Transcript for the Piece Audio version of The Wild Child: Coping with a Bipolar Youth

THE WILD CHILD – TRANSCRIPT 11-04

THIS IS THE WILD CHILD: COPING WITH A BIPOLAR YOUTH -- AN HOUR-LONG RADIO DOCUMENTARY, WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY KAREN BROWN, AND EDITED BY JOHN DANKOSKY.

MUSIC….

INTRODUCTORY MONTAGE….

TRAX: WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO HAVE A MIND YOU CAN’T CONTROL?

ERIN: 49:08 It's like seeing the world through red sun glasses. Red-lensed sunglasses. That's how I always describe it…That's like the angry side of it, like, you see like everything like angry.

Athena: 14:32 I’ll like run into my room and I’ll like slam the door and I’ll be like kicking the wall, or like hitting the wall or something. I’ll be like banging it with a hammer or something.

0:15:08 Eric: I think millions of things all at once, I can't concentrate. and this one time it was really, really, really bad where I just couldn't concentrate at all and I just started sweating and like, had like a, just got like a fever, just right then.

Athena: 15:20 the mood swings are like, alright my Dad walks in the door and he's got me this huge present for valentines day. So, I’m all happy, all happy, all happy, all of a sudden I’m pissed off. I have no clue why. and then like an hour or two later, not even, I’ll be sad, I’ll be like sobbing

ERIN: Just, there'd be times that I'd feel dead, or there'd be times when I'd feel on top of the world … but I wondered why I was so different from the other kids. Why I couldn't make friends, why I was the unpopular one, why I had decided to make myself dress different, listen to different music, why all this stuff was the way it was.

***

PART ONE: WHAT IS BIPOLAR IN KIDS?

AMB: play one of her cheers….M-A-R-L-B-O-R-O. Our team is like this… boom, chick, boom boom, chick….

TRAX: ATHENA RONOLDO IS A 10-YEAR-OLD, ASPIRING CHEERLEADER, HER FAVORITE TEEN CELEBRITY IS HILARY DUFF. SHE LIVES WITH HER SINGLE MOTHER IN A SMALL, CLUTTERED APARTMENT NEAR A BUSY INTERSECTION OF MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS. HER LEITH BODY IS USUALLY SPRINGING JUST ABOVE THE GROUND, HER THIN, BLOND HAIR BOUNCING JUST BELOW THE SHOULDERS.
AMB: more cheer… “sh, don’t speak…”
Fade in Amb: guitar music from erin….

ERIN REDDICK IS A 17 YEAR OLD ROCKER. SHE WEARS THICK EYE-LINER, TIGHT JEANS, AND A SILVER PENTACLE AROUND HER NECK – A SIGN OF HER WICCAN FAITH. SHE LIVES WITH HER PARENTS AND BROTHER IN A WELL-KEPT SUBURBAN HOME IN A WOODED, EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS NEIGHBORHOOD.
ERIN: With my music, people tell me that I should write happy stuff, but that just doesn't work for me. The stuff that comes out of my mind is just like, you know all sorts of negativity

30:53 ERIN: this one already has a name. It's called Go to Hell. 31:27 [Go to Hell Starts] .. fade under….

ERIC RANCKE IS 15. HE USUALLY WEARS BAGGY CLOTHING, A BACK-WARDS BASEBALL CAP, AND SOCCER CLEATS. HE AND HIS PARENTS LIVE IN A COZY RANCH HOUSE IN WILBRAHAM, MASSACHUSETTS. AND ERIC’S HOBBY IS DRAWING CARTOONS.
ER: This is Mr. Stick, …in this one you see his building is burning and then he runs by 1 person needing help and then he runs by another person needing help until he gets to his room and there's a beer sitting on a table and he's like, alright, it's still cold.

YOU’RE LIKELY TO SEE THESE YOUNG PEOPLE ANY DAY AT A SUPERMARKET, SCHOOL PLAY, OR SKATEBOARD PARK, AND YOU MAY THINK NOTHING OF THEM. BUT FOR THESE THREE, PUBERTY HAS NOT GONE ACCORDING TO PLAN. ATHENA, ERIN, AND ERIC HAVE ALL BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER.

(CONNIE) Adolescence is all about “who am I?” and trying to figure out how you fit in or don’t fit in. I think that most kids with bipolar disorder don’t fit in at all and they know it very clearly and very strongly. … One of the things we hear over and over again, … “I just want to be normal, I just want to be like everybody else.”

BIPOLAR DISORDER IS THE MENTAL ILLNESS THAT USED TO BE CALLED MANIC-DEPRESSION. ABRAHAM LINCOLN HAD IT. BEETHOVEN HAD IT. SYLVIA PLATH. HEMINGWAY. PLUS COUNTLESS ARTISTS, ACTORS, MUSICIANS, AND ABOUT TWO AND A HALF MILLION OTHER PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY. BUT UNTIL ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO, NO ONE THOUGHT CHILDREN COULD HAVE IT. AND EVEN NOW, A RELATIVELY SMALL NUMBER OF DOCTORS TREAT BIPOLAR IN YOUNG PEOPLE. SO HOW ARE PARENTS SUPPOSED TO RECOGNIZE THIS BRAIN DISORDER IN THEIR CHILD? IN THE CASES OF ATHENA, ERIN, AND ERIC…. THE SIGNS ONLY BECAME CLEAR IN HINDSIGHT.

***

PART TWO: EARLY SIGNS

ERIN: 11:10 I remember bits and pieces, …Just like me being like suicidal at ages that no other kids were. Getting into fights. I remember listening to stuff like Nirvana when I was a little kid, when all the other kids were listening to like Pop music … I like forgot all that stuff and tried to listen to the Brittany Spears and stuff. I don't like that music, never have, never will.

ATHENA: 21:40 I said, if you make me go to school, I’m going to kill myself. and I started banging my head against the wall and then …I started walking. like it was the middle of winter I think it was, …but I started walking down the street. and my mom got in her car and she's like following me and she's like, get in the car, now.

ERIC: 4:20 there was this one time when I was sitting next to my friend, and for no reason the principal of our school was like, no you two move. And I was in a really depressed time, I was like angry about something, …. So, I just said, I f-ing hate you

***
FADE OUT MUSIC

SHERRY: She was 7 pounds 9 ounces, she was born the day before her due date, and that was the nicest thing she's ever done for me.

SHERRY REDDICK IS ERIN’S MOM. SHE REMEMBERS THE TROUBLE BEGINNING ABOUT THE TIME ERIN’S YOUNGER BROTHER WAS BORN. ERIN WAS THREE.

SHERRY: …She just did not want a sibling and along with the kicking and hitting and screaming because this new sibling was brought into the house. During his bris, she tried jumping out a window.

… her rages would last for hours. … Screaming, crying, running around. She would hit herself. She looked like a crazy, a wild person. And then as soon as she was finished, she was as calm as could be, like nothing happened.

