Bipolar?

I'm sorry for your frustration! That doesn't sound remotely "fun" at all.I don't know much about bi-polar but bumping up so some of our later morning members will see and have an idea.

I'm sorry! That sounds really hard to deal with. My guess (my child doesn't have a bipolar disorder, but several members of my family do) is that she would NOT be able to control it at school. But something is clearly going on for her. My 5-year-old son also has some really challenging behaviors - hitting, scratching, biting, raging. Have you noticed any particular triggers in your daughter's case? Any patterns? I know that when things got bad for my son at school, he still held it together reasonably well there, but had lots of anxiety in the morning before school and huge tantrums after school. He just had no reserves by the end of the day - he had held it together as long as he could manage - and we got the brunt of it at home. Maybe that is also true of your daughter and it is costing her a lot to be "good" all day at school, so she falls apart when she gets home. We did a full screening with a developmental neuropsychologist who diagnosed our son with emotional dysregulation. But the screening also covered other potential mental health concerns and ruled out many other things. For us this was very helpful and our son has recently started working with a therapist. I would definitely ask for some type of assessment. I hope you get some answers and some help!

I wonder if it might be RAD or attachment issues??? These children are amazing at not allowing the "outside world" to see their negative behaviours. The are usually sweet and charming to strangers, yet treat the important people in their lives terribly. My oldest daughter suffers from attachment issues. She would never dream of behaving at school like she does at home. I'm sure they think we are crazy. lol I don't even try to explain it to teachers anymore. I tried to explain it to her first grade teacher (who is also an adoptee), but it was lost on her, too. lol

i have a son who is bipolar. he could control much of his behavior at school. he does it now at work. he would kind of bottle up everything and let it rip at home. it was a nightmare. what continues to work best for him is extreme physical exhaustion. he chose work where he would be able to burn off so much energy that he is too tired to respons to the buzz in his head. he refuses all meds now. he is 25, so it's his choice.he also has adhd and ODD. combine the three and wowie kazowie.have you asked about ODD? you need to find a p-doc who is willing to look at conduct disorders as well as attachment disorders. one can be medicated, the other not. medication, however, is only a tool to help manage the behaviors, they don't fix it. please call your family doc and begin the process of finding out the truth behind these behaviors. it could be anything and you need to know.

My daughter has tested positive for slightly elevated ODD. I also wonder if she could have FAS (our doctor thought it was a "bad label" to put on my daughter, but I need to know what is wrong with her). The therapist we saw did not think she had attachment issues, RAD or ADHD. She thought perhaps some PTSD. I don't think the therapist really believed me anyway, so I don't trust her judgment. My daughter is an ANGEL at school and also in front of the therapist. She very often will come over and hug me or kiss me while we are talking with teachers, doctors or therapists. Yesterday at home, she hit and tried to bite my older daughter and then threatened to hit me and my older daughter with her crutch (she uses crutches due to the cerebral palsy). Any psychologist/therapist will have to believe what I say because they will never see that side of her. I have a recommendation for a psychologist and will call for an appointment. I don't want to medicate her, but at this point it's getting completely out of hand and we cannot live like this anymore. Thank you everyone for your help!

you might consider whipping out your cell phone or tablet or other device and recording the behavior to show the therapist. my son was a very good manipulator and flat out liar when in the throws of his illness. thank God for the single p-doc who told me that what i said had "the ring of truth" to it--the one before him believed any and every word that came out of Sonny's mouth--including the ones about how he was evilly abused! visual evidence does a world of good. and for youngest RAD kiddo? stops his antics cold when he sees the camera!

This is how a child with RAD or attachment issues act. They will rarely allow anyone else to see the negative behaviour. They are all sweet and compliant when there are others around. Not many get RAD/attachment issues...even some psychologists don't get it. When I take my daughter to the doctor, she acts way different. I can't even explain it...even her voice changes to all soft/sweet, etc. She acts whatever way she thinks they want her to act.

The therapist didn't think that my daughter had any attachment issues. I don't think she has any clue what RAD is - I know the pediatrician had never heard of it! The therapist commented that my daughter certainly seemed attached to me. From what I understand, if my daughter has RAD, it doesn't mean that she isn't attached to me. It means that she didn't attach to her caregiver when she was a baby. My daughter was in an orphanage for over a year and I believe she was neglected. Is my understanding correct? I am comparing symptoms of various things (ODD, ADHD, RAD, etc.) and she has all the signs of ODD, but not as many of the signs of RAD. The social worker at school is going to give me some psychologist suggestions, so hopefully she can refer me to someone who specializes in attachment disorders. She was very reassuring and said that it's very common for children to have behavior issues at home but not at school. Thank you everyone. Please let me know if you have any additional advice.

My ad has mild cp and some other medical issues and behaves exactly as your daughter does. Everyone thinks I'm crazy cause she's so good for everyone else. I think hers stems from being tired by the end of the day. She also gets frustrated really easily,a nd I think she feels safe enough at home to let it out. She has a lot of sensory aversions that she's able to control at school, but I think at home she's able to finally release all the tension. My daughter came to us at 5 weeks old and adopted at 18 months. There are no attachment issues involved with us. She's 6 now.