Raising Bipolar

Well, we now know that there is too much of a good thing.

At our last psychiatrist visit we collectively decided to bump up Rye’s Depakote a bit in hopes of eliminating the need for the occasional use of Seroquel.  I’m not a bit fan of the atypical antipsychotics and Rye’s psychiatrist feels its optimal not to use them unless really necessary.  They have a lot of side effects (some of which can become permanent disabilites and permanent metabolism issues), a lot of pending and settled law suits, their long term effects are not well studied for use in children and teens and well they are all-in-all a bit creepy (personal opinion).  Of course, if you really need them and nothing else works for what ails you, they are a Godsend.  And we’ve been on both sides of the fence here and we still are riding that fence.  But anyway…

We bumped the Depakote up.  Just a bit.  And a few days later emerged a child that had no resemblance to my son.  This one was cranky, irritable, disoriented, confused and slow as molasses.   Slow like he had been hit upside the head by a 2×4.  He displayed no smiles, no jokes, no silliness,  and everything – and I mean everything – was overwhelming to him.  And confusing.

It was scary.  And creepy.  To say the least.

The final culmination came after a long day of him being nothing like his normal self.  We decided to go see a movie and while deciding what candy to get before the movie he could not remember what any of the candies were.  Now you can imagine what a strange experience this was standing at the candy counter with him asking me to describe every type of candy, all of which he has had many times before.  ‘Mom, what are Crunch bites?  What are Butterfinger bites?  What are Sweetarts?’ And it’s not easy to describe Sweetarts.  Try it sometime.

But most of all I felt sorry for him.  Terribly bad.  It was really horrible to watch.  And I can’t even imagine what it must have felt like to be him.

Luckily we caught it early, after only a few days, and knew right what it was becasue  that is the only med he is on on a consistent day-to-day basis. So we lowered the dose back down and he is back to his perky self again.

Whew.

We use the Seroquel sparingly (because this has its own issues for him even at 1/2 of a 25 mg tablet).  And we now know where the Depakote line is for now.

And I’m glad to have my perky, capable son back.