It has been a long road for my little boy. Ever since he was three he has had problems. He was very aggressive – hitting, biting, and being disruptive. He was kicked out of several day care centers, so I asked my friends to watch him. Eventually they would all ask to stop watching him.

Finally, we took him to the doctor, who suspected he had ADHD. He was four years old then, and they could not start neurological testing until he started kindergarten. He had a rough few months in kindergarten, but his tests went just fine. So the doctors tried an ADHD medication, which he took for six months without success. They switched to another ADHD medication and kept increasing his dosage, until he started losing a lot of weight. By this time he was 7. We took him to a neurological psychiatrist, who did several more tests and diagnosed him with Asperger’s Syndrome. This doctor treated my son with several more medications until two of them interacted badly and sent him into mania.

At the age of eight, my son had no social skills and problems at school with peers and with teachers. He was always in trouble. His self-esteem was in the toilet, and he couldn't sleep. He wanted to kill himself so we admitted him to the hospital. He was there for a week, and our world was in shambles. It took us 15 hours to get him admitted through the emergency room. At one point they told us to go home and come back in the morning. I told them they would be responsible if anything happened to him. Five minutes later they found a bed for him. He was hospitalized inpatient for one week, and then had two weeks of outpatient treatment. We followed his treatment plans, took him to counseling and worked with the school to get him into a special program. During this time I had a breakdown, so I was also hospitalized for a week. I picked myself up and moved on to help my son. He had several medication adjustments and another manic episode. We tried different medications. He ended up back in the hospital. This time he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and other illnesses. They put him on two medications that seemed to help, but he was taking wrong doses. So again he became aggressive and suicidal.