Alternative Therapies Revealed
alternative medicine, natural therapies & herbal medicine

talking to me. also go to. try walking. go to nolongerlonely.com 4 support

Bipolar cannot be adequately treated without medication. Lithium is an effective treatment, and it is a naturally occuring compound. People are afraid of meds because there are risks, but it is thought that NOT treating bipolar is risky too, because of progressive brain damage from the illness itself.

Here are my bipolar survival tips (including a lot of non-medication tips).

#1 You need to take the meds as prescribed. You can’t miss. A lot of people forget from time to time, and the pills can’t work if you forget to take them. There are pill boxes with little alarms on them. If your symptoms are getting bad, you need to call up your psychiatrist for a med adjustment. You may never get complete relief, but you will need to try things maybe for a few YEARS to be sure you can’t tweak things to a really good place for you.
#2 You probably will need the support of a counselor all your life. You have to learn to cope with stress better than most people, because stress makes the bipolar symptoms a lot worse. You will also have to make big efforts to keep a good social support network. To avoid burning through people, make sure you apologize sincerely and often if you go off on them or ignore them due to symptoms. You may want to join a support group with other people with mood disorders, they will give you a break and take it less personally when you relapse. Get some books on reducing stress. Over time, work your life into a low-stress direction.
#3 You need to keep a routine. Get up and go to bed at the same time each day. Sleeping in makes depression worse, staying up all night makes mania worse. Never take a swing shift type job.

If your depression seems to be more of a problem in the winter, try to get more sun. You could have seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, or your depression could have a seasonal component, meaning you can get depressed other times of the year, but you tend to have more trouble in the winter. A light box is really good if you can afford one (about $300 online, don’t get it at a local store, they will charge more for a light less than 1/2 as bright). Since I will always have a mood disorder, I have put in extra windows, keep the drapes mounted so they don’t cover them, make sure I spend a lot of time in southern exposure rooms, painted the walls peach and yellow, mostly. I even have a skylight, although that was here when I moved in (and I LOVE it, it helps a lot!!!!!)

If anxiety is a component of your depression, try turning the heat up in the house or dressing much more warmly. It is hard to feel anxiety when you are too warm. I was able to cut out ativan use altogether by using this trick. Saved me big $$ too, because pills cost way more than heat. Hot baths work too, and in a pinch, like at work/school, you can try running hot water over your hands. Also, if anxiety is a primary problem, avoid caffeine like the plague. I personally use a lot of caffeine, because the depression is much more of a problem than the anxiety. Can’t win for losing! Also, some cold remedies can cause anxiety and mania, and lack of control. Look for the “agitation in children” warning on the box. Adult bipolar folks can get problems too. Other drugs can trigger mania, too, like steroids (given at surgery I think).

Try meditation tapes like progressive muscle relaxation or guided imagery. They may seem silly at first, but they work!! They help reduce stress, which makes depression worse.
Go out with friends, and if you don’t have any, find a club to join and MAKE yourself go until you actually look forward to it. Isolation makes depression worse. I go to a social club for people with severe mental illness, because I’m ashamed of my disability and don’t want to deal with the “what do you do for a living” question.

Exercise at least 1/2 hour a day, and anytime you feel really hyper or depressed. Exercise is a great mood stabilizer and cuts down on anxiety a lot.

If your mania makes it hard for you to sleep, here are some good “sleep hygeine” tips so you can sleep better. Like go to bed and get up about the same time each day, even weekends. Don’t use your bedroom to watch TV and read and use the computer and all that-just use the room as a bedroom normally would be used. Don’t do stuff that pumps you up right before bed, like exercising and using the computer. (sooooooooooo hard!) You want to use that last hour to wind down-Take a bath? Make the bedroom really dark, cover up the clock radio, even so the light doesn’t shine at you. If you live in the rackety city, use a noise generator (makes wave sounds and the like) to cover up the city sounds. Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening.

Put a lot of colorful things around the house, happy type things, and keep the blinds open and let the sun in. Get yourself some flowers. Put on some nice clothes. Make a list of things that make you happy. Here’s some things on my list: A basket full of fluffy kittens, bread fresh from the oven, Fireworks popping on a warm summer evening, The first fireflies of the season, the scent of Jergen’s cherry almond lotion, The crisp sound of a saltine cracker breaking, fresh sheets on the bed, flicking a topwater lure out onto the morning-still lake water, etc. Use all your senses and read that list when you are breaking down.

Work on time management if being overwhelmed and late for things and too much to do is getting to you. Cut back on other responsibilities temporarily so you can spend more restorative time with friends and family. Ask for help when you are really having symptoms. You have to learn to be humble here, if you need help, you need help.

You got a significant other? Extra physical touch is very helpful. Most people in the US or UK are touch deprived, so hold hands more, hug more, give shoulder rubs, etc. A pet is good to cuddle with, too, if your home situation allows you to get one. (I’m an animal lover, don’t get one if you can’t commit to it for 15 years)

If your bipolar is severe (poorly controlled by meds) then consider asking for help from social services. My county offers classes and there is also a consumer run drop in center, which is a fun club for people with mental illnesses run by people with mental illnesses. We play cards and pictionary and do crafts and take trips places, etc. The drop in center has helped me more than anything else, except the pills. Social support-so important!!

Go to bipolarworld.net and read all of Dr. Phelp’s (Ask the Doctor) stuff, including the links to his site. You can learn a lot from him, he’s a bipolar specialist.

I have really really severe psychiatric symptoms from bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress disorder. And I am able to control my behavior most of the time even when I am suffering, and able to feel quite a bit better using some of these tricks, because the meds have only been partly effective for me. I am in agony a lot of the time, really unstable. If I didn’t do stuff like the above, I would be in an institution for sure. So hopefully some of these things may provide some real relief for you.