I took my 14 year old son to be evaluated for his severe mood swings, and they have started him on Lamictal.  I have very mixed feelings on it, but I’m doing my best to accept it.  He was not diagnosed with Bipolar for many reasons, but the doctor feels strongly that Lamictal will help him tremendously.  Basically, the doctor does not want to put a “label” on him, but he is treating him as though he has Bipolar as well.

As he was asking the many questions that come along with an initial evaluation, I was surprised at my son’s honesty as well as the many things that were going on with him that even I was unaware of.  After the interview he asked me about our family history and I went into all the yucky details, he didn’t seem very surprised.  I am hoping this medication will help my son a great deal with his mood problems.  I don’t want him to be like me!

I know that mental illness can run in families, but now I fear for the rest of my kids.  I want them to all be happy, healthy, and Bipolar free.  I guess I cant really control what happens and that is really hard.

I had a great weekend overall, and enjoyed the time I had with my family.  The kids had me cracking up with comments like “Mommy I need new shirts because mine are shrinking,” “I wish god would make you into a nice mommy,” and even my 6 year old emerging from his room wearing his thickest sweatpants when I told him I was gonna spank him!  I laughed so hard he ended up not even getting spanked!

I had a great date night with my hubby Saturday night, that was nice too.  It’s always nice to have a moment to spend with him without the kids.  I also went to the eye doctor and found out I have a “hidden” prescription that is 3x higher than what they were trying to prescribe to me.  No wonder my eyes hurt and I cant ever see!  I’m just glad my eye doctor was so persistent in finding out what was going on.  Now I can see fine print and I am delighted!

My husband has realized that my “spending” is not quite what he thought it was before.  He accused me of spending too much money and took all my money away.  Well, I can manage pretty okay on my budget but he on the other hand spends equally.  It isn’t on anything that we don’t need, but it is good that he sees now that I was not the full culprit of our financial woes.  It is expensive to raise four children, and I am very happy that he sees that I was not just “blowing” money, and that it really is expensive.  I guess it’s just a minor redemption on my part and it feels great!

Now it is time to re-evaluate our budget some, and see what we can do to still save money.  I hope we can get it figured out soon, because I’m sure before long, we’ll go back to it being my fault that the kids cost so much money!  Being Bipolar, when the money dwindles, it’s usually my fault somehow, even if I haven’t spent a dime.  I’m working on that though, and hopefully that will come to an end really soon.

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt, available under a Creative Commons attribution license.

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From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (May 3, 2011)

Mental Health Social (May 3, 2011)

NAMI Massachusetts (May 4, 2011)

    Last reviewed: 4 May 2011