Hi Kim ... Does your son already recognize the difficulties he has in certain areas? 

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Shelle - 49 in SoCal. Celexa 30mg and 0.5 Xanax as prn
Single Mom to Rachel - 12. BP, anxiety. Lamictal 300mg + 50mg Seroquel in the am; 100mg Seroquel in the pm. 7th Grade/Therapeutic School
We also have Birdie the love bird - she bites, and Pepper the kitty - she does too

Family Helpline Volunteer - rmadmom@hotmail.com
The Balanced Mind Foundation - Bringing Hope Home
www.thebalancedmind.com

Yes. Very much so. He has a behavioral plan at school. And works with the school counselor and the district behavior interventionist on a regular basis.

OK, this is what I told my 12-y/o daughter. I told her when she found an article I had been reading about bipolar, and she asked me if I was reading it because she was bipolar. I said yes, very casually, and then explained ...

Imagine that everyone has two bumps, one on each side of their brain. Now imagine that your bumps are a little bit bigger than everyone else's. That explains why when you get angry, you get angrier than most; when you get sad, you cry more than others; and when you get really really happy, you get way sillier and more clumsy than others. That's what's going on with you. And it's hard for others to understand because they don't know why you act that way. They don't know you're not the one controlling those actions. This is where the medicine comes in. The medicine helps to bring those bumps closer to the size of everyone else's. It helps you to have more control over your emotions and actions.

She was pretty accepting of all that, is not ashamed that she has bipolar, and does not resist her meds like she used to when we thought it was ADHD and the meds didn't feel right to her. It helped too that Demi Lovato had expressed in an article that she was glad she'd found treatment and wished she had known about her illness sooner. But I doubt that will have the same effect on an 8-year-old boy :)

Good luck!

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Shelle - 49 in SoCal. Celexa 30mg and 0.5 Xanax as prn
Single Mom to Rachel - 12. BP, anxiety. Lamictal 300mg + 50mg Seroquel in the am; 100mg Seroquel in the pm. 7th Grade/Therapeutic School
We also have Birdie the love bird - she bites, and Pepper the kitty - she does too

Family Helpline Volunteer - rmadmom@hotmail.com
The Balanced Mind Foundation - Bringing Hope Home
www.thebalancedmind.com

Thank you Shelle. That was very helpful.

Kabog71,

I gave my son little bits of information as he was willing to accept it.  I found that he really didn't seem to be very interested.  When an opportunity presented itself, I would ask him questions about how he was feeling and explain a little bit about why he was feeling like that in a way he would understand it.  I found the best opportunities to be after a  med change because I needed him to tell me if anything had changed for him (side effects).  I started to ask if he notieced differences in his mood based on periods of time, like before he started Abilify compared with after he started it.  Often times he seemed disinterested in the information I had was giving him, but I persisted.  His tdoc had told me to tell him when he asked about it, but my fear was he would never ask.  Eventually he would ask a question or two if I had already brought it up.  This was a slow process that ended up taking about a year to get to the point he understood he has problems with his moods being out of his control.

This past summer a family friend was over and was asking him how his summer was, how was baseball going, was he excited for football to start, ect.  She summed up her questions by saying "It sounds like everything is going pretty good for you."  His reply was, "Yes it is, but I do have problems with my mood switching a lot and sometimes the moods aren't good."  We were both very impressed that he was able to voluntarily explain to someone what was happening with himself in a very matter-of-fact way with no shame.

You know your son the best.  Don't be afraid to talk to him about it, he probably already understand that things are differnt for him compared to others.  Be positive about it when you talk to him.  I was afraid if my son overheard me talking to others about his mental illness but I wasn't talking to him about it, that would make him feel like it was something to be ashamed of.  

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Betsy
Adam - son - 10 yrs old - Mood Disorder NOS R/O Bipolar - 200 mg Lamictal, 2 mg Guanfacine, 10 mg Prozac
5th grade public school with IEP
Daughter - 18 - Starting college
Husband - doing MUCH better with Adam
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin