Comments on: A Scary Bipolar Child Story

By: nyxpooka

nyxpooka — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:21:15 +0000

That is a story about an autistic child. Omg…the lining up cars, the sensory issues with the grass….textbook…wow…where are these people from! They obviously dont have a clue. (I have a son with autism, by the way.)

By: Stan Rosenberg

Stan Rosenberg — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:44:52 +0000

He does have some wacko ideas. However, the central theme for me is questioning the prescription of stimulants to children.

By: Very Concerned

Very Concerned — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:20:43 +0000

I usually don’t agree with Gina Pera on anything but she is right to rant about Peter Breggin. That man is as dangerous as Gina!

By: Stan Rosenberg

Stan Rosenberg — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:26:45 +0000

Agreed, Dr. Grohol. Peter Breggin was an excellent introductory source about ADHD.

By: The Bipolar Child, Part I: Reactions « depression introspection

The Bipolar Child, Part I: Reactions « depression introspection — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:17:32 +0000

[...] John Grohol at PsychCentral writes, “We’re always happy to see a human interest story such as Max’s in a mainstream magazine, but we do wish the reporter worked harder to present a more balanced picture of this issue (and the controversy surrounding the diagnosis of this adult disorder in children).” [...]

By: John M Grohol PsyD

John M Grohol PsyD — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:02:41 +0000

Gina, mental disorders are not 100% genetic. Even those we believe to most strongly genetically influenced, like schizophrenia, don’t show 100%. And if you need to understand what that percentage risk actually means, I recommend reading this entry over at Mind Hacks:

http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/07/80_genetic_20_pol.html

“What it means is that 80% of the variance in the measured illness was explained by genetic factors in the specific group that was studied.”

And you misread — I did not quote Peter Breggin. I suggested readers read an article he wrote. Why? Because you need to be well read to even begin to comprehend the complexities of mental disorders. These are not black and white issues and are not conducive to black and white thinking about them.

Seriously, diagnosing children at age 2 with any kind of mental illness (outside of some very specific childhood disorders, like autism) is just plain ridiculous. I don’t care who’s doing it.

By: Gina Pera

Gina Pera — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:36:13 +0000

“first-time parents,” John?

How about parents who share the brain disorders they have passed down to their children? Behavior isn’t everything. Beneath behavior often lies a …… brain! Fancy that!

By: Gina Pera

Gina Pera — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:35:10 +0000

Argh, John. You’re quoting Peter Breggin????

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:04:40 +0000

I think that some children are definlety more extreme than others, but I also think some could just be lack of boredom or the children not being dispicined. ITs important to find out what the child needs before jumping to conclusions of bipolar and so forth.. If you tried everything and nothing works well maybe.. I had a very hyper active girl who was instanly bored of everything very young.. She learned very quickly and rarley ever played with toys and threw temper trantums like you wouldn’t belive. ONe time she threw she threw everything all over the place in her room even her matress upside down because she was angry at just two years old. She could go from 8 in the morning to 12 at night and still be hyper. She never took naps. What I found works with these types of children is activies outside the home I got her in dancing sports and always took her places , walks, park etc.. Its alot of work to keep these children happy and it can be exhausting but if you find what works with them, things that they enjoy it really does work.. SHe is older now, 5 much more behaved She still has trouble getting to bed early and is frequenlty late for school but she loves reading and is doing great in school and is a very happy child. SHe still needs extra activites outside of school to get her happy and tired out and she still tires me out. lol : )

By: RB

RB — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:01:40 +0000

My husband wasn’t diagnosed with Bipolar I until his late 20s, but by talking with him and his parents, he’s probably had Bipolar symptoms since birth. He certainly had depression virtually his entire childhood with a break (stable mood) for a couple years in college before the manic-depressive cycles began. We met during his stable period, but it became clear within a few years, that he had a mood disorder and was finally diagnosed correctly just recently.

I agree, diagnosing Bipolar during childhood is such a new area in psychology that we really can’t jump to any conclusions. Did my husband have bipolar as a young child, and just hadn’t had a manic episode yet, or was it truly only unipolar depression? If it was unipolar depression, did that predispose him to bipolar or was it coincidence? We really need many more studies on these types of situations.

By: nichole

nichole — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:35:58 +0000

Hey Doc,

Until you have actually lives with a child with BP….please, do not judge his family! We suffer just as the child does!

By: pregnancy and gas

pregnancy and gas — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:26:01 +0000

[...] [...]

By: enyatwo

enyatwo — Thu, 29 May 2008 05:23:33 +0000

I haven’t heard of doctors blaming parents, but being a child of a particular parent I agree that parents can perpetuate and cause certain behaviors of children. Unfortunately, not all parents have the best interest in mind for their children and make choices that do not benefit the child. I know this as fact as I have experienced this with one of my parents (who likes to medicalize/ diagnose/ label–basically find the bad and the negative of someone). Yes, it is easy to blame parents or others, but since I am a person with LD & ADD I have seen actions and decsions made with the parents’ interests in mind…not the childs. So, I agree, most definately, family dynamics is a large factor (it is easy to blame the child and see the child as “the problem” because they aren’t quote, end-quote, normal).

Amen Austraila. Let’s let children BE, just BE, instead of labeling. For some reason society likes labels. As I am currently writing a book, I offer my experiences of a child/adult with LD & ADD that might alter perspectives and ideally alleviate the need to label.

I am not sure where self-efficacy fits in to Max’s story, but from my experience I see opportunites as challenges to face instead of avoid. I don’t quit when things are hard. I am resilient, persist and eventually learn. Does this mean I have high-efficacy?

In my professional career, when it comes to certain things I don’t believe I can perform well, specifically when responsibilites/tasks are new or I am unsure of “the big picture”. This is low self-esteem, derived from an inaccurate self-perception. This is seperate from self-efficacy, right?

By: Kazul

Kazul — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:39:36 +0000

Wow, great article!!! Would you mind checking out mine and leave a comment telling me what you think? It’s here: http://brainblogger.com/2008/05/27/the-bipolar-trend/
Thanks!!!

By: John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

John M. Grohol, Psy.D. — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:25:07 +0000

Peter, you make some excellent points, especially about the “medicalization” of these childhood behaviors. Kevin’s note that these are often behavioral issues that can be dealt with, well, behaviorally, is important too. Not to blame parents, but many (especially first-time) parents simply have little parenting skills and believe all children should just “behave” naturally or instinctually.

I also came across this response from Peter Breggin to the Newsweek piece on the Huffington Post, which I thought makes for an interesting read:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/psychiatry-makes-war-on-b_b_103337.html