Last night, I awoke to hear pounding on my neighbor's door, and it was the police. I was naturally curious as to what was going on so I rushed to the door, and took a listen.
Tenant: "I am American citizen, I can show you my papers!"
Cops: <inaudible>
Tenant: "do you want to see my papers, I am US Citizen."
This went on for about five minutes despite the cops telling him what I can only guess is that they aren't interested in seeing his papers.
Cops: "can you tell us what is going on? Why did you call us?"
Tenant: "My family is attacking me!"
Cops: "Why are they attacking you?"
Tenant: "I am genius!"
Cops: "excuse me?"
Tenant: "I am genius!"
Cops: "a---"
Tenant: "I have millions and millions of dollar! I am genius!"
(this went on for another 5 or so minutes)
Cops: "um...k. I see that you were hospitalized recently, can you tell us what that was about?"
Tenant: (calmly) "I'm bipolar."
Cops: "Why---"
Tenant: "I am powered by almighty GOD!"
Cops: "alright sir, why don't we go downstairs and talk to the ambulance people and see if your meds are working?"
Tenant: (calmly) "okay let me get my coat."
<the sound of heavy boot steps are heard echoing down the stairwell>
I peer out the window and I see this gentleman being loaded into the back of the ambulance, in a very manic state, his "genius" contained within the ambulance.
I love my building! It is pulsating with such life, it is drama and adventure mixed together.
My 7year old is bipolar, ADHD, and ODD (Opositional Defiance Disorder)... I'm not looking forward to those days... I thank god everyday we haven't had to hospitalize him yet.. He thought he was Spider-Man for the longest time, a typical kid would throw himself at a wall once or twice and realize he can't climb it. Not my boy, a week straight and a sudden depression for another week wondering why he's not super like the guy in the cartoon...
Oh my, Friskers. I't not familiar with oppositional defiance disorder (is it anything like antisocial personality disorder?), but I do know that bipolar disorder is a particularly challenging behavioral disorder for both patients and their families. I did not post this with the intent to disparage people who suffer from behavioral disorders, I just thought it was a funny account of the daily goings-on in my building, and this individual just happened to suffer from bipolar disorder.
I hope you will forgive my carelessness. And 7 is very young to be dealing with severe depression. I am very sorry.
It doesn't bother me, things like that can be chuckley. Just being on the other side of things I worry a bit about the illusions he has and might soon have. They really live in another world. I think we have dealt with it as best we can and its good to know he is recognizing his cycles. Believe me, and I don't want to sound like a bad parent, the shenanigans he gets into, especially the Spider-Man thing was funny as hell. The funny part of your story is I can identify with it, I see this in Will all the time and you can set a watch to it, step1: victim, step2: narcissism, step3: illusions of grandeur. It's nice to hear another's story and to see the same exact pattern in their thought process.
The ODD is the tuff nut. The ADHD has been "altered" by the bipolar in a positive way I feel. As long as he is in a "competitive arena" the narcissism caused by the bipolar gives him some uncanny focus. ODD on the other hand causes stress and is tuff to deal with. He will argue and fight just to fight. Does that make sense? A typical child will ask for something they know they won't get maybe twice, they'll argue their point for a few minutes and give up for doing something else... We have had 6+ hour confrontations. If you ignore the behavior it gets worse, we managed to go to the brink once and he went a good 10 hours before he just fell asleep, throwing fits takes a lot out of kids... He gets a kind of high from confrintation. It's funny to think the bipolar is "easy" to deal with.
There is issues, there always will be. If at the end of my time he understands that he is unique and gifted in other ways and finally learns that he's responsible for his actions, ill die knowing I did it right..
There's no worries, you don't need to apologize for anything, can't go around life worrying if your going to step on someone's toes. A funny story is a funny story. If I was over at your place id have my ear glued to the door chuckling myself. Don't hold back, please, I really enjoy the stories you have, this is my "Facebook" and I need the funny stories..
On a side note: a while back I made character cards of my family. I made two for William, one was the one I posted on the site and it played to his sensitivity and selflessness. The other focused on his behavior disorders, in the end he got to see his differences as strengths and he finally has his proof of being a superhero..
I'm glad we understand each other, Friskers. ODD sounds interesting, I will have to look it up when I am done with this very difficult semester. Finding humor in one's children is not the mark of a bad parent; I wish my parents laughed at me more because I carried some frankly very stupid reasoning well into my 20s...I even joined a cult once. I think my experience in a cult is what made me so aggressively critical of religions, especially Christianity; but that is a topic for another thread.
I enjoy writing funny stories. One of my English professors compared me to David Sedaris after I wrote a story about being a teenager in an awkward situation. It is a bit racy, but I would be happy to post it here sometime. I am grateful for such a receptive audience!
I noticed that is a full moon tonight after you posted your story.
Before I was a police officer I thought the idea of the moon affecting people's behavior was ridiculous. Now I have absolutely no doubt that the full moon exacerbates the condition of some mentally ill people.
In my experience it is mainly people with paranoid schizophrenic tendencies who I run into on the full moon nights. My guess is that the brain is made up of such a high percentage of water that the moon affects a brain like it affects bodies of water. All I know is that I run into people who are completely delusional on those occasions and reasonably lucid at other times.
Nurses I have spoken with notice it too. I don't have a logical explanation for the phenomenon. Your theory is a sound one, interesting...