My natural treatment for bipolar disorder
I have bipolar disorder and this is what I to keep me well
If you want to read how I how I learned that I have the bipolar disorder and how I learned to treated click here.
My typical maintenance treatment consists of:
With breakfast and dinner I’ll take a multi-vitamin/B complex/mineral, zinc, omega-3 fish oils, scullcap, baccopa, Rhodiola, high potency curcumin with piperine, NAC cysteine, B6, vitamin E and mood enhancing probiotics in the mornings and a couple of spoons of glycine and taurine powder in teas and coffees. The image on the right is the handful of supplement I take with.
To learn more about controlling bipolar disorder using supplements from the following links:
Bipolar Neurotransmitters (coming soon)
How to Overcome Depression (coming soon)
Depression Foods
I can’t deny that it a lot of pills but it’s not too many pills, it’s the right number of pills as I’ve had my bipolar disorder under control for 15 years now and the last 10 years I’ve been completely well except when I tried to stop taking my supplements should.
Before getting out of bed do 6 minutes of bright blue light therapy while listening to the clock radio. This bright blue light therapy has a natural antidepressant effect, it boosts by serotonin and dopamine levels, there is some evidence that it boosts neuro plasticity and a very important thing for me is it reset the timing of my biological clock (suprachiasmatic nucleus); without this reset my sleep wake cycle tends to drift forwards i.e. instead of keeping to 24 hours my clock runs slowly at about 26 hours making by sleep/wake cycle run later every day which is very disruptive. I’m currently experimenting with specific meditation
techniques that appears to change my brain and reset my biological clock and a new flavonoid supplement nobiletin from citrus peels that appears to intensify the signalling from the peripheral body clock to further maintain my sleep-wake cycles. So far I have overcome all aspects of my bipolar disorder except this last one off by sleep-wake cycle which still requires constant work and regularly goes out of cycle. I have super quality sleep it’s just the timing runs late which to be honest is a minor inconvenience because I am self-employed.
To learn more see:
Bright Blue Light Therapy For Depression and Sleep (coming soon)
Dark Therapy for Bipolar Disorder (coming soon)
For a couple of decades if I was depressed or even slightly sluggish the previous day I would take tyrosine upon rising to boost dopamine, however since I performed my neuroplasticity boosting treatment in 2012 I haven’t had to do that, which suggests to me that this treatment significantly repair the dopaminergic systems in my brain.
If I notice myself speeding up, having a diminished need for sleep and interested in reckless activities/behaviours then I recognise this is the early warning signs that I’m heading towards mania, I would then discontinue the Rhodiola and take extra lithium, zinc, glycine, taurine and switch to a more tranquillising probiotic and add sufficient lecithin to make me sleep deeply. I sleep in a totally dark bedroom this is called dark therapy, after you set it up the costs nothing to do on a daily basis and it can have wonderful stabilising effects for the bipolar brain.
I used to have to adjust my prescription to protect against an ensuing manic attack 6 times a year however since performing my neuroplasticity boosting treatment in 2012 I’ve only had to do at once and that was part of an experiment to see if was a hundred percent cured of bipolar disorder I could come off the maintenance stabilising prescription; to which the answer was clearly no.
I exercise several hours a week by commuting to work on a bicycle and I intend to add very short bursts of extremely high intensity interval training several times a week for its BDNF boosting brain regenerating properties.
I eat a diet that controls inflammation and boosts my neuroplasticity (see the anti-inflammatory diet and Foods for Depression) consisting of a palm-sized portion of protein, a small amount of carbohydrates with a glycaemic index above 70 and never any sugars, not excessive amounts of omega six oils, lots huge amounts of coloured plant foods for polyphenols and flavonoids both in my meals and by having vegetable and very smoothies. I take you only get 3 high EPA supplement, limit omega 6 oils and strictly limit heated (fried) oils because they contain oil-soluble free-radicals which may oxidise the omega-3 oils in my brain. I’ve now switched to plant-based diet so my protein and carbs are all rolled into on in the form of beans and lentils.
