Childhood Bipolar Diagnosis?

I enjoy reading "My life as being a bipolar person", and she's given me permission to share a little from her blog. She's been doing some research about children with Bipolar disorder vs. ADHD that I wanted to share here....

Both disorders share many characteristics: impulsivity, inattention, hyperactivity, physical energy, behavioral and emotional lability (behavior and emotions change frequently), frequent coexistence of conduct disorder and oppositional-defiant disorder, and learning problems. Motor restlessness during sleep may be seen in both (children who are bipolar are physically restless at night when “high or manic”,though they may have little physical motion during sleep when “low or depressed”).

And the differences are;

The destructiveness that are in both disorders may seem the same but they are very different. A child with ADHD often breaks things carelessly while playing, where as the destructiveness with a bipolar child is not a result of carelessness, but usually out of anger. The duration and intensity of the angry outbursts and temper tantrums in the two disorder differs. A kid with ADHD usually calm down within 20 to 30 minutes wheras a kid with bipolar will continue to feel and act angry for over 30 minutes to 4 hour. The energy that a child with ADHD puts out during the anger outburst could be mimicked by an adult, If an adult tried to mimick a bipolar child would reach exhaustion in a few minutes.

You can check out more at her blog, linked above...