Her second week in kindergarten, she tried to run away from school. …. She thought people were talking about her. If she played ball with someone and she didn't catch it and it was thrown kind of hard so it might have hit her, she would figure the child was trying to hurt her. And, occasionally she would go after that child. … They were just throwing a ball and Erin couldn't catch it.

***

FOR ATHENA’S MOM, MARY RONOLDO, THE SIGNS CAME IN THE TODDLER YEARS.

MARY: As she went through the terrible two's she wasn't quite as much of a terrible 2 as a lot of the other kids were. She went into the three's and she was more of a terrible two than a three year old. She started into the fours and she wasn't coming out of it.

I had the day care center, that we were in at the time, ask me to remove her because of her behavior…. other parents were starting to show concern about the safety of their children .

MR: I looked for a private home. Again, there they asked me to remove her because …she would go into a tantrum and she would run out of the room and attempt to get out of the building.

*

(Connie) In hindsight, …I can see things when he was an infant. But the reality is that the fisrt time I really had any concerns about him, was in second grade. He just seemed very school resistant. And was not happy and just was not the child that we thought we knew.

ERIC’S MOM, CONNIE RANCKE WORKS FOR A HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY, SO YOU MIGHT THINK SHE’D BE PREPARED FOR MEDICAL SURPRISES. NOT THIS ONE. SHE AND HER HUSBAND ADOPTED ERIC DAYS AFTER BIRTH. AS OLDER PARENTS, THEY WERE ALWAYS VERY ATTENTIVE. BUT THAT DIDN’T SEEM TO HELP.

CONNIE: I can remember stopping in the middle of the Supermarket with a full cart of food, and Eric was beyond control, […] screaming his head off, I picked him up, out of the cart, left the food right in the middle of the market and drove home. There was nothing I could do to stop him from crying...

One of the most insidious things about having a child with bipolar disorder, is that their symptoms don’t look like illness, 12:45 you get a kid whose acting out in class, or who’s fighting, or is always getting in accidents, that doesn’t look like illness to anybody, it didn’t look like illness to us.

**
AX ( HELLANDER) I regard it as a public health crisis. It's an epidemic if you will. If this many kids had some other strange illness that was causing them to not be able to go to school, and want to kill themselves and so on. Um, you know there would be attention focused on it.

MARTHA HELLANDER RUNS THE CHILD AND ADOLESCENT BIPOLAR FOUNDATION – A NATIONAL, WEB-BASED SUPPORT GROUP.

(HELLANDER) what we hear is a long story of going from 1 doctor to another, from 1 professional to another, begging for help, describing horrendous symptoms that the child has at home and being told that it's your fault, you're not disciplining enough, you're too strict, you're too lenient, he needs to eat different food or whatever… and the last place the doctors have wanted to go is to say, is there something going on inside this child's brain from within that's causing this behavior ...

THE CAUSES OF BIPOLAR ARE AS MYSTERIOUS AS ANY MENTAL ILLNESS – BIPOLAR TENDS TO RUN IN FAMILIES, AND THERE’S SPECULATION THAT ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS CAN TRIGGER ONSET OF THE DISORDER. THESE DAYS, ADULT BIPOLAR IS A WELL-KNOWN AND ACCEPTED DIAGNOSIS. THROUGH WHAT’S UNDERSTOOD AS A CHEMICAL IMBALANCE IN THE BRAIN, A PERSON’S MOOD FLUCTUATES FROM VERY LOW…. DEPRESSED, LISTLESS, PERHAPS SUICIDAL…. TO VERY HIGH…. FEELING GRANDIOSE, OMNIPOTENT, OCCASIONALLY FRENZIED. THAT’S THE MANIC PHASE, WHEN A PERSON FEELS THE MOST CREATIVE AND PRODUCTIVE. THE PERIODS OF EACH EXTREME CAN LAST DAYS, WEEKS, OR MONTHS. AND THAT’S WHY MANY CHILD PSYCHIATRISTS SAY IT MAKES NO SENSE TO DIAGNOSE BIPOLAR IN CHILDREN. THESE KIDS DON’T HAVE LONG EPISODES OF HAPPY AND SAD – THEY SEEM TO BE TROUBLED AND CRANKY MOST OF THE TIME. PLUS, THE STANDARD DIAGNOSTIC MANUAL OF PSYCHIATRY DOESN’T EVEN LIST BIPOLAR DISORDER IN CHILDREN.

AX (ZAMVIL): I think people just kind of thought I was a funny doctor.

TRAX: HARVARD-BASED CHILD PSYCHIATRIST LINDA ZAMVIL WAS AMONG THE FIRST TO DIAGNOSE CHILDREN WITH BIPOLAR TWENTY YEARS AGO. SHE DISCOVERED IT AMONG SUBSTANCE ABUSERS, WHO SHE BELIEVES WERE SELF-MEDICATING THE EFFECTS OF MANIC-DEPRESSION.

AX(ZAMVIL): People feel that it's uh like a curse and that children are in the midst of their development and it's unfair to label them, to give them a diagnosis like this. And I feel on the contrary that it's better to say, this is what this is and identify that this is an extremely high risk population. These are the kids who hurt themselves. They drive fast, they drink, they drug, they get pregnant, and wind up in department of social services and lock ups and the department of youth services.

ZAMVIL SAYS THE REASON BIPOLAR LOOKS DIFFERENT IN KIDS AND ADULTS … IS THAT KIDS HAVE RAPID CYCLES OF UP AND DOWN, SOMETIMES SEVERAL A DAY OR EVEN HOUR. AND THAT CAN BE CONFUSED WITH CHRONIC STATES.
(demitri papolos) Historically, there has been a strong bias against making the diagnosis in childhood. … And there's been a myth or an assumption that the condition could only first manifest itself in puberty. And then it was rare.

PSYCHIATRIST DEMITRI PAPOLOS HELPED POPULARIZE THE DIAGNOSIS THROUGH A BESTSELLER HE WROTE IN 2000 WITH HIS WIFE JANICE, CALLED THE BIPOLAR CHILD. THEY BELIEVE THAT ABOUT A THIRD OF CHILDREN WHO ARE DIAGNOSED WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER ACTUALLY HAVE BIPOLAR.
(JANICE) Interestingly, we had a very difficult time convincing publishers in the field that there was a need for this book, … this was the statement, Don't you think parents would prefer to be, you know to have the ostrich syndrome?

(geller) I think it's hard for people to really imagine that a child can be so happy or so expansive and grandiose that they're impaired from it.

DR. BARBARA GELLER IS A PSYCHIATRIST AT WASHINGTON UNIVERISTY IN ST. LOUIS. SHE’S BEEN DEVELOPING A CLINICAL CHECKLIST TO DIAGNOSE BIPOLAR IN CHILDREN – AND TO DISTINGUISH IT FROM THE ADULT VERSION.

(GELLER) Adults who are depressed stop enjoying life, a housewife stops cleaning the house, a person at work can't keep up, people don't get good sleep, they feel guilt ridden about things that aren't their fault, And then they have the other side, … they're the life of the party, they start grandiose business schemes... So the question we faced was what would be the equivalent of these symptoms in a very young child.

