Bipolar and treatment

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Hey guys

Is there any way other than pills to treat bipolar? I'm sure there has to be some natural remedy or solution for bipolar. I suppose CBT could help, but has anyone had experience with this?

Thanks

Well, lithium carbonate is a salt - I don't know what is more natural than salt.

Seriously, it's better to use a range of treatments such as CBT, mindfulness, improve your social support, take note of your early warning signs, yoga, meditation, exercise, diet etc. Medicine will not work alone.

If you're thinking herbs, be very careful. I know that St John's Wort (Hypericum) is supposed to be good for depression, but bipolars have to be careful taking antidepressants in case they trigger a manic episode.
Remember that all kinds of nasty drugs are 'natural' - plants are potent.

Very nicely said, Sarah81.

Bipolar disorder, like schizophrenia, is a very serious neuropsych disorder, and thus, medication is almost always needed. That being said, one non-medication method that may help you is light therapy, but this is really only a depression treatment. Hypomania/mania are the aspects of bipolar disorder that almost always need medication treatment. CBT also is used for depression. The most important non-medication treatments for both the highs and lows of bipolar disorder, besides watching for warning signs of mood swings, are keeping a daily mood journal and getting the same amount of sleep every night. Too little sleep is a classic trigger for mania.

Counseling/talk therapy is a good tool for managing the often frustrating and confusing aspects of living with bipolar disorder, but some form of mood stabilizer usually is needed in addition.

CBT helps a lot! Also there is ECT and TMS, but you have to be in pretty bad shape for ECT and the side effects are severe. TMS is safer, but very expensive and still kind of experimental. Hopefully soon I'll get to try neurofeedback, which is new.

TMS for depression, like light therapy, also needs to be used with caution. There have been some clinical trials where participants received TMS for depression and then switched into mania shortly thereafter.

Thank you all for your replies

The ups aren't that bad, but the downs are the tough part. I'll look into light therapy and maybe St John's Wort. If anyone else has thoughts or experience on this matter I would be glad to hear about it.

Hello ,

Just joined the forum. Exactly the type of conversation I was looking for!

Right now I am reading the Narrative CBT for Psychosis book AND I am experiencing a bit 'euphoric' state hence now sleepless in the middle of the night.

CBT works very well for me in the 'fear' mode but seems to be useless to reduce the excitement in the 'manic' phase. Need to find out something else.

Now working very seriously on psychosis relapse prevention. I could have a normal and very happy life without these recurrent crisis. In my role as a Process Manager in a Telecom company I am working on high-profile projects with high budget and aggressive deadline exposure. Today I have experience a 'turnaround' from an extremely worried phase in the morning to a brilliant meeting in the afternoon where the stakeholders have been impressed by my contribution. Hence now a 'pre-manic' mood overshooting.

What has been extremely useful recently for me is a participation to a leadership workshop run by Extraordinary Leadership. It helped to develop empathy, self-awareness and self-confidence. Developing leadership values like for example trust and compassion helps to reduce the 'anxiety' of the 'pre-psychotic' phases.

Another aspect of my job is to promote Social BPM (Business Process Management). At the moment this is a buzzword with no clear concept. Is about giving more autonomy to the end Users with less focus on system design this to reduce development costs and accelerate change management cycles. A key aspect of this new 'social' working method is to involve a community in the process development.

Here there is a clear analogy with this Forum vs one single source of authority like a psychiatrist.

Now I am trying to keep track of my behaviour via notes on paper. I have claimed a www site where I am collecting my thoughts and some material. I would like to share the link with a few positive thinkers from this community with similar kinds of disorder. My company might support us as this is CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). My bosses unfortunately know about my psychotic crisis... However, this is also an opportunity as I can afford to speak openly.

Our collaboration on the www site would have to be focused like a real work. No moaning please...

I would share the leadership book names and some more detailed information about Social BPM.

For the psychological ups and down we do not need more sources than ourselves... Let's see what I can find on 'natural' methods for the 'manic' phase.

Disclaimer : my assumption is that everybody on this forum should know that in case of doubt one has to follow the doctor's advice...

This thread has strenghtened my conviction that it must be possible to find a way to avoid relapses other than preventive medication at the first sign of deviation...

Cheers

Thierry

Discovered something interesting today. Sarcastic chuckling boosts hypomanic state. Like pumping adrenaline, morphine or equivalent in the brain. Feels 'high'.

Tried to adopt a very serious behaviour. Did not allow me to chuckle anymore. Mania faded away. Felt tired.... Great!

Working on self-awareness and self-control now.

Natural? Arsenic is natural. Did I make the point?

Natural and Good...do not equate. Get over it.

We all watch way too mutch Mad. Ave. and don't understand what we see. Get hip, ads are the best show on TV and always have been.

As others have said, medication is vital, however there are natural things you can do (some of which my psychiatrist who is a bipolar specialist has also recommended) in conjunction with that which do help.

* Light therapy (as others have recommended). You don't have to buy a light box for this, even just exposing yourself to 10 minutes of bright sunlight a day (like tanning - sit still and expose as much skin as possible) can help.

* Fish oil. The omega 3 fatty acids in this can help stabilize the mood but you need to take in it a higher dose than the general 2-4 capsules a day - I was taking 8 capsules a day until I stopped taking that (I feel I may have a fish allergy) and started taking chia seeds instead (which also have an extremely high omega 3 content.

*Regular eating and sleeping patterns. This is a big one and can make a huge difference to your stability. For me, especially with the sleep, it can mean the difference between stability and dropping into another rapid cycle where I need to drop out of things or even take extra medications to stabilize again.

* Lots of exercise! The more exercise the better, especially for depression - a solid workout can really help alleviate the depression if you can push yourself past the initial psychological sensation of tiredness (once the adrenaline gets going it tends to override it).

* Extremely healthy and high nutrient eating. Another biggie in my opinion - again for me this has made the difference between stability and rapid cycling. In my healthy eating pattern I go gluten free, avoid all high sugar fried and high fat foods, and eat an alkaline diet (minimal acid) with an absolute ton of vegetables and salad (fruits are good too, I just eat less of those because I have a fructose intolerance). Every morning for breakfast I drink 700ml of vegetable juice blended from whole vegetables in my juice blender. For anyone who wants it, the ingredients are thus (you can vary which ones you choose to include and the quantities of each):

1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
1 small/ 1/2 large beetroot (beet)
1/2 cucumber with skin
1/2 zucchini
piece broccoli
1-2 green apples
1/2 lemon
small piece fresh ginger
handful green beans
small piece tumeric
1/2 turnip
cabbage (red/wombok/etc - I prefer wombok as it's slightly sweet and green is best)
piece parsnip
few leaves of kale
few leaves of bok choy

^ generally I'll use some combination of this depending on what's in the fridge, but not everything at once.

Have either of the two of you who mentioned TMS actually tried it? It sounds interesting to me, as I've run the gamut of depression medicines...

Also, reduce your sugar intake as it can act as a mood destabilizer.