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Dear Unda Friends, I need help with my dear friend's 16 year old daughtee who is struggling with a combination of bi-polar disorder, ADD and possibly some borderline personality. Her meds keep her functioning. Without them she severely depressed, belligerent or acts out from the hyper-manic side and gets into serious trouble with boys. Her biological Mom is a borderline personality with many addictions (alcohol, pot, and sex) and depression. She is the third generation of women in her family with these issues and it looks like her daughter is the fourth. Our biggest issue right now is that her custodial Mom (my friend) is having to home school her to keep her out of trouble and focused. Her daughter's ADD is draining her vital energy to cope in a nightmarish situation where the biological Mom continues to wreak emotional and financial havoc on the family. It's out of the question right now to consider going off any of her meds as she immediately becomes out of control. She has a great therapist and psychiatrist working with her and it took a lot of work to get her functional. We are open to ideas for getting the ADD under control for now as we proceed with her emotional healing process. Down the road perhaps she'll be able to go off some of her meds. Pertinent history:1. She had a problem with dairy causing stomach aches and some diarrhea and when she was taken off it the symptoms resolved. Off dairy age 7 to 11 0r 12. Back on it now. Belligerent about going off it.2. Wheezing as in infant that resolved. By age 10 asthma came on when exposed to cold weather, especially the first snow- they'd end up in the ER. Gained weight around age 11 and asthma the came on with exercise as well.3. Ongoing painful abandonment by the bio Mom that became more clear to her by about age 10. A source of ongoing pain, disappointment and fear as the bio Mom acted out in dangerous ways.4. Weight gain at 11 or 12 seemed connected to emotional eating; sneaking food and overall eating bigger quantities. Also at that time she was depressed and went on Zoloft. It worked well for her. 5. Age 14 she experienced a full blown manic event that led to a diagnosis of bi-polar and she was put on different meds until Abilify seemed to work best. A blood test showed higher Triglycerides Cholesterol and Hgb A1C inching up. 6. Age 15 she went to a residential facility for eating disorders and the blood work normalized.7. Age 15 and a half she started sexually acting out via phone and internet and eventually encounters with the police; getting in her car and evading police. They dropped charges because they believe it was an out of control manic event. Her doctor put her on Lithium and she calmed down beautifully.8. Her eating goes from being fine to ravenous over-eating.9. In an adolescent, bi-polar disorder shows up as severe irritability that can become belligerent. She'll that a stand on any issue and fight anyone to make herself heard. Her Mom describes it as hiking herself up to a crazy level before the dam breaks and then she's calm, sorry, and says she felt she had no control at the time. She's trying to learn ways to stop herself from these episodes. 10. Her ability to concentrate and focus is so impaired. This issue has been noticed in school since age 9. Her custodial Mom is having to work so hard just to keep her on task and is therefore unable to get a job and provide much needed financial relief for her family. The bio Mom lives out of state and neither child will even talk to her because they both are fed up with her crazy hurtful behavior and her $ blackmail of the family which has inflicted a lot of hardship.11. She was once put on Adderol for the ADD and it made her completely flat emotionally and she disliked how she felt. She's always distracted and manipulating to get away from her task. Or she'll just bring up random thoughts and go off on tangents.Any ideas are welcome. Any of you especially familiar with these personality disorders and meds might be able to shed some light. We appreciate any help for our dear struggling girl. She's a bright light, loves animals and is becoming an adept horse woman as a barrel racer. She's awesome!!! Thanks for your help.Sincerely, Sobyl Bunis Chiropractor Santa Barbara and San Obispo