We have been down the same road, so I feel your pain. We knew our 8 year old son was bipolar, becasue he has the same issues as my wife (BPD2 rapid cycle). We tried everything short of meds we could, but when two psychiatrists came to the same conclusion of BPD after carefully ruling out ADD/ADHD, we decided to go the med route.

We did not want to see our bright, creative little boy turned into a walking zombie, and that has thankfully not happened. He is much happier on meds. Depakote sprinkles helps him alot with the mood issues, but any meds to help with attention issues have the opposite effect. Kids are hard to treat.

It took us two years to find a good pdoc. I wish you luck!