Never Ending Ride

The whole purpose for starting this blog was to show my life living with a child who has bipolar disorder coupled with ODD (oppositional defiant disorder)/ADD. I also suspect autistic tendencies with him, but that is undiagnosed. He has a whole list of likes and dislikes, more dislikes than like. I wanted to blog everyday about my adventures or should I say misadventures with him. Little did I know that my blog wouldn’t be a blog, but a small 3 entry journal, that I wouldn’t have time to blog because I am too busy dealing with the life of dealing with him. I called this blog riding the roller coaster because that’s exactly what you get. Twists, turns, and loop da loops…. Some times the roller coaster runs smoothly and sometime it breaks down. Right now we are broke down. The parts are on order and the shipping date has not been announced and really don’t know when they will be shipped. Hell, they might even be on back order. The coaster is a good coaster, it’s one of kind. The “conductor” is brilliant beyond reproach and he knows it. He keeps the coaster cloaked, you will not see the first hill, you will not know how fast you will go, where the hard turns are or where that damn loop is. The “conductor” will tear down the track and rebuild to keep you on your toes. He is the best roller coaster maker in the world. All that I have asked was for some straight tracks, a few miles of smooth sailing at least for a little while.

I know as a parent of any child we all have our roller coasters to ride on and we all wish for the log flume instead of a roller coaster but that’s what being a parent is all about. It is different when dealing with a child who has bipolar disorder. And actually, we have the medication for the bipolar disorder down and right now it’s working. He has changed so much. God, I remember the days of temper tantrums, throwing things, hell even throwing himself on the ground in a rage. The old him was quick to fight. He’s not a bad child, he just makes bad decisions. I have tried to instill in him to make smart choices and to think before he does something. The problem we are having now is dealing with the ODD. My running “joke” is yes, he is oppositional, and yes, he is defiant and boy, does it cause disorder! It causes so much disorder. Tension. Boy is there a lot of tension. It’s like opposite day, permanent edition.

Today we got a call for his in school counselor, she wants us to work with the school a bit more in making him compliant. Work with? Really? Of course you get the “this is what you can do… or maybe you can try this…..” Really? Really? She is new to the school and wants him to do exactly what she wants him to do when she wants him to do it. Compliant. Really? Really? A child with ODD? You weren’t expecting any OPPOSITON at all? No DEFIANT behavior? Okay, I get it yes, we want all the little children to behave themselves, to be perfect and just to do what we say, when we say it. Perfect. Yes, we want perfect children. If we exclude the fact that he had ODD at some point in time aren’t all children defiant? Aren’t we greeted at some point with opposition? I think so. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.


I wish things could run smoothly but they don’t. There is a lot of insecurity with him. I tell him he needs to be his own star. He needs to learn to shine. There’s a lot to shine about. The hardest thing for him to do is to communicate how he is feeling or what he is feeling. He completely shuts down and everything comes to a halt. I don’t know how to get him to open up or to communicate. We have tried sticker charts (when he was younger), rewards, hell even money. But when he gets in one of those “I don’t care” moods. Forget it. Your loss.

Right now, we have to go back to the meds therapist and possibly start counseling again. Yes, I said again, ‘cuz after a while you come to a cross road where you get released from counseling. It’s a never ending roller coaster.