IN SOME CASES, GELLER SAYS, BIPOLAR CHILDREN ACT SEXUALLY BEYOND THEIR YEARS – SO IT’S NOT UNUSUAL FOR PARENTS TO BE SUSPECTED OF SEXUAL ABUSE BEFORE BIPOLAR IS CONSIDERED.

(geller) A young child may unexpectedly start having very flirtaceous behavior, … A young child may not start business schemes, but a young child can very grandiosely go up to the school principal and say, I don't like such and such teacher, you really have to fire them. … They act as if it's the day they're going to Disneyland or as if it's Christmas morning, but they act this way every day.

OK – BUT WHAT CHILD DOESN’T GET OCCASIONALLY OVEREXCITED? THE PROBLEM IS THAT CLINICAL GRANDIOSITY CAN TURN INTO A BEHAVIORAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL NIGHTMARE.
(hellander) Childhood is a very compact period in the life of a human being during which a lot of very important development takes place …. We always say that to lose a month or a year in the life of a child, is not the same … as a year for someone who's, say, 40 years old.

FAMILY ADVOCATE MARTHA HELLANDER.

(HELLANDER) … friendships are being formed, personalities are being formed, their whole sense of who they are, their character, um, all of those things are damaged and the longer this goes untreated, the more the symptoms start to define who the child is rather than any kind of internal, you know, sense of self or control. …they are not able to choose to be, to be the kind of person that they really would like to be.

FADE IN MUSIC…

IDENTIFICATION, under music: “THIS IS THE WILD CHILD, COPING WITH A BIPOLAR YOUTH. I’M KAREN BROWN.”
***

PART THREE: DIAGNOSIS

53:52 ERIN: I've had friends who've been diagnosed and have refused to believe it or refused to take their medication, or refused to believe that it's as bad as it really is. And then there's parents who say, oh yeah it doesn't really exist, It's just them acting out. You know they need to learn to control their temper."

Athena: a lot of kids treat people with bipolar and stuff differently … they'll think that we don't understand what they're talking about. they'll be like hhhiiiiiiiii. and I’ll be like, I can understand what you're saying, you don't have to echo your voice. 2:10 …My friend today, I told her I had bipolar, and she kind of backed off away and said, Oh my god, is it contagious? and I was like, No!

Eric: 0:57:05 kids with bipolar gotta know that they're not that different. …they have bigger mood swings than other people, so they just gotta take meds and then they'll be as normal as everyone else and then there's probably kids that don't have bipolar that are a lot weirder than they are.

***

(connie) he was doing things like, it sounds silly, stabbing himself in the stomach with pencils in school. And being sent to the nurse and saying to the nurse, “I just want to die.” I mean clearly, he was suicidal.

THE PARENTS OF ERIC, ERIN, AND ATHENA SAY AT FIRST THEY FELT COMFORTED BY DOCTORS AND TEACHERS WHO ASSURED THEM THEIR KIDS WOULD GROW OUT OF THEIR VOLATILE BEHAVIOR.

(CONNIE) the attitude that we felt was, this is all normal stuff, relax, you are older parents with only child, youre highly educated, youre being over protective, sometimes the message felt like “get a life”.

SR: I was told that she was very sensitive to others… She was sensitive to stimuli and what people say--great diagnosis, yeah that was a big help.

… But at least, you know, at least the doctor told us she's okay, she's just sensitive.

in second grade, we took her to a different therapist and his response was, after he saw her for a few times, she needed to be able to get her frustrations and anger out. So, we needed to allow her to rant and rave.

Connie: There have been times when he have been almost catatonic with depression. Where we’ll sit by his bedside and stroke his back, bc he wont face you, and just tell him over and over again, that its going to be alright and that we’re going to fix it somehow. …its excruciating.

SR: so now we've been to 4 doctors …. Then she started 5th grade, and uh she got in trouble at school. … and that's when we got the diagnosis, bipolar disorder. And she was 11 at the time.

Connie: we brought eric into see the therapist… and I will never forget this as long as I live, she said very gently, … I think you need to know that eric shared with me that eric has been having hallucinations. I think that he has bipolar disorder.

SR: I was not looking necessarily for a diagnosis, but when we got a diagnosis we felt like at least, maybe now we know what to treat. So, on one hand it was a little bit of a relief and then you realize, my daughter's got a mental illness and you know that kind of hits you in the gut.

***

AN ESTIMATED ONE IN FIVE CHILDREN HAS A DIAGNOSABLE MENTAL ILLNESS – BUT MANY OF THEM GO UNTREATED. FOR YEARS, UNTIL THE 1970S, CHILDREN WEREN’T EVEN THOUGHT TO SUFFER FROM REGULAR DEPRESSION. THAT’S THE LEGACY OF THE FREUDIAN ERA, WHEN ALL PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS WERE THOUGHT TO BE A BYPRODUCT OF CHILDHOOD. DURING THE 1980S, THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WERE DIAGNOSED WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER OR A-D-H-D – AND IT LOOKED, TO SOME, LIKE A BEHAVIORAL CATCH-ALL. BUT FRUSTRATED DOCTORS CLAIMED THERE WAS SCANT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TO INFORM THEIR DIAGNOSES, AND WHEN BEHAVIOR GOT WORSE, THEY WERE CALLING IT SEVERE A-D-H-D, SCHIZOPHRENIA, OR SOMETHING CALLED INTERMITTANT EXPLOSIVE DISORDER. BARRY SARVET IS A CHILD PSYCHIATRIST AT BAY STATE MEDICAL CENTER IN SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.
(SARVET): Intermittent Explosive Disorder was supposed to be a label that captured kids who blew up and had terrible rages. It didn't tell us what was really wrong with them, it just restated the fact that they do have explosive behavior. Incidentally, the treatments that have been found to be useful for Intermittent Explosive Disorder are the same treatments that we use for bipolar disorder.

IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, THE BIPOLAR EXPLANATION HAS CAUGHT ON – CAUSING A SHARP JUMP IN THE NUMBER OF DIAGNOSES IN CHILDREN. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S BEEN EASY TO GET THOSE CHILDREN HELP. CHILD PSYCHIATRISTS ARE IN EXTREMELY HIGH DEMAND. MASSACHUSETTS HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST PER CAPITA RATES OF PSYCHIATRISTS IN THE COUNTRY, BUT EVEN HERE, WAITING LISTS ARE MONTHS LONG, NEVER MIND FINDING A CHILD BIPOLAR SPECIALIST ON YOUR HEALTH PLAN. AND THE GATEKEEPERS – SUCH AS PEDIATRICIANS OR SCHOOL NURSES – MAY NOT HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION TO MAKE THE REFERRAL.
(ABRAMS) I don't really know that much about bipolar, to be honest.

