Pediatric Psychiatrist. She didn't even refer me to anyone. She just told me to find someone in my area. I looked online and found a couple in St. Joe. The man had bad reviews and the woman had good reviews. I called the woman's office and the receptionist told me that the Psychiatrist makes her own appointments and sent me to her voice mail. I left a message, but she never called me back (that was Thursday). On Friday, I called Dr. Watson's office here in Maryville. This is Dakota's regular doctor – the one that referred us to the woman in Omaha. I left a message with the nurse, hoping they could refer us to somebody. I want somebody good, and I want it to be a woman. Dakota seems more comfortable talking with women for some reason. I still haven't heard back from them either.

Today, I called to make an appointment with a counselor here in town. I am hoping that counseling might help Dakota. He doesn't tell me or John anything that happens during his day though, or how he is feeling – so I don't know if he will talk with a counselor but it's worth a shot. I called and was told that since Dakota is a new patient, somebody would have to call me back tomorrow. Seriously, if I don't get called back I'm gonna go crazy. I'm sick of dealing with all this stuff. We've known for years that something is different with Dakota – we just haven't been able to pinpoint it exactly. I feel that there is more than one issue going on here. The behavioral doctor in Omaha has him diagnosed with Anxiety and Semantic Pragmatic Disorder (a language disorder). I agree with this – the language disorder causes him to not fully understand phrases that people use and he has trouble understanding when someone is being serious or joking. There have been other issues going on that seem to be getting worse – and I think the Bipolar disorder may explain the other things that are going on.