Dr. Raison's advice to shield a child who is at risk from bipolar disorder from "environmental adversity" by avoiding chronic and destructive stress, and to provide healthy physical and psychological environments, is good advice for any child. Sadly, an at-risk child often has a parent with a mental illness, so stressors may be built into the family environment. Still, whatever can be done to reduce stress in the life of a child is worth doing whether the child is at risk, not at risk, or already has bipolar disorder or another mental illness.
Dr. Raison closes by saying, "Nonetheless, if it were my child and I saw clear warning signs of bipolar disorder, I would bring the child into psychiatric treatment immediately and not hesitate to use medications if my doctor thought they were indicated." If family history indicates your child is at-risk for developing bipolar disorder, make sure you know the warning signs of childhood bipolar disorder.
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i think that there is a fine line of bipolar disorder and ptsd
it may just be the same thing. the differents is that ptsd is said to be induce. and bipolar is hereditary. if to think that a persons parents is mentally ill family life doese play a role possibly on inducing bipolar or ptsd it upon up bringing.
i think that bipolar disorder or ptsd is not always a bad thing. it should be used like a tool. a hammer is a good example. if you let it, it will weigh you down and wear you out. but used with proper technique its can smash any obsticle or wall. or like a knife it if sharpen and if well maintained it can save your life in any survival situation. i think that if it is coused by environmental adversitys it is unpreventable becouse that is life. we cant put our children in glass jar and hope to never let them see the real world. but embrace the fact that we or our child may be bipolar and just treat them as human with discapline and maintnace any thing can be fixed. bipolar poeple are really not any different from some one who doesent have it. some poeple just want to use bipolar disorder as a excuse to do what they want. i am bipolar i dont think i think differently then other. but poeple has drawn an ugly picture for bipolar poeple. i think the biggest problem i had with my bipolar is lack of guidance i am always asking what next. when i was in the military i always wanted things to be perfect and in order it was a good drive. in the military everthing is written out and is easy to find and answer. but poeple who who werent bipolar and have the drive to make things the way it was supposed be wouldnt understand found it odd and strange. being bipolar can be a gift and every one just have to understand that. becouse poeple lable bipolar as bad i have alot of my life limited to what kind of job i can have and what i can own, and have never hurt myself or any one in my life. if i were to have a kid that was bipolar i would be proud. i would know if i guided them correctly they would have the drive to do great things for the world becouse of it. i sometime think about myself and my bipolar disorder and what make it so hard is that i believe anything is possible anything as long as we believe. doctor tell me that is part of my bipolar. but any one in history know that normal people do normal things and great poeple do strange and weird things and what made it so hard for great poeple to do anything great is someone normal is standing in there way
I think it is a positive that all mentall illnesses are now being discussed in the public forum however it is too late for us adults who now have the only choice of maintaining some sort of semblence. For those parents with a mental illness that pass it onto their children I feel it would be an uphill battle keeping yourself and the child mentally together. With the cost of private advice sky rocketing and the Public Mental Health System in Australia on a slow decline I don’t envy any younger sufferers of any condition these days.
How does this illness affect a pregnacy?
i dont think that it will effect pregnacy other than mood swings. with come with pregnancy anyway. just make sure you meds are ok too. most dr told me that bp usually comes between ages 18 to 22. when it is the most noticeabe. i have been doing alot of study trying to beat this myself with no help. i think that one must have boudry and standard from themselve. we must understand to when it comes to parenting 90 percent of comunication is nonverble children learn better by action than audiol. to maintain dilligence and discapline. i find alot ofthing that i say and do it most of the time not ment. and i realize after i do it
My son didn’t have all the warning signs and no one that I knew had bipolar. I don’t like this article because it puts me at fault. I already feel bad about all this. I hate that he has this. We are still learning about bipolar and the more I learn about it, the more I wish I did have some idea when he was younger. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was young so all his bipolar symptoms were wrongfully diagnosed. How were we to know? No one we knew had this. Now we found that a few cousins have this too. I looked for depression because there is depression in my family but he was always so happy (hypomanic). I didn’t know. =’( I would have done anything to change this.
It’s silly to post that you can prevent bipolar disorder by sheltering a child. Childhood is about the most fun they will ever have so why would you “clinically” do such a thing. I have bipolar as an adult and I think your idea has no feeling in it and you’re obviously way to old to remember what it is like to be a kid. It’s a tough disease but it’s treatable and there “ain’t no stopping it”. I’ve hit the gong on your theory.
Thank you for your opinion. Please note that these were Dr. Raison’s comments, not my own.
I take issue with your statement that I am “way too old to remember what it is like to be a kid.” Indeed, I have a host of painful (as well as pleasant) memories of my childhood, and was first taken to a child psychologist at the age of seven or eight. Unfortunately, my extreme depressive tendencies were not in evidence that day and there was no follow-up.