BOB ABRAMS IS A WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS PEDIATRICIAN WHO’S BEEN IN THE FIELD FOR THIRTY YEARS. WHILE HE HAS DIAGNOSED ADHD AND DEPRESSION, HE SAYS HE’S NEVER IDENTIFIED A CASE OF BIPOLAR DISORDER.
(ABRAMS) if the literature comes out and tells us that this is common and we should be doing it, but in the pediatric literature, it's not mentioned very often at all, at least the literature that I read.

(HELLANDER) I'm not seeing, um much evidence that, that pediatricians by and large are able to spot it. …

ADVOCATE MARTHA HELLANDER.

Some parents actually video tape their child or, or will hold the phone, you know when they're on the phone with the doctor and the child is raging and threatening to kill themselves or their siblings or whatever they're doing.

THE PROBLEM, SHE SAYS, IS THAT A PARENT’S INSTINCT IS NOT GIVEN THE WEIGHT IT DESERVES.
(HELLANDER) Mothers are typically, you know, they know that a high fever means something's wrong. Well, a child that, that cries uncontrollably for hours and hours, something is wrong. And you know, you take those kids to the doctor and the doctor might say there's nothing, there's just, you know colic or something. Well, we've had mothers who've told us the doctors thought their child had colic for 3 years. It’s not colic!

IDENTIFICATION HERE: THIS IS THE WILD CHILD, COPING WITH A BIPOLAR YOUTH. I’M KAREN BROWN.

***
PART FOUR: TREATMENT

ATHENA: I like my counselor because she's got bipolar as well and she knows exactly how i feel...

ERIN: Therapy does not help. All I do is sit in there and talk about what's going on. It's like, well how does this, how do you feel when this happens or how can you avoid this. It's like, shut the (BLEEP) up, bitch. It does not work for me and it makes me pissed off and every day I leave there and I walk out with a cigarette in my hand because I'm so angry.

Eric: 0:09:07 …thanks to the pills I'm taking, I'm really good at picking out when I'm uh feeling depressed or feeling hyper so I can just say, ok I'm feeling depressed or feeling hyper, and they can help me out.

AR: On AM, I have 4 pills, Um, night ones I also have 4 pills… Two of them are dark yellow and they're oval. Then there's a big circle that's lighter yellow and there's a smaller circle that's pink.

13:32 ERIN: they'll take me off medication and put me on new stuff and I'll get violent and I have bad reactions to medication And you know it used to be changing medication so quickly, and couldn't keep track, I don't even remember all the stuff I've tried, but a lot of it made me very psychotic.

Eric: 0:10:29 I had some instances where I mixed the wrong 2 pills or 1 just didn't work for me and it just made me really really sick and really really depressed.

14:25 ERIN: there was one medication, I think it was tri-liptol. They put me on it when they were taking me off of lithium…and I almost punched somebody, so all I remember is getting suspended a couple of times … so it was like there were 2 sides of me. And one side was like totally violent, or like depressed or whatever, and the other side of me was logical, but it wouldn't show through.

Eric: 0:57:46 I guess like the person that you're talking to now, is like the real me. It's not just a sedated version of me, …. I believe that if you don't take your meds and you're depressed or whatever, that's not who you want to be. I mean, why would anyone want to be depressed?

***

ONCE A FAMILY GETS THE DIAGNOSIS OF BIPOLAR, EVEN THE EXPERTS AREN’T SURE EXACTLY WHAT TO DO FOR THE CHILD. SO FAR, THERE’S NO UNIFORM TREATMENT. TALK THERAPY IS COMPLICATED WITH CHILDREN, WHO ARE NOT USED TO SOPHISTICATED SELF-REFLECTION. AND PRESCRIBING DRUGS IS STILL MOSTLY TRIAL AND ERROR, AS DOCTORS TRY OUT DIFFERENT MOOD STABLIZERS – SUCH AS TRILEPTOL, LITHIUM, SERAQUIL, ADEROL -- THAT MIGHT BE PROVEN EFFECTIVE IN ADULTS BUT ARE STILL UNTESTED ON CHILDREN.

(Connie): I am looking at my 11 yr old child and thinking I am going to be putting these chemicals in my child’s system. I think part of it was we were still reeling from the diagnosis. But part of it was to try the most benign approach possible, to tamper as little as possible with this young growing body.

(mary) We tried Ritalin and it didn't work, we tried aderol and it did okay, but she wasn't eating very well. that was 2nd grade--she wasn't eating very well, so we stopped it for a while,

26:56 SHERRY: They started her on lithium. 26:28 SR: It, it, it somewhat helped take off some of the edge, but she was still raging. … so Depacote was added. And that seemed to help, but she was still depressed.

(ZAMVIL) I like most doctors, use sometimes a lot of trial and error and you have to tell families that from the beginning.

HARVARD BASED PSYCHIATRIST LINDA ZAMVIL.

ZAMVIL: … You have to monitor them, and you can only give them to families where you know they're going to comply with appointments and they're going to get, uh blood levels when you need to measure them and they're going to make sure that I can monitor their, in the case of Lithium, their kidney function, their thyroid function.

THEN THERE’S THE COMPLICATION OF MISDIAGNOSIS. SINCE BIPOLAR CAN EITHER LOOK LIKE ADHD, OR A CHILD CAN HAVE BOTH, DOCTORS MAY PRESCRIBE A STIMULANT LIKE RITALIN. ZAMVIL SAYS THAT CAN ACTUALLY BRING ON SEVERE MANIA AND POSSIBLY SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR – IF IT’S NOT COMBINED WITH A MOOD STABILIZER. THE SAME GOES FOR ANTI-DEPRESSANTS, SUCH AS ZOLOFT OR PROZAC.

(sarvet) Some of the medications that we use actually help some children and make others worse, which is a terrible thing, you know, when you give someone a treatment and it actually makes them even worse than when we started.

PSYCHIATRIST BARRY SARVET OF BAYSTATE MEDICAL CENTER.

(sarvet) I have a patient in my practice … We actually found the right combination with this child, after several, couple of years of work…the child's mother said to me, you know, doc, something happened that this medication was like flipping a switch in the brain and after the child was on the medication for 2 weeks, it was as if I had my child back after 4 years. And that kind of thing keeps us going.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH ARE SPONSORING A DRUG TRIAL TO TREAT BIPOLAR DISORDER IN CHILDREN, FOCUSSING ON ANTI-PSYCHOTIC MEDICATIONS. BARBARA GELLER IS LEAD RESEARCHER.
(GELLER) Studies have yet to be done of what these drugs do, even in animal experiments, to the developing brain. So we are giving drugs with unknown effects to a certain extent, to very young children and how do we justify that. We're seeing a child who can't function in any sphere of life. … Many of them have written notes of how they will kill themselves, of where they want to be buried. So that you are weighing these factors, what the child looks like, against the risks of the medication.

GELLER’S HOPING THE STUDY WILL ULTIMATELY LEAD TO LESS HAPHAZARD TREATMENT – TREATMENT THAT COULD EVEN CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE ILLNESS. OTHER STUDIES ARE ALSO LOOKING AT WHAT KIND OF COUNSELING WORKS FOR CHILDREN. BUT GELLER SAYS NEITHER MEDICATION NOR THERAPY IS A PANACEA. A STRESSFUL HOME ENVIRONMENT CAN MAKE THE ILLNESS WORSE; A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT CAN MAKE IT BETTER.

