Finally

Wednesday, Robert and I took Aleq to see his doctor and I felt that progress was made. He really listened to our concerns and talked at length with Aleq. He had previously told us that although Aleq's previous Psychiatrist was leaning towards Bipolar, He felt that Aleq was too young to make such a call.
After listening to everything we were saying, he decided that Aleq was not too young and made the diagnosis of Atypical Bipolar. Really that means that Aleq does not fit all the symptoms perfectly. He has mood disturbances but not the extremes that we might expect. For instance, his High mood is exhibited by the complete inability to sit still, rapid talking, etc. His Low mood is exhibited by irritability and maybe pouting in a chair for about 45 minutes. This may change, of course, and either get better or worse. I'm betting worse.
The medications he has been on to treat ADHD were actually doing more harm than good. They were actually causing his highs and lows to be more frequent, last longer, and causing sleeplessness which is the kiss of death for kids like him. His doc doesn't usually act so quickly on meds but he is quickly weaning him off all ADHD meds and is planning to treat him totally differently.
One might think that this diagnosis would be very difficult to hear. However, I am just so happy to know what we are dealing with and finally be able to make decisions and changes that will hopefully help my poor guy.
It has been 3 days of weaning and already I am seeing a difference. He is a joy to be around. Last night we did 2 pages of math homework which would usually end in tears for both of us, frustration, incomplete homework, and a possible meltdown. But he completed the whole thing, we both laughed at funny mistakes, and we were happy upon completion. He also told me that he could not explain to me how much he loved me because there were no words that big. He had a very enjoyable conversation with Robert just before bed and was asleep by 9:15.
Of course he was bothering his brother and sister and seemed to have more energy than usual but I have my boy back for today.