Heard this piece on NPR this morning that about 1 million kids have been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. No surprise there. I’ve been a skeptic for years of all these new labels and diseases created in meetings by drug companies so they can get more people to take drugs…so hearing this is no shock. I wonder if more people might start to listen? Regardless, this article makes me feel good about the choices I have made.

Children Labeled 'Bipolar' May Get A New Diagnosis

Interesting points from the article:

  • …many of the kids now categorized as bipolar were, once upon a time, diagnosed as having conduct disorder.
  • Since the mid-1990s, the number of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder has increased a staggering 4,000 percent.
  • Another advantage to the bipolar label, Gabrielle Carlson, a child psychiatrist at Stony Brook University points out, is that the insurance industry saw bipolar as a biological or medical problem, while conduct disorder was seen more as a parenting problem, so insurance companies were reluctant to reimburse for it.
  • "If you've got something that says it's not a medical problem," says Carlson, insurance is not going to pay for it. "Conduct disorder is bad parenting, lousy environment, poor supervision, you're a bad seed. It ain't a medical problem. Bipolar they'll pay for."
  • Finally, Carlson argues, parents themselves were relieved on some level. Because this set of behaviors was no longer seen as conduct disorder, the psychiatrist sitting across the desk from them was no longer blaming them for the terrible things that were happening to their child.
  • "Part of the acceptance of the bipolar if you're a parent is, 'Hey I'm off the hook on this one. It's not 'cause I'm a bad parent, I've just got this kid with a genetic problem. It's not my fault,' " says Carlson. "You know, there's some pros and cons to that, but the fact remains many people found that liberating."

 

I know what she is talking about–that sense of relief a parent has when they get a "reason" for what is happening–something that explains why this ain't going like Ozzie and Harriet…because I looked for a long time for something—a name—that was plaguing my son because I was being pushed from various angles to admit something was wrong. He’s wild. He doesn’t focus. He’s hyper. He doesn’t sit in his seat. He talks too much (wonder where he gets that from?).

Thank goodness, it finally hit me…ONE–I have to work REALLY hard to be a good parent. We're not just born to be good parents. And TWO, those things are not “wrong.” They are things that kids do. When I tell him to stop doing those things…he often throws a temper tantrum. Does that make him sick? Heck no, it’s not fun but in our opinion, not worthy of powerful anti-psychotic drugs that alter his personality and does God knows what to his little growing body.

Anyhoo, every parent has to judge for themselves–WE are the ones who know our children best. But I do recommend not walking in a door and simply trusting a professional without doing your homework. Despite the fact that we know every child is different we are living in a time when we are seeing children lumped in and labeled as if they’re all the same with the same issues. We shouldn’t need an NPR article to tell us that is just not the case. As parents, we have a responsibility to read and question everything and advocate for our children before we allow someone to stigmatize them with a label that in a few years someone will come back and say…oops, our bad because it’s a little late then. At that point…damage has been done.

:) t