Living with a "troubled" teenager......... Brat or Bipolar??(edited)

Okay I am not going to say I have all the answers because I don't but I just feel that this is something that needs to be said and if it helps one person then I have done what I needed to do.

I am a mum of a

Then one day he turned 14 and our whole life changed!!!! He quit school he quit soccer he started running around with ummmmm interesting girls started to cut himself to take the pain away!!!! hear voices and do things that my husband being an adrenillin junkie wouldn't even dream of doing. He would have extreme highs not sleeping for days and running around with his eyes hanging out of his head  and unbelievable lows where he would sleep for days not able to pull himself out of bed. He was out of control. I took him to the hospital and we saw many doctors looking for advice. Until Last Christmas holidays it was all too much for him and he stood in front of us and his 6 siblings with a stanley blade to his throat and said he had had enough. This would have to be one of the hardest times in all our lives I knew something was wrong with my son but I just couldnt get the help to find out what. That was the last straw but he was admitted into the mental health unit for 2 days and I was told by the shrink running in the public system at the time that he was a brat and he needed to be put away in a boys home so he could wake up to himself..... well apart from the fact I wanted to jump the desk and beat the living poop out of this woman I told her she doesn't know my son she has no idea and she should be ashamed to call herself a shrink. I complained to the hospital and got some more help for a second opinion because I was his mum and I knew this was not just teenage behaviour.

We saw a new psycholigist and she got all ours and his family history together talked to him and made an effort to know him and understand what he was saying and feeling. I liked her she was great. She then referred him on to another shrink to get a diagnosis as she too felt this was not just teeneage behaviour fianlly i had found some one that understood what i was trying to say. He was diagnosed with Bi polar disorder and post traumatic stress. This had all been triggered by a simple punch up that had happened and it just set the ball rolling. He is doing well now medicated but he has his ups and downs and his bouts of I am all better now so I do not need this medication and off he goes off it.  this medication does not cure this dis order it controls it more and makes him socially acceptable in the community.

What I am trying to say is to all you mums and dads out there If you believe that your teenager has made changes quickly and that they are not what you believe to be showing normal teenage behaviour dont let any one tell you they are just brats. We know our kids better than any one else we are their parents. If you think there is something really wrong and the person you see says there isnt then ask for a second opinion. Keep a diary of all the radical things that have been going on. Bi Polar is so seldomly picked up in teenagers as it is all put down to teenage behaviour but the sooner it is picked up the easier it is to control and the closer we might come to finding a cure for this cruel disorder.  I know teenagers can be a handful but we have all been there once and we know what can be looked at as flexing your teenage muscles and totally off the planet behaviour.

Cheers

Angie