Mania without signs of depression

All of this is a real pity...there are very few GP's who have any business dealing with psychiatric problems short of screening and referring to a psychiatrist.

I guess the upside is that she is seeing a therapist (we hope). Perhaps she/he can help them to see what is really involved.

DJ

Indiansummer, I too have a stepson with Bipolar and everything that you talked about with your daughter I have gone through and still going through with my son. He is only 17. I have had he since he was 4. The doctors told us that he was ADHD. We got him on medicine and that did not help. After he lose control of himself one day and assaulted his little bother ( my bio-son) we had him arrested and then we put him in a home for a month. While he was there they did a lot of test and that was when we found out that He was Bipolar, ADHD and had Brain Damage due to drugs while in the womb and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If there is a time that you just need to talk about things I will listen. A child with these illness is very hard.

I'm sorry for what you're going through, Unwanted. It can be a horrible experience, I know. While there have been episodes in this house that, in hindsight, I know should have resulted in the authorities being called, that has not happened here. My step daughter's mother has, however, called the police on at least two ocassions that I'm aware of over the years. Once, when my SD was about 14, the call resulted in her being put in an institution for 2 weeks. She was able to control herself enough while there, maintaining her best behavior, and was released at the end of two weeks with the institution making a report to the court of a "clean bill of health." While it may sound strange, it's that ability to maintain control when she wants to that scares and puzzles me the most. It just makes her eventual rages and attacks feel so premeditated and even sinister sometimes. My continual attempts at trying to convince my husband how serious this is seems to be putting distance between us and I'm not willing to endanger my marriage over this. Don't mean to sound uncaring, because that is NOT the case. But I'm realizing more and more that my involvement in this is not going to be fully acceptable to him until and if she ends up showing up here and subjecting me to her behavior directly. That's especially hard for me because I'm one of those morons that has to DO something. I'm not very good at sitting back and watching. I have a hard time accepting the notion that this is not any of my business. For now, I can only hope that the social worker / therapist (whatever she actually is) will see enough that she recommends, on the record, that a psychiatrist is called in.