Vicky, you sound like me as a kid. I was a mess, challenging the teachers, getting in more fights than any boy in the school, clingy with my parents, explosive temperament, fast and intense when it came to work and obsessively into projects. The I would crash, withdraw, and teachers would assume I'd "learned my lesson", just to have me start talking out in class again, knowing all the answers, oh lord, I get sick remembering it. crying fits, and I mean fits for no identifiable reason. I went through a few very hard and scary experiences when I was still very young, so I might have been set in action earlier than most. Big problem is that ADHD and bipolar in children look very similar and often you get them in the same families. ADHD you can medicate for, bipolar medications are still very iffy in use with children. Yeah, I hear you, there is not much out there. I have a book here, by Demitri and Janice Papolos called the Bipolar Child: the definitive and reassuring guide to childhood's most misunderstood disorder. Broadway books, NEW York, 1999. It's pretty good.