Children with BD?

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder, is a lot more common than people think. More than 5.7 million American people over the age of 18 have bipolar disorder. But what people don't know is that more than 800,000 bipolar cases are children. Kids are now 40 times more likely to develop BD or manic depressive disorder. BD is a life-long disorder that 800,000 children will have to cope with.

Psychotherapy is one of the best ways to treat bipolar disorder. Some children are put in therapy before the age of 10 for the disease. A combination of mood-stabilizing medications and anti-depressants can help a person with BD lead a very stable and normal life. Many children that take the right combination of medication and therapy, as they come into their teenage years, think they get better with time. Some feel that they can stop their treatment and be perfectly okay. This is not the case. If they discontinue their treatment, at any time, their mood swings can come back, sometimes worse than ever.

When a child is diagnosed at a young age, such as 7 or 9, they are also more likely to develop ADHD. In women over the age of 18, BD is more common. In men under the age of 18, BD is more likely to develop. The men that are diagnosed at a young age may have had BD confused with ADHD, or may have a combination of both disorders.

11% of our youth today have some kind of mental illness, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and of course, BD.