(GELLER) patients do better in families where there's warmth. And we don't see this as cause and effect at all. What we see it as is a therapeutic opportunity. There's a tremendous push because we have all of these medicines that can affect psychiatric symptoms, for young doctors just to write scripts and not ask what's happening in the family. Is there a better way they could interact that would be a benefit … to the child's recovery?

***

PART FIVE: FAMILY INTERACTION

Eric: the family therapy is helpful because it's a place where I get to argue with my parents about things that I know I'm right on.

Erin: I …took a knife out of the drawer, it was maybe 6, 7, maybe 8 inches long and really sharp. I went outside to our wooden deck, and just took it and boom, right into the deck. Big gashes and my Mom flipped. I told her, I like, you told me that if I ever get mad to just take a dish and break it on a tree or whatever. But I don't want you doing that. Whatever. Don't ruin my house. Whatever, leave me alone. Here's your knife.

ATHENA: she'll get like all freaked out over nothing. Like I'll put the mattress on the floor the other day to go to sleep. Why'd you do that?! You had no reason to do that!!

ERIN: It gets annoying because my Dad thinks I need my medication to survive. I can miss a week's worth of medication and still be okay. He thinks I'm either high or I'm manic and I need more medicine so he tries to drug me up. And if I'm in a good mood, that's bad, Erin can't be in a good mood.

Eric: 0:32:26 my parents did a really good job like, they're they're always like studying and what medications do what and they've learned all the vocabulary of mania or whatever

Erin: They've never done everything right, but they try. I have to give them credit for that.

***

ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS ABOUT LOVING A CHILD WITH BIPOLAR IS THAT – QUITE FRANKLY – THEY AREN’T ALWAYS LOVABLE. AND EVEN IF A PARENT UNDERSTANDS THAT DESTRUCTIVE OR AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR COMES FROM A MENTAL ILLNESS, THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT EASY TO HANDLE.
(CONNIE) I can’t tell you for how many years we didn’t go out, We didn’t invite people over, … somebody from work invited us to Easter dinner, which was a really lovely thing. Well, we got up that day and eric was a mess, we couldn’t take him anywhere, and I had to call these people. I didn’t know them well, so I wasn’t comfortable saying my son is bipolar and he is severely depressed today so we wont be coming, so I just called and said, I’m sorry we cant come. People don’t invite you anymore, so you get very isolated.

(SHERRY) I mean right now things are quiet in the house and when things are quiet in the house, I tend to feel like, okay, everything's fine now. You know I can let my guard down. And every time that happens, she throws a monkey wrench in and stirs up the waters and, you know she lets us know, hey, I'm ba-aa-ck.

(SARVET) parents with kids with bipolar disorder are often extremely frustrated and they have tried so many things to manage the behaviors of their kids that haven't worked.

PSYCHIATRIST BARRY SARVET.

(SARVET) They have to choose their battles. And they have to let kids get away with some stuff because if they set limits around everything, they're going to have a day that's filled with one tantrum after another tantrum after another tantrum, so they end up walking on egg shells around their kids and as a result, kids with bipolar disorder sometimes become very emotionally regressed.

And when a professional comes into that situation, they look at the family, the way it's functioning, they say, look these parents are not setting any limits with the child and letting the child do whatever they want. And so this must be a dysfunctional family and that's why the child is having all the tantrums is because the parents are not setting limits. Well, that's usually not true.

SHERRY REDDICK HAS ONE FRAMED PHOTO OF HER DAUGHTER ERIN IN HER LIVING ROOM – IN THE PICTURE, ERIN IS ABOUT 6 YEARS OLD, WEARING A LEOTARD AND SMILING.

(SHERRY) She used to make up dances…. She'd get dressed up in costumes and then she would put on shows for my husband and I. And she was so proud of it.

SHERRY WALKS OVER TO A DRAWER IN HER KITCHEN, AND TAKES OUT A SNAP SHOT OF THE TEENAGE ERIN WEARING BLACK FISHNET STOCKINGS, A BLACK MINI-SKIRT, A SKULL-AND-CROSSBONES T-SHIRT, AND DARK EYELINER.

That's my Erin now.

THIS PHOTO USED TO BE ON THE REFRIDGERATOR WITH THE REST OF THE FAMILY SNAPSHOTS. UNTIL A FIGHT THEY HAD LAST YEAR.

(sherry) she started blowing up and cursing at me and telling me she wished I was dead and she'd like to kill me and she'd like to see me in my grave and I got very angry at her and took all of her pictures off the refrigerator and when she went into the hospital they went back on the refrigerator except this one.

KB: Why did you keep that one off?

Cause it's violent. Just the colors and the skulls.

WE GO UP THE PLUSH, CARPETED STAIRS OF THIS EARTH-TONED SPLIT LEVEL HOUSE, AND ENTER AN ARRESTING, BLACK-AND-RED PAINTED BEDROOM.

(sherry) Every inch of Erin's wall is full of magazine pictures and comics. All of them of violence. There are skulls on her walls, there's uh, people with skin being torn off on her walls, … her pop idol is Kurt Cobain. I, she thinks he's fabulous. He killed himself and you know that's someone to have as an idol.

….she's also written on her walls when she’s angry. Some of them are lyrics to songs.

THIS ONE IS “YOU KNOW YOU’RE RIGHT”, THE LAST SONG WRITTEN BY COBAIN, LEAD SINGER OF NIRVANA, BEFORE HE SHOT HIMSELF IN 1994.

(Sherry) in the large type it says, Pain, Pain, pain, you know you're right, you know you're right. I guess that's the chorus.

WE WALK BY A MAKE-SHIFT WICCAN SHRINE WITH DRIPPED CANDLES AND PENTACLES, AND ON ERIN’S DRESSER, SOME SOFTER ADDITIONS.

SHERRY: You know with all this violence, you can look around and still see teddy bears, dolls, that she won't get rid of. There's, there's still a little piece of her inside that's. I think that wants to be a little girl. I, I think in a way she missed being a little girl. She had so much turmoil in her that she had to deal with it like an adult.

44:07 ERIN: I come in here and this is the really relaxed, chill spot in my room. All my friends love this room.

39:39 ERIN: … this is all bands I like: Nirvana, Manson, Cradle of Filth, I saw them this summer, Rock and Metal, Slip Knot, My Ruin, Jack off Jill, Murder Dolls.

HER OWN OIL AND WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS ARE MIXED AMONG THE BAND POSTERS, INCLUDING A SELF-PORTRAIT.

(ERIN) it shows a little bit of myself, with like black hair and just like how I feel and stuff. One eye's yellow and orange and red, and the other eye's blue and green and black and it's like, I don't know, like 2 different moods.

