Children have a rougher time dealing with this disorder because they don't understand why they feel the way they do. Sometimes before they are diagnosed, the child may be labeled in school as a troublemaker or the child is so withdrawn that they have lost interest in school activities, and have failed to make friends. With Bipolar disorder, understanding what the child is going through is the most important key to treatment. Bipolar is a serious condition, and although there is no cure, it's treatable with medication. Symptoms can start showing up as early as infancy.
Bipolar disorder is different in children than it is in adults.
Children usually have continuous mood swings that will go back and forth from mania to depression. These quickly changing moods produce chronic irritability. There may be times where the child will seem normal and display no mood swings or any other symptoms of Bipolar at all, only to have the symptoms come back at another time. In adolescents the symptoms of Bipolar become more like those of an adult. Most children and teens respond well to therapy and lead normal lives keeping their symptoms under control.