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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mindinggaps" data-source="post: 765875" data-attributes="member: 29823">[USER=3305]@lovemysons[/USER] Thanks for sharing you story. From a treatment perspective, you bring up a very important point which everyone should know - SSRIs cannot be used to safely treat bipolar in isolation, they must be combined with mood stabilizers. For parents who have young children struggling with behavior issues, this is something they should keep in mind since SSRIs, particularly Prozac and Zoloft are still used a first line treatment for children displaying signs of ODD. For many kids, like myself, they work absolute wonders but in some cases they actually make things much worse and this can in fact be a very sign that the child may have bipolar.[USER=18958]@Copabanana[/USER] I am grateful to have received excellent treatment and support at an early age and my parents definitely did their best, just like you did. I feel that the situation with your son was more challenging in many ways. When issues appear early in life it can be devastating for parents, however, the advantage is that there is much more time to try to achieve balance, find treatment that works and build in things like medication compliance from a young age. Your son did not have issues until much later, which is very hard - once symptoms appear in teens there is very little time to course correct, adolescents can be resistant to treatment and things going wrong can have worse consequences. When parents post here feeling hopeless that there young child is out of control, I always encourage them to look on the bright side - you have time to solve the problem and early intervention can make a huge difference for longer term outcomes. You did not have this opportunity with your son.One of the main reasons I have succeeded in life is certainly due to medication, but I think it's easier to achieve compliance in young children compared to adolescents. I was first medicated with liquid Prozac at age 4 - it was not an option, it was added to the beverage I consumed at breakfast, which was encouraged by the psychiatrist. The results were astounding. Prior to medication I was violent, had extreme meltdowns, would try to run away and could not be around other children. With an appropriate dosage, I was largely symptom free and integrated in with my peers. The most important point though was that I personally felt much better - I could control my emotions and felt better on the medication. I hated missing doses and so from an early age, I understood that medication could help me and allow me to succeed. I was able to develop trust that those administering medication were doing so to help me. As I grew, the dosage of liquid Prozac was gradually increased and by the time I was old enough to be a part of the process, I already understood the importance of medication and how/when things needed to be adjusted. I do believe this is something that is easier to achieve early in life. By the time children become adolescents, getting them to have a positive view is much harder. It is akin in some ways to children with diabetes - they know they need insulin from a young age and those treated early can understand their medications are necessary for survival.</blockquote>

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