I have been doing a lot of reading and I am quite confused on whether a child would be ADHD or Bipolar. My daughter is almost 13, as time goes by the behaviors get worse. As a infant she needed no sleep. napped about 30 minutes twice a day until she was about 9 months old and then 1 nap for about 30 minutes.I took away naps around 15 months other wise she never would go back to sleep atnight. as it was we had a hard time getting her to sleep at night, and she woke sometimes once a night and other nights up to 8times. she has always had a temper, quick to anger and very stubborn. when she was in grade three she gained about 30 pounds in two months. she started to get teased at her school and she started to lash out at kids in anger more. her opinion was and still is that if someone makes her mad she can do the same thing back.about 2 years ago we started having daily occurances of tempertantrums, yelling at me, screaming when we went near her. she was too big for me to pick up, if i told her to go to her room she would just tell me to "make her" our household was in an constant state of upheaval. small things seemed to trigger these moods. a simple thing would set her off, like telling her no to going to a friends, or that it was bed time. at this point she was going to sleep at about 12 at night and then she could not get out of bed in the morning. she was on clonidine for getting to sleep but it did not work most imes. she was irritable and would cry over the tiniest thing. i was the brunt of her anger most times. she would threaten to kill her self when she was in these rages. she had counselling and we found that it was not working. she did not want to go. we started her on paxil 18 months ago and found that there was a big difference. we tried her on celexa but she seem to be so irritable, noises bothered her, like if you were eating near her. plastic bags rubbing against her legs sent her into a tirad. no one liked her, we all hated her, she was better off dead. i got her off the celexa and back on the paxil. her teacher at her school was not much help and she was harrased and bullyied by her. i told the teacher that we did not know what we were dealing with, that there was a possibility of "bipolar" she told me that my daughter needed to get over it. Now it is getting worse. The principal asked me " gee, what did you do to piss God off?" have you thought she may be scziophrenic! You should withdrawal her from school!"THis all happened after her second suspension.

So far in the last month, my daughter had been kicked out of school three times. Once (one day)for something that her friend said. the second time for gossiping about another student.(three days) this last time (five days) for supposedly making prank calls from the school (she denies this) and for hitting two kids in the head with a recorder when she was throwing it around. We now have to go infront of the school board. I am at my wits end. We believe that she is being unfairly punished and that her medical issues are not being considered. I have been doing alot of reading about Bipolar, everything i read mentions ADHD. My question is does anyones else's children behave as listed below. We have an excellent doctor and I have not had her tested as i did not want her labelled and was afraid of a bipolar diagnosis.

These are the things she does:
has no impulse control, if it pops into her head she will say it
has no fear
constantly talking
jumps from one thing to the other in conversations
sometimes talks so fast others dont understand her
will interupt conversations or put in her comments whether it is adults talking or kids
will appear to be on a high, sometimes when she eats certain things, will get really goofy, silly and can not calm down on her own
when she says something wrong, she will act like what was wrong with what she said and then a while later it will dawn on her and she will be remourseful
when asked why she acts like she does she says"i dont know"
she will lie easily to get out of trouble
will say things in the heat of anger and not remember saying them
before being on the paxil,- she had to have everything neatly organized and arranged, now not really a big concern as long as no one touches her stuff.
will go into a temper tantrum and stay in it for quite a while, yelling at all of us in the house, insulting us, swearing at us.
she does not seem to have any manias, other then her goofy times,
one minute she is happy and the next she will be upset because of something she did or something someone said to her.
doesnt think before she does stuff
is easily talked into to doing stuff even when she knows it is wrong.
she can sit and watch tv for hours on end but without the paxil she can not do math
when she gets in trouble she brings stuff up that is not related, about her brother or others people.
she has low self estem and often talks negatively about herself.
she is always on the go. and likes to be around people all the time. needs her friends with her or on the phone, bounces form one activity to the other.
most people that know her say that she is very niave and gulible,
The other night she was tired and she got very mad when i told her she could not go to her friends, it was 10 pm. she threw a tantrum for about an hour.

Sorry for the long story. Needed to vent. Thanks. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Just knowing that others are in the same place as myself is very helpful.

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