Time change blues.

The time change is hard in our house. Moods are exacerbated, tempers flare, sleep is lost for days and tears flow in abundance - and that's just with one of us. If any one is doing a case study in mental illness, now is the time to call the Pearson's. Things are so text book around here, you could, well, write a text book. It is an interesting thing to observe a bipolar child in the middle of their bipolar swings. One minute he is chatty, engaging, overly cooperative and polite; the next time you look he is cranky, sullen, angry, rude and belligerent - even the way he looks is different. If I wasn't worried about my camera being smashed to smithereens, he would make for a great photo diary. I'm going to see if I can get him to agree to that - it might be helpful down the road.
His birthday is coming and that brings a lot of anxiety. I am praying that he makes it through his party on Friday night. I agreed to a sleep over, video games, pizza and movies. Every year I hope there will be a change, but the reality is we haven't had a successful birthday party in 10 years.
My baby is going to be 11 years old in a few days. It's a miracle to me that we've made it this far. It's hard to see him get older and to see the bipolar disorder grip him tighter as he grows. Back in the beginning there was a faint hope that as he grew and his body developed and matured, he would master the disease, or even out grow it, but we have passed the point of hoping and it's time to make sure we're ready for what will come next. I'm on the hunt for a new therapist and soon it will be time to start playing around with his meds again.
It's been a long road our family has travelled, and we will keep going. I am ready to renew my enthusiasm for conquering mental health agencies, mental health funding, school programs, friends and even bipolar disorder itself.
Dylan has so much to offer the world and we are not going to let mental illness take that away from him.