I've been upset at John Rosemond for saying that not getting toddler tantrums under control leads to a diagnosis of "bipolar." HUH!!!?????   My child was NOT given a diagnosis of bipolar due to tantrums!!!  It was due to having bipolar symptoms - barely sleeping for a month, depressions and finally paranoia, psychosis, and becoming suicidal!   GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

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"Naomi"
Older dd: formerly(?) teen-onset bipolar: After over 13 years - finally STABLE off meds for over a year! Treated: Sleep, Candida, food sensitivities, nutritional needs, low-ish thyroid hormone. Now fine on just the diet changes and higher thyroid levels.
Younger dd: formerly(?) Childhood-onset schizoaffective, TS, OCD with disabling migraines since infancy. Also off antipsychotic and meds for migraines. Stable - no hallucinations. Treated for multiple endocrine problems, food sensitivities, nutritional/mitochondrial needs, gut issues, sleep issues.

I too felt the same way about the episode. I ususally don't watch him, but I tuned in to this show. It was disappointing and hurtful to all us parents who have kids with a real illness. He makes it seem like we're the problem.

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Mom of 3 boys, the oldest (9 years) suffering with a "mood disorder". He is currently taking Tenex and Trileptal to help. Check out my blog at http://mysonhas2brains.blogspot.com/

I have watched one Dr. Phil episode, it was on parenting and disipline in general.  At the time, I did not recognize that my son had bp, but I knew he was difficult and I had tried many different "techniques".  But when Dr. Phil suggested that everything in the child's room be removed except for the mattress(and not for a safe zone either, just because the kid was a brat) I knew then and there not to waste my time watching Dr. Phil because the gap between what I found to be affective parenting and his ideal was just to wide!

I use to work in health care, and still know many ppl working in healthcare now, including family that is aware of our situation.  It eerks me to the core when they also think that a kid can not be diagnosed until they are 16!  And I love that people feel the need to share this with me, because my child isn't 16 he can't possibly be diagnosed with BP!!!  Grr is right!!  The source is usually a LPN of 30 years who works at a  nursing home for the elderly, and hasn't had a proper inservice years!!   Grr is right!!!

I can tell you this.  My daughter was just diagnosed and I've known she had something going on since I was pregnant with her.  My other 2 children barely cry - this one flies into full on rage if I don't have the cereal in the house she was thinking about.  I'm not parenting any of them differently - so something must be up.

I would love to have him drop by when shes in her anger mode and see how he would do things differently.  IMO he's just a cheuvanist jerk, but I do watch sometimes just for fun too.  And to mama's boy - when my girls were little we actually had nothing in their rooms but beds because they would play with toys instead of sleep.  A few times when she got angry she pulled all the sheets off their beds and threw them into the hall way and also took to ripping down the curtains.  She did it so often we had to take the shades off and put a tension bar up.  Who has to do these things??

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Mom to 3 girls the oldest, age 10, with "Mood Disorder, NOS" (aka Bipolar) specializing in her anxiety, OCD, ADD and Clinical Depression NOS (whatever that means). Current medications Lexapro 10mg and Lithium 150mg. Previous medications Paxil, Clonodine, Trileptal 600 mg and melatonin. Diagnosed MD in Feb, 2011

Dr. Phil, is definitely wrong, my daughter was diagnosed bipolar  at the age of nine. ,  she is now 17 years old and all those symptoms they talk about have existed since she was diagnosed.  When we moved, she refused to take her medications, and her mania and depression became worse to the point that she began to self-medicate with drugs. When she was young, she kicked walls for 4 hours at a time.  Her depression led to her being in her room for hours on end. Her irritability became so bad that we walked away from it.  She recently told her counselor and new psychiatrist that she can't sleep and that she has anxiety and holds in her irritability and anger, she is (beginning again with seroquel and lithium) which she was on when she was nine.  The counselor at her rehabilitation center once told me there is no such thing as a bipolar child or teen, now she believes that her being on the medication has helped somewhat.  Still, the counselor has yet to address self-help skills in helping her deal with her bipolar (when she is in her normal state).  If Dr. Phil thinks he can help then I suggest he go down to where my daughter is and teach them how to deal with her when she is in her "manic state" and noone there can reason with her.

 Mother of a 17 year old bipolar daughter on 900 mg. of lithium and 100 mg. of seroquel. 

My son who was very ill with BP from a very young age is now 20** and doing extremely well.  He is  stable and a freshman at  college.  In some ways he is ahead of many of his peers who are crashing and burning as they hit adult hood and realize they have not figured a lot of things out.  

** We had one doctor tell us our son had a severe case.  I am not so sure about that.  But our son was tricky to treat.  He was hypersensitive to medications.  He was not particularly verbal due to a language based LD, which made giving him therapy or getting him to talk about his moods was difficult.  

The other day my DH and I were reflecting on his success.  My husband said, "Do you think it all would of worked out anyways, even if we had done nothing?"  We paused and then both looked at each other and said, "No.  In fact I don't think we could of missed one step in the process.  Every piece made a difference from educational remediation, therapy, our search for a medication/supplement mixture that worked for him, and support when things were not going well.  

And looking back I know that if we had parented our son the way somebody like Dr Phil suggests a kid like him be parented he would not be where he is today, but instead would probably be totally dysfunctional and we would still be afraid of him and afraid of his moods and tantrums.  I know this because my SIL is in her late 40s and lives with my in-laws and the dynamics between them is not pretty.  Plus my SIL does not lead a very happy life and it is very upsetting to see.

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Jistac
Mother of 3 (21, 19, 16) with a variety of mental health issues. Been involved with using Empower as a treatment since 2003

I know this is a very old thread but I had to respond.  I saw one episode of Dr. Phil where the teenage girl's anger and other symptoms made me strongly think she was bipolar--chasing family members through the house with a baseball bat, drinking, etc.  I don't know for sure if she was or not, but it bothered me that the possibility of a mental health diagnosis never even came up.  Nothing seemed to be screened out, etc.

I also saw one episode of Super Nanny where the young son seemed clearly Bipolar.  Jo Frost seemed shaken by the way the child attacked his mother.  Even after all of her usually effective behavioral interventions, things had improved a tiny bit but not completely by a long shot.  I think that is a good show usually (although the techniques would not work on my daughter by a long shot), but I was taken aback that in this case there was no screening/forwarding to a mental health professional.  There was something clearly pathological occurring with the child...

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Jennie (37) depression treated effectively with lexapro
Husband (58)
daughter Alison (14)
Bipolar I with episodes of psychosis; Oppositional Defiant Disorder
lithium, depakote, zyprexa, zoloft

I saw either the same or a very similar Supernanny and too was struck by no recommendation for a psych eval.  I felt like it did such a disservice to the family and to viewers.  

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Mary, 51, single working mom to Ben, age 17 , who keeps me positive with his sense of humor, and to Ana, age 12, adopted from Guatemala as an infant, recently diagnosed with mood disorder, nos, and GAD. Clonidine for sleep and a slowly increasing dose of abilify.