Hello, I have been lurking around and reading all the messages and find 
them quite interesting. I have a 10 year old daughter that has severe 
emotional problems.  She is having lots of troubles in every facet of life 
nd
I am having tremendous problems helping her and finding her the help she 
needs.
    She has been diagnosed at 2 1/2 with Juvenile Diabetes also. 6yo with 
DD.
at 8 it was changed to ADHD, and at 9 1/2 they have decided it is Manic 
Depression or a Bi-Polar disease.  She has taken at one time or another, 
Ritalin, Dexedrine, cylert, the amphetimines all made her worse, except the 
Ritalin did help the first two years and then seemed like it wasn't helping 
t
all.  She has been on imipramine, amitriptyline, doxepin, and these may have 
helped her sleep for a few hours but really made no differance that we or the 
school could tell. 
    She has been on LIthium and trazadone the last 2 months and we have 
increased it almost weekly to get her blood level high enough to help and we 
see no improvement.  She has increasingly gotten worse the last 6-9 months or 
so, but puberty is on its way isn't it. 
    Anyway, She has no motivation, is flunking fourth grade. Hasn't made a 
passing grade yet. Her teachers tell her just to lay her head on the desk and 
not worry about anything anyway, since she is flunking all ready. I don't 
ven
know how to disipline her because she has such a low self esteem, all we seem 
to do is fuss at her for one thing or another.  I really don't know what a 
true expectation of her abilities are.  The school finally (after 4 years of 
this) have decided they better test her more... 
    I want to know how to disipline a child with ADHD, How to increase her 
self esteem. She eats whatever she wants especially in the middle of the 
night, and being diabetic she sees no reason she shouldn't. The future just 
doesn't seem real to her I guess, and consequences have no meaning to her. 
Punishments are over and its like she never had a punishment and may do the 
same thing that very night.  I am just lost, and this may not make much sense 
but I do think you may see my desperation. 
    If anyone has any advice I really appreciate it! Thanks for your time!  
                                             ***Sheree Warner***
                                             
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