Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness in which a person can experience sudden mood changes. The National Institutes of Health warns that bipolar disorder can strike people at any age and can be dangerous if left unchecked. Diagnosing a child with bipolar disorder takes a professional, but there are symptoms that can help determine if your child may be at risk.
Excessive Irritability
Young children with bipolar disorder may have symptoms of excessive whining, crying, arguing and aggression. While many children will be irritable or upset, children with bipolar disorder often seem to have no control over these episodes. It may even seem as if they want to stop arguing or crying but are physically incapable. In adolescents, this may present as explosive anger, irritability for no reason and arguing over seemingly unimportant things.
Sleep Difficulties
If a child is experiencing a manic episode, she may have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Bipolarworld.org reports that people going through a manic phase of bipolar disorder experience racing thoughts and ideas that often leave them incapable of sleep. Often, a person suffering from bipolar mania will go two to three days at a time without sleep. In an adolescent, you may notice a sudden propensity for staying up all night.
Poor Concentration
This symptom is often the same for young children and adolescents. You may notice that a child will drift off in the middle of a conversation, interrupt with information completely off topic or seem unable to focus on a given task. People who suffer from bipolar disorder often have so many thoughts racing through their minds at a given moment that it may be difficult for them to pay attention to the world around them.
Excessively Happy
During a manic episode, a person with this illness can seem very happy. At first this may seem like a positive thing, especially if he previously suffered from a depressive state. It will soon go from happy to excessively happy. According to KeepKidsHealthy.com, children experiencing a manic episode will laugh too much and talk rapidly for long periods of time without listening to their companion. They may often act silly or attention seeking at inappropriate times. For both children and adolescents, it will often present in a similar manner.
Rapid Thoughts and Ideas
A bipolar person will have sudden bursts of inspiration or creativity. They will have so many ideas that they may continually start and abandon projects. In children, this can manifest itself as poor concentration and constantly interrupting conversations with their next idea. With adolescents, it can be seen as impulsiveness, inability to sit still or isolating themselves socially.
Suicidal Thoughts and Actions
In the depressive phase of bipolar disorder, a child may say things such as, "I wish I was dead," or "I wish I was never born." In adolescents, this can present as a noticeable obsession with death, a preoccupation with morbid or disturbing topics and images or often talking about killing themselves. In extreme cases, there may be cutting or suicide attempts.
