Traveling with Bipolar Disorder

We are like everyone else. Sometimes it is nice to get away. The difference is our trips tend to not be tranquil or boring. Traveling with Donny is a masters degree in patience. It doesn't take him long to become bored, even though he tends to pack more things than he could ever hope to use on the trip. On top of what he packs, I usually pack the portable DVD player and his Nintendo ds. Donny also has issues with feeling claustrophobic. When the 4 kids and I would drive to Iowa from Houston, he would have a really hard time. Usually about Dallas, he would start picking fights with his siblings or he would throw a tantrum. I would usually end up pulling over to referee the ensuing fight, which usually ended up with me either restraining Donny or spanking him or both. Then again in Missouri and if it was a particularly difficult trip, somewhere along Interstate 80. What we have discovered in the last few years is that he is acting out because his anxiety level is skyrocketing and he doesn't know how to express what he is feeling. His emotions are so chaotic and twisted up and he just couldn't get a grasp of what he was feeling.
This weekend, we drove the 5 hours down to Edinburg, TX for my nephew's 4th birthday. We were about 45 minutes from Edinburg and he started. He started picking at Drew, trying to start a fight. Then he started with me, at one point throwing something that ended up hitting me in the ear. We were finally able to talk him down and Oscar was questioning him about what feelings he was having and why didn't he use his words to tell us what he was feeling before they got that bad. On the way home, we had one bad tantrum. We pulled over and stretched our legs.  Donny and Oscar talked about what was going on with Donny. A couple of hours later, Donny got my attention to tell me he was starting to get anxious and the frustration was causing him to get angry. We were able to help him calm his anxiety and avoided another tantrum. Donny being able to voice his feelings to avoid a tantrum was HUGE! Besides the obvious avoidance of the tantrum, his voicing his feelings in an appropriate manner is something we have been working on for years. Tonight, I'm doing the happy dance. Don't worry. I know that tomorrow we could very well be back where we were yesterday, but if he could do it once, he could do it again.