My poor little boy

My son's anxiety and depression is getting worse. He is acting sad more often and he ends up crying almost every day, even when we are looking forward to something fun. He's only 7.

This is breaking my heart. He has started therapy, and I do everything I can to reduce his stress level. I don't know what else to do for him.

I am sure it doesn't help that my mood is still all over the place. Kids have a way of sensing when their parents are a bit off.

We are trying to keep him off meds and help him with coping, but I think he is going to end up on meds soon. My happy, well adjusted boy is disappearing and in his place is a sad, anxious angry boy.

He threw his favorite bear out of his bed tonight because he was so sad. He has had this bear since he was born and usually can't go to bed without him.

My son, who is now 18, was diagnosed with clinical depression when he was three years old. He was very verbal, and he, too, would cry all the time and say that he didn't have any friends, no one liked him, and that he was sad. He started therapy at four, but we held off on meds till he was 9. Although he was never, ever happy and well adjusted, it nonetheless was totally heartbreaking to see a little boy in the throes of depression. I was in therapy at the time as well, to learn how to cope with my son. That did help me accept the situation, though it did not make it any easier. I totally feel for you. The pain is unbearable.

Aww poor baby. I am sorry this is happening to him.

I have actually talked to my pdoc about my son and the thought he may be bipolar as well and he definitely has panic/anxiety things. He acts so much like me that it makes me feel incredibly guilty. He's a great guy too. (He's 8) When he can handle things, he's funny and sweet and smart as hell. But he cries at the drop of a dime and gets really hysterical over things that shouldn't mean much to him. I wonder if he needs therapy, but I don't know what to do.

How did you decide to put him into therapy?

After the year our family had, I just thought it best. We moved twice, I was diagnosed, in the hospital twice, my husband and I had some troubles, there were two deaths in the family, and my son is having some developmental delays and learning disabilities in school. Also, with the marked changes in his personality, I am worried that there is more going on than I can help him with myself. I took him to his pediatrician who suggested therapy.

It just breaks my heart to see him in such pain.

I know it's so hard to see your sweet little babies suffering (they are our babies no matter how old they are), but getting help for your child is the right thing! You are being a proactive parent!

My mother and father couldn't handle the idea of me ever being in pain or having trouble, so they just acted like nothing was wrong and never did anything about it. I would pass out from the pain from my periods, but was I ever brought to the doctor, no. I had such low blood pressure I would get stars in my eyes, but once again, no doctor. When I had a tendency to get sad and lonely, I was told to just buck it up and stop complaining, I was in school to learn not make friends. Being depressed was NOT allowed...you get the picture.

My psych NP told me that if I had been raised in a less neglectful/abusive environment, my bipolar might never have come out. If someone had taken my emotional issues seriously....

Helping your kids now will save them so much struggle later. Believe me, I know.

((((((((BNLsMOM))))))) He is lucky to have you for a mom.You're doing what you can for him, sounds like. Hugs until the arms can keep hugging, or can't let go. For you and your precious little guy.

He had such a hard evening last night. I watched him go through at least 5 mood changes from relaxed and happy to angry and screaming to sad and tearful and back again.

I know I am doing everything I can to help him, but it isn't enough. I spent an hour just holding him and reassuring him that everything he is feeling is OK and to just breathe it out.

I was looking through our photos from the last year to find one for our holiday card, and he has changed so much over the past year. The look in his eyes has changed. It used to be sparkling and bright. He now looks so dull and sad, like his fire has gone out.

I can't help but feel that all the stuff I went through with my dx and hospital stays, etc. has ruined his innocence. He's only 7.

My family has aged so much this past year.

(((((((((((((((((BNLsMOM))))))))))))))))))) Do not start to blame yourself for what you could not control. Hon, you don't know that that is what kicked your son's problems off. even if there was a chance that it played a role, something else is also going on. Please don't beat yourself up. Right now he needs you so much, you can't afford to start weakening yourself with self recriminations. That was then, my firend, this is where you have to start working. HUGS for both of you, as many as you can carry (and you can tell him his come all the way from Sweden!)

***TRIGGER WARNING***









I feel as if I have pursued my life at his expense.

In the last year we sold our condo and bought our "forever" house. Between the condo and the house, we rented a temporary house and stayed for just two months. It was around Christmas time.

I am realizing that selling the condo and buying the house, although it seemed to work out for the best, was during my last hypomania. (or mania, I am not sure where it falls on the spectrum when buying a house is involved) I was also in a musical and was feeling really great about myself. Then when we moved to the temp house, I crashed hard. If it weren't for the fact that I have kids, I might not have made it. I was spending time sneering in the mirror, telling myself that I should have killed myself before I had kids.

Tonight, my son came downstairs after going to bed and said that he is afraid we will move again. His fear is legitimate. In his short life we have moved 8 times. Some places we spent just a few months. We lived in the condo for 4 years. Although I said that we aren't planning to go anywhere and this is our forever house, I feel like I can't promise anything. What if I have an episode and end up moving again? What if something happens and we can't afford the mortgage and we move again?

I am mom. I should be able to protect him from these things. Instead, I cause them.

I know I can't go back in time, but if I could, I'd go back two years and I would get help for my bipolar before I decided it would be a good idea to uproot my family.

For the first time in my life I have something to regret. I never believed in it before. I always thought my life and everything that happened in it was for a reason and I just had to wait for the reason to show itself. That was all at my own expense. Now that I am living at my children's expense, I have reason to regret.

This is really bringing me to a low and powerless place.

(((((BNLsMOM)))))) Oh, hon, I really feel for you. I'm just worried that you'll add this to everytihng lese that might trigger a big down for you, just when you need to be sound. Is there some way that you and your hubby can talk about a safety "mechanism", something that regardless of your moods will NOT be automatically done or pursued, like selling the house? Can you share awnership so that neither can sell it without the other's help?
I'm just brainstorming about a way that both you and your little guy can feel more seccure about what is happening to you, and to him. It's not that you have been bad, dear. You have had persiods where your normal thinking was offline. What happened happened. Now what can you do so that the consequences aren't so dramatic next time. HUgs, dear. I really hope that your little boy feels better son, and I hope his mommy does too, because she's worth it.