Riding the Rollercoaster- Getting Started

No... this blog isn't about riding rollercoasters. It is the ride that you can get when raising a child with bipolar disorder. An believe me it is a monster of all rollercoasters. I am a single mother who is raising a child with bipolar disorder. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 5 years old. He has exhibited signs of the disorder since the tender age of 2 (possibly before that). We still have many adventures to go one since his only getting ready to celebrate his 9th birthday this May. The purpose of this blog is for me to mainly vent but also hope to connect with other persons like myself and hopefully share what I know and what I have learned over the past few years. I was watching Parenthood (the t.v show) and it dawned on me that there are a lot of us who maybe affected by this or similar disorders. The scenario was how when you first get the diagnosis and dealing with what you have to do, you find yourself apologizing to an older child who has somehow been pushed into the woodwork (I have a 16 year old who feels exactly that way).... so you apologize for them having a tough week only to have them tell you its been tough for a year or two. Looking back yeah, it's been tough on everyone. First hill... balancing out the lifestyle. Finding out what works and what won't. Picking your battles, minimize the causalities. Going down hill- you've realize at first there was a causality. It was just like in the show. I could hear my oldest son tell me... "yeah, he's always gotten to watch t.v in the living room and we've rearranged the bedroom so he can sleep on the right side of the room and we can only do small carnivals because he can't do large crowds." Yep, we have a whole list of does and don't. And I know it may seem like he's spoiled but he's not. It's about keeping peace and over the years (and according to his therapist) you need to learn to pick your battles and find ways to keep the explosions to a minimum. I was sitting down and talking to my friend the other day and she was talking about the problems that she has gone through with her son (who is TMR and has autistic tendencies)and there are all that our kids have in common. Little quirks that they have, things that they simply have to have. Even though my son is loud (at times) he doesn't like loudness especially loudness coupled with chaos and confusion. We still have a long way to go, but we're gonna get there. Somehow.