BUT MOST OF THE ROOM IS A SHRINE TO KURT COBAIN – WITH WALL-TO-WALL PHOTOS OF HIS SCRUFFY BLOND HAIR FLOPPED OVER AN ANGUISHED FACE, SCREAMING INTO A MICROPHONE.
[START NIRVANA MUSIC….you know you’re right…]

ERIN: All his music speaks to what I feel. …25:14 ERIN: You Know You're Right, uh Heart Shaped Box, Where'd you Sleep Last Night. Just a lot of his really depressed songs and stuff.

ERIN HAS THOUGHT A LOT ABOUT THE SPECULATION THAT COBAIN – A SERIOUS SUBSTANCE ABUSER – HAD UNTREATED BIPOLAR DISORDER.

25:55 ERIN: sometimes I really think he could have gotten help, and sometimes I think I understand why he got to that point, how he got to that point, but I've been to that point before.

ERIN SPENDS MOST OF HER AFTERNOONS IN THIS ROOM. SHE HAS TO COME HOME DIRECTLY AFTER SCHOOL NOW – THAT’S THE RULE, EVER SINCE HER PARENTS DISCOVERED A SERIES OF UPSETTING THINGS ABOUT HER LIFE.

(SHERRY) We found out 2 months ago that Erin is a substance abuser and she has been for the past 3 years. …I found months worth of her medication in her room that she didn't take because she was afraid how it would mix with the other drugs or alcohol that she was using.

AS A RESULT, SHERRY SAYS HER BEHAVIOR WAS GETTING MORE EXTREME, PUTTING HER IN INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS SITUATIONS.

(SHERRY) Now the police were starting to get involved. She was picked up for drunken disorderly over the summer. She was raped last year by a kid she knew.

THE FAMILY WENT TO COURT OVER THE RAPE, AND SHERRY SAYS DEFENSE LAWYERS USED ERIN’S BIPOLAR DIAGNOSIS AGAINST HER. IN THE END, THE REDDICKS AGREED TO A PLEA BARGAIN. NOW, SHERRY FEELS ALL SHE CAN DO TO KEEP ERIN SAFE IS KEEP HER HOME.
(SHERRY) She's going crazy. ... She's turned into the child I've tried to keep her away from.

(FADE OUT NIRVANA HERE….)

***

IT’S NOT UNCOMMON FOR PARENTS OF MENTALLY ILL CHILDREN TO HAVE A MENTAL ILLNESS THEMSELVES. SHERRY IS ON ANTI-DEPRESSANTS – SOMETHING SHE STARTED AFTER ERIN WAS BORN. SO IS MARY, ATHENA’S MOM. MARY ALSO HAS BIPOLAR, WHICH SHE SAYS HELPS HER UNDERSTAND ATHENA, BUT IT DOESN’T NECESSARILY HELP PARENT ATHENA.

(MARY) If our moods are opposite, then we'll fight. if we're both in the wrong mood at the same time we can clash there too. if we're both in a mania and we've got energy and someplace to go, something to do, then we get along fabulous, it's a fantastic day…

BUT OFTEN, THEIR DEPRESSED MOODS COINCIDE.

(MARY) Athena and I have had some of that in the past few days when we’ve had difficulty getting out of bed until just about noon time or so. Then finally we go, you know, we’ve really got to get up, we can’t stay here. And we go, I don’t want to get up. And we’re both laying here going I don’t want to, it’s a beautiful day out, it’s sunny, it’s gorgeous, but we have no drive to get out of bed.

ATHENA AND MARY SHARE A BEDROOM IN THEIR CRAMPED, TWO-ROOM APARTMENT, WHICH SITS ABOVE A CAR REPAIR SHOP. ATHENA COMES HOME MOST DAYS AFTER SCHOOL, EVER SINCE SHE WAS KICKED OUT OF THE MARLBORO BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB FOR GETTING INTO FIGHTS. MARY SAYS SHE CAN’T AFFORD TO SEND ATHENA TO PRIVATE AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS. WHILE THE RANCKE AND REDDICK FAMILIES HAVE EMPLOYER-BASED HEALTH INSURANCE, MARY AND ATHENA RELY ON THE STATE MEDICAID PROGRAM. MARY ALSO GETS HELP FROM SOCIAL SECURITY, DISABILITY AND WELFARE TO PAY THE RENT, SINCE SHE SAYS HER BIPOLAR HAS RENDERED HER UNABLE TO WORK. IN THE APARTMENT, PILES OF PAPERS AND CLOTHES TAKE UP ALMOST EVERY INCH OF FLOOR SPACE; DIRTY DISHES AND LOOSE CEREAL ARE SCATTERED THROUGH THE ROOMS.
(MARY) I've been trying to find my summer clothes, so I have the boxes all sitting underneath other boxes here. Um, Athena's toys. [KB: Is that breakfast] Yeah, it looks like the box got kicked off the end of the bed, or knocked off by one of the cats, one or the other.

AMID THIS CLUTTER, THEY HAVE TWO PARAKEETS, TWO CATS, FOUR NEW KITTENS. AND ATHENA OFTEN SHELTERS INJURED ANIMALS SHE FINDS IN THE WILD – INCLUDING A SMALL, BLACK BIRD IN A CAGE IN THEIR ROOM.
ATHENA: This is Black Crow. We'd feed him right now, but he won't open his mouth. Come on open your mouth and have some so I can get this thing in. come on. [KB: Where'd you find him?] We found him at my grandfather's house on the ground. Just flapping around, he wasn't flight-worthy yet, I guess he fell out of the nest.

THIS IS THE THIRD OR FOURTH BIRD SHE’S TRIED TO SAVE.

ATHENA: I just think they're pretty interesting to raise something that's in the wild. Something that's been in the wild…. It's kind of like I can understand what they're feeling 'cause they've been in the wild and they're really really scared to be with humans 'cause they really don't know, oh my god, what are they going to do. We just really make them feel that it's okay, and I feel that they're safer. I think personally that they're safer at our house than in the wild.

***

PART SIX: SCHOOL

KID MONTAGE…

Eric: I got in trouble more that like anyone in the school, during like middle school, uh it kind of gave me the trouble maker reputation.

ERIN: my teachers were telling me, Erin you're going like 0 to 60, you need to calm down and think before you act, and it was just like impossible for me. You know I'm like, well let's see how you feel, when you know your medications are being switched and you're bipolar and … and you don't know what it's like or how hard it is to control 0 to 60.

AR: I got mad because I didn't want to go out for recess because it was too cold and it was raining and I didn't have a coat. And then my teacher, one of my teachers that I hate, was like, well you need to calm down, you need to calm down. Do you want to color. And I'm like, I don't need to (BLEEP) color. How the hell is coloring going to (BLEEP) help me 'cause I was so mad and she's like, oh, you don't talk to a teacher like that, oh. And I'm like, well in this situation I do!…. And then she sent me to the principal's office and I got all mad at him and started yelling and swearing at him and he just put, locked me up in a room and wouldn't let me out.

ERIN: It got to the point where I was fighting with some of the kids in the school, um. I was refusing to do work, fighting with the teachers. And they were like, ok, we can't help this girl.

