After years of looking for answers, I feel I may finally be in the right place.

My daughter has always had a few quirks about her, but don't we all. She has been in and out of family/individual counseling for many years of her life; coping with brother with cancer, jealousy over brother getting attention, depression related to his diagnosis, etc.

She has always been a child who required MORE of your attention, needed constant stimulation; basically needed to keep busy. From ages of 2 to 9 1/2 she spent many hours a week involved in structured dance classes and tumbling, in addition to school and friends. She was bossy; needed to have things "her way", but seemed to be coping well with life.

At 9 1/2 we were in a minor car accident. We were stopped and hit from behind. She began having headaches and sleeping difficulties; mostly sleeping too much. She tired more easily and began having difficulties in school. She had to take naps and usually fell asleep any time she was in a moving car. It was NOT normal. Her need for more sleep felt made her not want to do 'extra' activities. She no longer had the excess energy to burn; it seemed to take every thing in her power to get through a school day. Her school work began to slide; doing her best no longer seemed to matter. We noticed immediate changes in the quality of her work; especially her handwriting and drawings. Her teachers commented that she would 'zone out' and not seem to be paying attention. She had once been a leader in her dance classes, now she couldn't remember the steps. We felt like these were all hits to her self esteem thus causing depression.

Her pediatrician did not believe when weeks after the accident she was still experiencing headaches/neck pain. Finally after determining she was faking it she was sent to be inpatient for an evaluation. The neurology department said that her neck muscles were locked up...from pain/lack of movement and began doing botox/lidocaine injections. This process of occipital nerve blocks went on every 3-4 months for a few years. We could always tell when the nerve block was wearing off, as she would begin falling asleep too easily once again and also start losing her ability to function.

All of the inactivity led to weight gain. She made several attempts to re-join her dancing and tumbling classes, but just pretty much didn't feel good enough to get involved. She felt bad because things that were once so easy for her now required so much effort and pain. We felt like the weight gain, lack of activities, etc. led to depression.

At age thirteen she wrote a suicide note. We took it seriously. She had been on depression medications for a few years by this time, but never threatened or even mentioned suicide. She spent a few months at an outpatient facility where she learned some "coping" skills. (DBT program) Upon discharge she was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Within a week of leaving she was feeling worse again and given a diagnosis of bipolar. She has been doing okay..not great...on these meds for a little over a year.

A friend of mine has a sixteen year old daughter who is also having a difficult time. We were talking the other day when she mentioned her daughter had an evaluation with an OT and had been diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder. As my friend explained the diagnosis to me it started to make sense to me. The more I read, the more I realized that this disorder sounded like MY daughter. I have been reading non-stop and am starting to think that this bi-polar diagnosis is NOT the answer. I'm re-thinking my parenting of her and feeling HOPEFUL.

In the meantime I am trying to get her in for an evaluation. I'm not sure what to do with her school right now. She is struggling and getting her to go is close to impossible. Any thoughts on what might be my next steps to help her would be appreciated.

Also, when she saw the psych about a year ago he noticed her eyes not tracking properly. She was diagnosed with Convergence Insufficiency, did eye training with limited success. She was finally put into glasses to over-correct her eyes and doing better. I noticed in my reading that the Convergence Insufficiency is sometimes seen in SPD.

Thanks for reading.

It sounds like your daughter has had many difficult life changes, and I feel for her. I recently discovered the Brain Balance Centers. The program sounds so promising, I decided to get my daughter evaluated and have an appointment this week. It was the first thing I thought of when I read your daughter's story. This program can only be done until age 17, so if you are interested, it would be good to begin immediately. The website is: www.brainbalancecenters.com
My daughter has been doing OT for 10 months. There has been some limited improvement in her symptoms, but she is 5 y.o. I think the improvement for teenagers is more limited if they are just beginning in their teen years. I'd be interested in what you think after you look at the Brain Balance web site.