I'm so sorry you're going through this. My sister is bipolar type 2, with rapid cycling, and I watched my mother try to deal with her. (Fortunately or unfortunately, my sister self-medicated with food, not drugs or alcohol, so she wasn't a physical danger to herself.) I *so* understand that you're afraid of alienating your daughter, and are worried that she'll leave and you won't see her. The only thing I know for sure is that nothing good ever comes out of acting from fear. I'll tell you my bias. I watched my mother do much the same with my sister as you're doing with your daughter. My mother's main concerns were keeping my sister relatively calm and not letting her break their relationship. My mother did things she *knew* were counter-productive, because she was afraid of losing my sister. She "helped" my sister in school - to the point of actually doing many of her assignments. She wrote absence excuse notes for fake illnesses. She provided my sister with spending money. (I, OTOH, started working at age 15.) Later on, my mother gave my sister a place to live, rent-free. She paid for everything - clothes, food, utilities, car insurance, gas ... you name it. My sister got a good education and could get good jobs, but when she got them, she spent all her money on spending sprees. (In one week in 1986, she bought a $20,000 car, a $2,000 exercise machine, $1,500 of stereo equipment, $1,000 in CD's, and probably a whole lot more stuff I never knew about.) My mother eventually gave her money, because she didn't want to lose my sister. (By that time, it wasn't a physical loss she was afraid of, but my sister would go into her room and completely ignore my mother if she didn't like what my mom was doing.) When her illness cycled, my sister would rage at my mother. (In type 2 bipolar, the manic cycle is more a matter of anger than what we think of as mania.) My sister would throw books and scream and make life miserable, but my mother took it, because she was afraid my sister would stop talking to her. My sister lived with my mom until the day my mother died. One of the last things my mother said to me was, "Take care of your sister." Well, I loved my mother enormously, but *THAT* wasn't going to happen, at least not the way my mother was doing it. Once my sister lost her safety net and had to be responsible for herself, she managed to do it. My sister is still ill, on multiple medications, and is hospitalized from time to time, but now she's much more responsible. She holds down a full-time job, something she hadn't done for more than a couple months at a time before my mom died. My sister will tell you that what my mother did for her, though it was done out of love (and fear), made her illness worse, not better. She'll also tell you that while she loved our mother, she never respected her. I don't know if any of this strikes a chord, but there it is. I can't say what you should do, because I'm not in your situation. I just want to urge you to consider that you're not just hurting yourself by placating your daughter to the extent you've described, you're actually hurting her. I keep thinking of that old adage about the definition of madness being doing the same thing over and over and expecting the results to change. I think you know you have to do something different, because you don't like the results you're getting. As to why bipolar illness (and ADHD, and all the rest) are diagnosed so often today, who knows? Personally, I think they're real illnesses and have been around forever, but they're also over-diagnosed. You don't need to solve the societal problem, though, you just need to figure out what's happening with your daughter. If she *does* have bipolar illness, then it doesn't really matter if 10,000 other people have been misdiagnosed with bipolar. And if she doesn't have it, many of the things you need to do are still the same. (BTW, I agree with Alisande that you're right to look at the diagnosis with a critical eye, and ask for a second opinion.) I'm sorry if anything I've written makes it sound like there's anything remotely simple about the problems you're facing. I wish you the best of luck.

I missed my scheduled cleaning last month and am having some sensitivity. Pretty sure I'll try to reschedule something for June. Received this email the other day: We are happy to be reopening on May 4th. We will be following safety protocols in order to ensure safety for our patients and team members. What we are doing: Medical Grade H13 Air Filtration throughout the office Hydrogen Peroxide rinses provided before treatment Screening patients before scheduling appointments Temperature scan performed before entering our office All patients must have a temperature less than 100.4 degrees Utilizing universal barrier precautions and personal protective equipment Use the continuous suction system and high volume evacuation Reduced number of patients in the office at a given time Call from your vehicle when you arrive for your appointment Removed all magazines and unnecessary items from the reception room Disinfecting the reception room, check-in and check-out counters, door knobs and bathrooms every hour and after every patient. AdvantaClean disinfected Air Duct and HVAC Systems We encourage patients to contact us starting April 27th to schedule or reschedule the appointments cancelled due to the temporary closure. Our office also completed Anti-Microbial Treatment throughout our office including Air Duct and HVAC system.

if you really want to go all out, google "choo choo shoes". i bought the first pair for my grandson when he was 2 and of course, he outgrew them quickly so had to go up in sizes. i think he's been through 3 pairs now and he loves them. they do have a "silence" feature but the sounds aren't very loud.

Here's an update: Last week the pain management physiatrist examined the MRI of my TMJ and Cervical spine. He then confirmed that my right side (where i'm hurting, and where tooth #30 was done) sustained cartilage damage. He called it a mess. He spoke of potential Botox and Cortisone injections. He also mentioned I may possibly need surgery, which terrifies me to the Nth degree as i read horror testimonials online. So much for my primary doctor, who merely looked at me and claimed "your cheek isn't swollen". Dead wrong. As for cervical, he said I have arthritis in my neck, and that was very probably a contributing factor toward my susceptibility to TMJ injury. He advised me to visit a TMJ knowledgeable dentist for further opinion re: Botox & Cortisone etc., so I'm hoping to soon schedule a consult with an oral surgeon. Frankly, at this point, I have major reservations re: all doctors who keep throwing curveballs at us such as "A is because of B, and C is because of D". Who cares if my neck-arthritis could have caused me susceptibility. The bottom line is, this never happened to me UNTIL the endodontal-butcher forced me into an unnatural situation within ONE week ALL because of HIS error AND ignoring my plea's about what i can handle. Another curveball example, is when a butcher-podiatrist insisted that my foot pain is probably due to bad back. That know-it-all podiatrist was responsible for THREE needless problems I incurred subsequently. (1) He insisted on putting an Ace on my ankle, even though I never visited him due to my ankle, rather my Tarsal-Tunnel. That Ace was the cause of irreversible swelling & tenderness to my ankle. Furthermore, (2) because he scared me about my back, I visited a chiropractor who REALLY butchered my back - I began to have true back pain subsequent to my series of visits to him. (3) I visited a phys.therapist re: my back, and they had me pulling on a rope without even monitoring me, basically leaving me to my devices. That repetitive-stress caused my left ring finger to thicken with arthritis.