***

SCHOOL CAN BE A WHOLE DIFFERENT BATTLEGROUND FOR KIDS WITH BIPOLAR. THEIR RAPID MOOD SWINGS CAN MAKE IT VERY HARD TO LEARN, AND THEIR UNPREDICTABLE BEHAVIOR CAN TURN TEACHERS OR ADMINISTRATORS INTO ADVERSARIES.

AMB: school hallway sounds…

WILBRAHAM MIDDLE SCHOOL IS WHERE ERIC RANCKE WON THE DUBIOUS DISTINCTION OF 3RD MOST DETENTIONS OF ALL TIME. TODAY, HE CONSIDERS THAT A BADGE OF HONOR. BUT HIS MOTHER CONNIE DOESN’T REMEMBER THAT PERIOD SO FONDLY.

(Connie: 1:02:05) I think that, you know, we were concerned about his being stigmatized so we didn't share as much information as we now do. But I also think that the school staff … really did not know or understand anything about bipolar disorder in kids and really saw so much of Eric's behavior as volitional when it wasn't.

Eric’s 6th grade soc studies teacher said to me in a mtg, ‘I just have to say I think he has you completely snowed. He’s manipulating you. He’s fine.’ … Not only was he not fine, he was actively hallucinating in her class.

FOR ERIN, SCHOOL HAD ALWAYS REPRESENTED ONE MORE WALL OF PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T GET HER. HER MOTHER SHERRY:

SHERRY: I couldn't get her out to school. She was paranoid. She was stressed. She wasn't learning anymore, at all.

SR: In 7th grade, I wrote that I wanted her tested. …. they said that she was very bright and this was not affecting her education…

SPECIAL EDUCATION TESTING HAS BECOME SOMETHING OF A FIRESTORM IN THE U.S. IF A STUDENT HAS A PROVEN DISABILITY – INCLUDING AN EMOTIONAL ONE – THE SCHOOL IS LEGALLY REQUIRED TO MAKE SURE THE CHILD HAS ACCESS TO THE CURRICULUM. ANY SPECIAL ACCOMODATIONS ARE WRITTEN UP IN WHAT’S CALLED AN INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATIONAL PLAN – OR IEP. IF YOU’RE BLIND, FOR INSTANCE, AN IEP WOULD PROVIDE FOR TEXTBOOKS IN BRAILLE. IT’S FUZZIER WITH MENTAL ILLNESS. AN IEP COULD MEAN A LATE START TO THE DAY, DAILY SESSIONS WITH A COUNSELOR, LONGER ASSIGNMENT DEADLINES, OR EVEN PLACEMENT AT A SPECIAL SCHOOL. ATHENA, ERIN, AND ERIC ALL HAVE IEP’S – BUT IN EACH CASE, THEIR PARENTS HAD TO MAKE SEVERAL APPEALS TO THE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO GET ONE.

(SELTZER) Basically, schools have done an abysmal job addressing the needs of children with emotional and behavioral disorders.

TAMMY SELTZER IS AN ATTORNEY WITH THE BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW – AND AUTHOR OF A 2003 REPORT, SUSPENDING DISBELIEF, ON HOW SCHOOLS COPE WITH MENTALLY ILL CHILDREN.

(SELTZER) National studies have shown that anywhere from 5 to 9 % of all children have a serious emotional, behavioral problem, but schools identify only less than 1% of those children.
… schools tend to view children with behavioral problems as problem children rather than as children who have a condition that needs special attention…

(PHILPOTT) when parents come in and … ask for certain considerations, it can be misinterpreted that the parents are asking for a coddling or we use the term, enabling.

TOM PHILPOTT DIRECTS SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR WILBRAHAM SCHOOLS.

(PHILPOTT) it's not just automatic and immediate that we go to a higher level of intervention ….there may be difficulties in the family, there may be difficulties between the student and the teacher, but if intervened appropriately can return to normal and the student can continue to be successful. [0:27:42]

EVEN IF THE PARENTS COME IN WITH A DOCTOR’S DIAGNOSIS OF BIPOLAR, THE SCHOOL CAN DECIDE THAT THE ILLNESS DOESN’T INTERFERE WITH SCHOOLWORK AND REFUSE SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS, WHICH CAN BE EXPENSIVE. PLUS, THERE’S A THEORY THAT SAYS STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS SHOULDN’T BE SINGLED OUT AT ALL. TOM PHILPOTT.
(PHILPOTT) how can people work together to intervene and in the least intrusive manner so that the labeling issues … are not uh, so obvious so that kids feel isolated just by the fact of the label.

IN THIS RESPECT, SCHOOLS AND ADVOCATES AGREE – IT’S BEST TO AVOID STIGMATIZING STUDENTS WITH MOOD DISORDERS. THE BAZELON CENTER RECOMMENDS USING “POSITIVE DISCIPLINE” FOR ALL STUDENTS. OFFER INCENTIVES TO BEHAVE WELL, RATHER THAN RELY ON PUNISHMENT – A METHOD THAT OFTEN BACKFIRES WITH BIPOLAR KIDS.

THE RANCKES SAY ERIC’S PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL HAS LEARNED TO HANDLE HIS ILLNESS IN THIS WAY.

Eric: 18:00 so my teachers know when I'm not just trying to be annoying or a wise ass or something, … they don't think of me as being like a bad kid, they think of me as going through a manic time or whatever

AND LAST YEAR, ERIC MADE THE HONOR ROLL FOR THE FIRST TIME.

(BRING IN SCHOOL AMBIENCE GRADUALLY)

FOR SOME KIDS, HOWEVER, SMALL CHANGES DON’T SEEM TO HELP. AFTER CLASHING WITH ERIN’S PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR YEARS, HER FAMILY LOBBIED TO GET HER PLACED IN THE MERRIMAC COLLABORATIVE SCHOOL – A PUBLIC, THERAPEUTIC SCHOOL ABOUT HALF AN HOUR FROM THEIR HOME. (BRING UP AMBIENCE A LITTLE BIT) PRINCIPAL EMMA WEISS.
(WEISS) I have a range of kids. Kids involved with the Department of Mental Health, kids involved with the Department of Youth Services, with the court systems, … I have a couple kids who live in group homes. We have kids with specific learning disabilities, I have kids with emotional disabilities….

SO THE SCHOOL IS ALWAYS PREPARED FOR EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS.

EW: If it's a student who we know well and we start seeing the true signs that they're either heading into a manic phase or they're getting a little depressed … we would be notifying parents, having regular contact with therapists and psychiatrists.

WEISS SAYS ABOUT HALF HER STUDENTS ARE DIAGNOSED WITH BIPOLAR, BUT SHE’S NOT CONVINCED THEY ALL HAVE IT. ERIN REDDICK, HOWEVER, IS A CLEAR-CUT CASE.

EW: When she's on medication, Erin is able to have conversations with you, participate in our community meetings and add a lot of good insight and remain calm if somebody says something to her that may not be the nicest thing in the world…Um, when Erin goes off of her medication, …She can be laughing one minute, sobbing the next minute, the minute after that screaming because she's so angry about something as small as, he looked at me the wrong way.

