Bipolar disorder in child will
be suspected by health professionals
when they have symptoms much more extreme than adult onset bipolar. The
mood will be manifested by much more irritability for mood swings than
a manic adult would experience. It is seen as explosive irritability,
almost volcanic. Bipolar disorder in child will also be manifested
through grandiose measures. Children will think they can win in battles
with teachers, parents, and older children. They will believe they are
going to become celebrities, rock stars, or the President.
They will be
eager to show off their outstanding skill set and superior knowledge.
Bipolar disorder in child will also be expected when parents report
decreased sleep episodes that do not last longer than three or four
hours in a given day. You will also see extreme hyper talkativeness in
the manic state that is so severe you will not be able to interrupt the
child. The child will get out of breath and will not have enough time
to get a larger breath because their need to speak is so insistent.
Other symptoms of bipolar disorder in child include thoughts that are
racing or a fast pace of ideas in their head. The child will experience
extreme states of fantasy that will be difficult for them to follow or
even express to parents or authorities. The ideas are coming so fast
for them that the child can not express connections between this and
the last thought. This will in turn cause an excited state of
distraction during the manic phase of the disorder. They will be
distracted by the things that are racing in their heads and anything
that is around them. Bipolar disorder in child will disallow them from
sitting down to do his schoolwork for example when they are manic.
Parents will often describe their children as “climbing the walls”. The
older the child gets, the more dangerous these states are.
The diagnosis of bipolar disorder in child is so difficult because it
can often be linked to ADHD as ADHD has very many similarities with
ADHD. In bipolar disorder with child, there is not very often the range
of episodes, but a series of constant extreme mood swings. In short, a
doctor looking for bipolar disorder in child he or she should look for
the extreme mood swings and eliminate the ADHD factor before examining
the extreme swings. Otherwise the doctor is likely to miss a large
portion of bipolar disorder in child symptomology.