I have an 8 year-old daughter who was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder last year. She also has ADHD and was diagnosed when she was 5.

I knew something was wrong when she never came out of the "terrible twos", as they call it. She would never sleep at night, and would cry over anything and everything. As she got older she became violent with her brother, her sister and me. It seemed every time we would try to talk to her she would blow up, and we never could tell her No – because that would set her off. We were to a point we were scared to talk to her, afraid we would say something wrong. At times I was scared of her. I hid knives, and any other things that she could use to possibly hurt us. She would scream and yell, and hit the doors and walls with her fists. There were times she would get so angry she would throw chairs (children's size) at me.

After her violent rages she would cry and apologize. She would even ask me to help her. I would sit up at night and cry for her. When she was first diagnosed with ADHD she saw a psychologist. I would explain her behavior, but he wouldn't listen. He would try to help her with "anger management." It just wasn't working, so we stopped seeing him after 6 months.

Then I read an article about bipolar disorder and started to educate myself about the illness. The article described my child to a tee.

No one would hear what I had to say. Her psychologist and her pediatrician said she would grow out of it. When I told her regular doctor she wasn't sleeping at night, the doctor told me to lock her in her room, something I would never do.

Finally, last year, I called a program called Next Steps and went through our local health department. I was determined to get my child some help, and some help for myself so I could help her. She was screened and finally diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder by the psychologist at Next Steps. I started to cry and thanked the psychologist. Finally we had a diagnosis and were on our way to getting help.

We tried different medications until we found the right ones. My daughter now takes three different medications. A therapist comes every week to help with her behavior management, and she still sees her psychologist (a new one) every 2 months. She is doing so much better.

I have read books and ask a lot of questions to better understand her disorder. We have along way to go, but we are going to make it. My daughter is an honor roll student at school and does very well. I know she will succeed at living with this disorder and getting along well with her family and peers.