WHEN THAT HAPPENS, WEISS SAYS THEY USE “REALITY THERAPY.”

EW: Reality therapy is also sometimes known as choice therapy. It's working with kids in understanding sort of the natural consequences to your actions. If you make this choice, what's the consequence going to be?

ERIN IS ALSO THE REASON FOR ONE NEW RULE THIS YEAR – NO TOUCHING OR HUGGING AT SCHOOL. HER ADVISOR BETSY LYTLE SAYS ERIN WAS PROVOKING OTHER KIDS.
(BETSY) there’s a lot of hypersexuality at this school, and that’s another side effect of being bipolar. very provocative. then how do you differentiate between your typical 17 year old …, but it’s much more intense here, bc of the kids not wanting to follow boundaries and guidelines, and always wanting to push it a little bit further.

ADD SCHOOL AMBIENCE….

THE RATIO AT THE MERRIMAC SCHOOL IS FIVE STUDENTS TO ONE OR TWO STAFF – THAT’S WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE FOR TROUBLED KIDS, WEISS SAYS, AND WHAT MAKES IT EXPENSIVE. A SCHOOL DISTRICT CAN PAY UP TO 29-THOUSAND DOLLARS TO SEND ONE CHILD HERE, COMPARED TO FOUR OR FIVE THOUSAND IN THE REGULAR PUBLIC SCHOOL. WEISS SAYS SOME DISTRICTS UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THE PRICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION; OTHERS ARE MORE STINGY.

WEISS: There have been some towns though, that we're told, … they're here for 6 months and that's it. …. maybe they have another student that needs this placement even more, but they don't have enough money in their budget to send two students so they're trying to sort of make it go around.

ERIN’S TEACHERS SAY SHE’S COME A LONG WAY – ESPECIALLY DURING HER WEEKLY COMMUNITY SERVICE, IN WHICH SHE TUTORS SEVERELY AUTISTIC CHILDREN. ERIN PLANS TO START TAKING SOME CLASSES AT THE REGULAR HIGH SCHOOL -- TO GET USED TO A LESS CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT. ADVISOR BETSY LYTLE.

BETSY: Erin has worked really hard to establish some sort of relationships or friendships at the school. This is a kid that came to us from the middle school, that used to kick holes in the wall and has never kicked anything here…. This is a kid who was very isolated and ostracized from a good share of the population. So there was many trust issues for her to even stick her neck out a little bit to take a risk to form relationships …. and as any good bipolar will do, it’s either all or nothing.

***
MUSIC BED…

PART 7: HOPE/FUTURE

IN MANY WAYS, MENTAL ILLNESS IS A SOLITARY STRUGGLE. CHILDREN – AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM – HAVE TO FACE UP TO DEMONS THAT OTHERS MAY NEVER SEE. BUT FAMILIES SAY THERE ARE THINGS SOCIETY CAN DO TO MAKE THE BATTLE EASIER ON EVERYONE. FOR ONE, OFFER CHILDREN WITH BIPOLAR THE SAME SYMPATHY AND RESPECT AS KIDS WITH CANCER OR DIABETES. … FUND SPECIAL EDUCATION SO THAT SCHOOLS CAN GIVE VOLATILE CHILDREN AN APPROPRIATE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. … AND PUSH FOR MORE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON CHILDHOOD BIPOLAR TO HELP DOCTORS, TEACHERS, AND PARENTS IDENTIFY THE ILLNESS EARLY… AND ACCURATELY.

IN THE MEANTIME, ATHENA, ERIC, AND ERIN ARE JUST FOCUSSED ON GROWING UP.

ATHENA: When you have bipolar, life is like one huge adventure, it's like, okay what's gonna happen today?

ERIN: 49:30 I see bipolar as like a gift and a curse, it's like you know you're given this horrible burden of you know, living with this life altering disorder, …. But, on the other hand, it gives you all this creativity, and all different you know, views of like the world, you know there's so many great people in history who were bipolar or ADD or something, and it just gives you something that other people don't have.

(FADE OUT MUSIC)

ATHENA: 36:16 I love cheerleading. When we go to gym, there's this huge gym we all run into… and we'll run in we'll be doing round offs and cartwheels, we'll be screaming our lungs out and everybody's like so happy, they have me on their team because, like, I have so much energy.

(ATHENA… outside) This is one more cheer that I actually made up. We are the panthers, [clap] we're mighty and we're brave [clap]. We'll kick your butt in a game any day. (FADE DOWN)

Eric: 0:36:14 I like making people laugh, so I think that's, making someone laugh is probably the greatest feeling I can give to another person, so if I can uh do that for a living and get paid for that, then that will be wonderful

(FADE IN CONAN’S APPLAUSE…)

…my hero Conan O'Brian has bipolar disorder

AMB: Conan:“So, 50-cent has a new children’s book out. Yeah. It’s called, Chubby the stray bullet finds a home…” fade under laughter and applause….

Eric: I love him, he's the coolest guy in the world. And if the coolest guy in the world has bipolar disorder then like I have it too, so it's cool.

(CROSS FADE APPLAUSE WITH GUITAR)

AMB: … Erin on guitar…. Playing heart-shaped box….

ERIN HAS JUST STARTED UP A NEW ROCK BAND WITH FRIENDS AT SCHOOL, AND SHE’S WRITING MORE ORIGINAL TUNES. SHE’S THINKING ABOUT GOING TO COLLEGE – SOME DAYS, SHE’S NOT SURE SHE COULD HANDLE IT, OTHER DAYS, SHE FIGURES WHY NOT – MAYBE THERE SHE’LL GET ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS SHE’S HAD HER WHOLE LIFE.

ERIN: I want to go into special ed teaching and then like after that go to school to do psychological research. To learn like why I'm the way I am and why the kids I work with are the way they are and maybe help some people and you know, find out why they need certain things…. the brain is just so mysterious, nobody really knows how it works.

(MORPH INTO COBAIN’S VERSION…AND FADE UNDER)
* * *

THE WILD CHILD: COPING WITH A BIPOLAR YOUTH WAS WRITTEN, REPORTED, AND PRODUCED BY KAREN BROWN. JOHN DANKOSKY EDITED THE PROGRAM. ADDITIONAL HELP WAS PROVIDED BY CHRISTINA ANTOLINI, BETH CAISSIE, DYLAN SCHNEIDER, FRANCES CARR, BART FELLER, AND BOB PAQUETTE. THIS PROGRAM IS A PRODUCTION OF WFCR IN AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS, IN COLLABORATION WITH WNPR, CONNECTICUT PUBLIC RADIO. FUNDING WAS PROVIDED BY A GRANT FROM THE ICARUS FOUNDATION. SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FAMILIES OF ERIN REDDICK, ERIC RANCKE, AND ATHENA RONOLDO. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BIPOLAR DISORDER IN YOUTH, PLEASE VISIT WFCR’S WEBSITE, AT WFCR.ORG.

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