The above regime may seem like a lot of things to do and pills to swallow but it doesn’t feel like that for me, without treatment I get very ill, the depressions I would get were so serious they I tried hanging, drowning and throwing myself off cliffs and tall buildings. The experience of pain of those depressions is seared into my memory and for me it’s an absolute pleasure to take treatment yet completely switch all without side effects enable me to joy my life and explore my potential free from mental illness.
What would happen if I stopped taking my maintenance treatment is within a week or so I may be within just 5 days my brain would begin to go out of balance, I would have phases when my brain would speed up (hypo-mania) and then crash down into depression. The first few times this happened it might be quite mild but sooner or later the mania would begin to harm my life, my behaviour would be extreme, impulsive and embarrassing, basically I would look like someone high on cocaine and tequila, and the depressions would become so painful and distort my perception of the world that I would think about killing myself to end the pain.
I keep an eye on my condition by using a simple but effective self-monitoring system, I keep an eye on the following three things:-
- my ‘speed’,
- the amount of sleep I need and
- my interest in things on my not to-do when your manic list (addictive, pleasurable hedonistic, risky, impulsive, reckless behaviours).
When a person becomes manic or start heading in that direction the speed at which they think, move around, talk and how productive they are all increase; heading in the other direction everything begins to slow down, I’ve found this is a very simple to use and reliable way of monitoring my bipolar syndrome enabling me to know when I need to adjusting my prescription.
So for example if I observe myself speeding up (becoming manic) I take my foot off the gas pedal (dopamine) and take less or no dopamine precursors, no antidepressant remedies including bright light therapy etc., if that's not enough to reduce the speed I will apply the brake pedal as well by increasing the time spent in darkness therapy and take remedies that dampen the brain down including branched chain amino acids which deplete dopamine precursors, glycine, taurine, in the past I used to have to occasionally increase the dosage of the lithium orotate.
If I observe myself slowing down (becoming depressed) I simply put my foot on the gas peddle, take more remedies to increase dopamine and maybe serotonin production, increase the bright light therapy and if necessary add additional antidepressant remedies including: SAM-e, Pollygala and acetyl-L-carnitine. When increasing the antidepressant remedies however I never fully take my foot off the brake pedal and always maintain a basic prescription of anti-mania treatments including low-dose lithium orotate and darkness therapy to keep a ‘lid’ on things and prevent the antidepressant treatment flipping me up into mania only to crash and burn back down into depression.
Disturbances in sleep and sleep cycles are often a significant part of my of bipolar syndrome and for me keeping an eye on the timing and length of my sleep cycles is a useful way to monitor how well I have my bipolar syndrome under control; if I notice my propensity to sleep diminishes I add sleep inducing remedies including lecithin (high doses of lecithin can be very useful in this regard), zinc, melatonin, tryptophan and increasing the amount of time I wear blue blocking glasses. Sometimes I’ll use specific tranquillising meditation techniques that hack into my nervous system and HPA axis to dampen down over-activity in my stress physiology. Tryptophan has antidepressant effects which may seem inappropriate during a manic phase but it is also sedating and sleep inducing; another time I may increase serotonin is when I need to moderate and counterbalance the aggressiveness (I prefer the term intensive) common in the hyper-dopaminergic manic condition.
The things not to-do when your manic list is something I recommend everyone with bipolar syndrome write down and memorise. The list should include the things that you do when you're manic that are potentially harmful that you wouldn’t do when you're not manic such as taking drugs, gambling, sexual behaviour that you later regret, excessive or impulsive spending, the list is basically any hedonistic, risky and impulsive behaviours which it turns out are driven by imbalanced dopamine activity. When observe I’m intensely even obsessively interested in addictive behaviours I adjust all my levels and treatments until those thoughts simply melt away. I may also use specific Tantric and kundalini meditation techniques that induce a natural euphoric high (very similar to the high I experienced taking opium) to satisfy my desire to get high naturally and safely without the use of drugs.
If you want to read how I how I learned that I have bipolar syndrome and how I learned to treated click here.