(CBS) Looking at Haley Abaspour, you might see a regular 11-year-old girl. But she'll be the first to tell you she's different.

She says she doesn't feel like she is capable of having fun and many things that other kids don't worry about cause her stress.

Living with Haley is far from normal. At first, Haley's mother Christine Abaspour thought she was gifted.

"She always had worries, about everybody," Christine told Saturday Early Show co-anchor Tracy Smith.

But it soon became apparent that something much deeper was going on.

"Even when you talked to her she would look over your shoulder, into space," her father Bejan Abaspour said. "And there was no one there, you know? It wasn't a one-on-one conversation. She would look away … Always looking, staring at something, over your shoulder."

At age 6, Haley was diagnosed with a laundry list of psychiatric disorders: obsessive compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome and above all, bipolar disorder. It manifests itself in sudden mood swings, with depression and anxiety — something the family calls "episodes."

"I always have to be doing something," Haley said. If she's not doing something, she said she gets "really frustrated and (has) the episode."

Haley's family is well aware of the signs that an episode is on its way.

"You can see the expression on her face and you know it's coming," Bejan said.

"She just sort of takes on a whole new demeanor and she just gets angry and gets a frown," Christine said.

"Then she loses total control and she's on the floor," her father said.

"They don't know what to do for me," Haley said. "And it's kind of hard 'cause I always ask them for help and they can't really do anything for me."

"She's reaching out for help but yet I can't," Christine said. "All I want to do is take her and hold her but I can't do that because that doesn't soothe her."

Thanks to early diagnosis, they've learned how to handle it. They wait it out and eventually, the clouds in Haley's head part. But over the years the episodes have taken their toll on the whole family, including Haley's 13-year-old sister, Megan.

"It's hard to live a normal life and then come home and this is going on," Megan said. "It's hard to kind of have my own life at the same time, but I try the best I can."

Experts are trying to understand it too. Research on children as young as Haley is still in its infancy, but it is estimated that 1 percent of adolescents are bipolar.

Dr. Janet Wozniak says more kids are getting tagged as being bipolar but it still is a tricky diagnosis.

"There's a reluctance to consider that a severe illness such as this could start in childhood," she said. "While a certain degree of mood instability in childhood is normal because it's part of how we develop as humans, the mood instability that we see in bipolar disorder is of an extreme sort."

Haley gets weekly therapy and is also on a cocktail of anti-psychotic medications that's constantly tweaked as her symptoms change.

Dr Joseph Jackson, Haley's psychiatrist at Cambridge Health Alliance says the treatment has paid off.

"Medication has actually helped quite a bit. It has really reduced some of her symptoms," he said.

The medication is vital, but risky. Most of the drugs prescribed to children are only FDA approved for adults, and the dosage requires constant monitoring. Some of Haley's symptoms have disappeared, but there isn't a miracle pill.

The Abaspours were initially apprehensive about these very strong, potentially dangerous drugs. Bejan said they weaned her off of everything and she was fine for a couple days, but on the third day all of her symptoms were back and even worse. For now, the medication is the only thing that gives them hope that she'll be able to lead a normal life.

"With a cold you take cold syrup or what have you but with this she's gonna have to take medications for the rest of her life," Bejan said. "And it doesn't help as much. It doesn't cure it."

"We're kinda searching for the thing but there might not be the thing that would help me," Haley said.

Getting Haley diagnosed so early may help her in the long run but it doesn't make the future easy. Haley will need to be cared for her entire life. Haley's parents hope that new medications and advances in research will make it possible for her to live on her own, because trying to tweak the medication and see if anything can decrease the number of "episodes" she has is a day-to-day process.

"She in fact asked me one time, she said 'Dad, when I get older, uh, can I come back home?' " Bejan said. "And I said 'Yes!' And she said, she said 'Will you be there for me?' and I said 'Yes I will.' "

For more information on bipolar children, visit BPKids.org and also check the Mass General Hospital site for Dr. Wozniak's bio.

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