Basic description of my rapid cycling bipolar disorder:
I have been known to rapid cycle several times a month. However my 8 yr old daughter is still not on stable medication and she is rapid cycling several times a day.
More details about my rapid cycling:
Before I was stabilized on my medication I was rapid cycling often, several times a month. But I have been stabilized for a while now and I havent rapid cycled in a while. I do have ups & downs but I would call them "rapid". However, my daughter,she is 8, she was diagnosed in November of last year. She has not been able to find medication that will stablize her yet. for the past several months she has been rapid cycling several times a day. She is going through so much. I feel so helpless. She is on Geodon now, which is what I am on. she is showing signs of promise but it has only been a week so it is still too early to really get our hopes up, but she hasn't cycled in a few days. That is promising. She is more level and not so up and down. We are still struggling but we are closer to our goal. I say we... I feel every minute of her struggle as if it were my own 1)because she is my daughter and I feel helpless that i can't make it go away for her and when she suffers I feel it in my own heart but 2)because when she cycles, when she is having ups and downs it feeds my moods also regardless of how well my medicine is working. I just hope that she can get stabilized on this new medicine so that she can start feeling better and hopefully stop rapid cycling.
Lessons Learned
- I have learned to notice little things about Kayli's moods. I have tried to balance out when it is time to stand tough and when it is time to just be loving toward her. It is hard to tell sometimes what she needs as far as discipline.
My cycles' severity is:
Kayli's rapid cycling is very severe when it happens. She goes from being so extremely happy that she is bouncing off the walls to the point that I cant even control her to the next minute literally she is crying hysterically saying things like she hates her life, she doesn't want to live anymore.
Rapid cycling has kept me from:
Rapid cycling is keeping Kayli from visiting friends, staying the night at friends houses. Going out and doing things. We stay home a lot instead of going out and doing things because of fear of an episode.
