Can you suggest some foods that will help?

I’m thinking High protein smoothies, yogurt, cottage cheese, salmon, turkey sandwiches,
sauteed vedgetables for dinner.

I love coffee, but I add too much creamer, so I’m thinking green tea.

If you have time please add your input
Thanks so much!

Saw your post..and it is a very frustrating condition to go through. I know I suffer from depression and anxiety, as well many symptoms of bipolar. Thank you for your note.

I found no relief when I was told the problem was in my brain? My brain, which gotten me trough high school with great grades and gotten me into a Uni, where only top 10% people were accepted? This brain was supposed to be wrong? I was actually devasted by this. I was hoping that my shrink would help me to understand myself, but she insisted that all I do is just a symptom and that I need to be drugged into oblivion. The thought that I may gain weight, lose my hair, have problems with memory, feel exhausted, lose my sex-drive, become emotionless… I decided that the risks are far too big for my liking… And to be hooked on chemistry for the rest of my life? Talk about bleak future.

I still struggle, but i finished my school, I am trying to find a job (and no, it’s not the bipolar that keeps me back, it’s the crisis, and I am just sad statistic of unemployed graduates). I live and despite the occasional lows… I live with capital “L”. I do yoga, I explored the whole eastern philosophies… and I take my bipolar as a personality trait. Just like being lazy (because I am, naturally) and reckless, sarcastic and dark-humor loving, somehow dark in the soul… it can be turned off by a willpower, if the will is strong.

No offense anyone… but well, you can blame it on my brain, always.

So, you call yourself bipolar and take drugs, and feel better. Guess what, lots of people feel better when they drink alcohol or smoke weed. You don’t know that your favourite drug isn’t just making you high or impaired. Until a doctor can come along and scan your brain and test your blood and tell you exactly what’s going on, I think it’s dishonest to say you have a brain disease.

And note that I am taking lithium at the moment, have a diagnosis of Bipolar 1, and have been tried on at least 9 or 10 different psych drugs, most of which have made me feel crappy, not normal or balanced, so I have “been there”, wherever “there” is – seems that whenever someone is critical of biological theories, they’re accused of not “really” knowing what it’s like to have the experiences in question. Though I will say that there are things in the description of bipolar disorder that don’t resonate with me.

I think it’s good to see someone say that we aren’t doomed to a life of what amounts to social deviance. If some people prefer not to take drugs, why not let them try? Like I said above, it’s not like your doctor is coming to you with blood test and brain scan results that tell you that something specific is going on in your brain. It’s not like thyroid disease or diabetes where they can say “Your TSH is elevated and thyroxine will bring it down,” or “Your blood sugar is raised, take metformin and change your diet and it will come down”.

Sure, there is research going on. But until that research is actually proven to be applicable to *my* brain, I’m carrying around a sack of skepticism. I know very well that taking lithium may calm me down (after all, that’s what it originally did to guinea pigs), but I’m not going to conclude it’s treating some exotic biological problem until I’m given proof that I have one – proof in my own brain, not statistics, or pretty fMRI pictures of other people’s brains, or a psychiatrist’s behavioural judgment.

And did you know that when lithium was originally used, in the late 19th century, it was thought that manic-depression – then a fairly new concept, too (putting the insane in asylums had allowed them to start classifying madness) – was related to the production of uric acid and to gout? After the uric acid theory fell out of favour, lithium was abandoned for decades. Just goes to show that all sorts of theories have been used to justify what are essentially empirical treatments.

If someone wants to go metaphysical and ponder the “why” of any disease they have that freedom.

Psychotherapy does not aid, or resolve what is centered in the brain. For some it may be helpful to have a support person.

If anyone would like to educate themselves on the disease of bipolar and abnormalities in the brain there are many opportunities to do so.

Promoting a belief as fact is very dangerous.

What has been proven is that bipolar is a disease of the brain. It has stigma because, at times, the abnormal brain chemistry produces unusual behavior.

Medication can aid in correcting some of the physical problem. Because drug therapy is not an exact science there must be back up to manage the disease.

Under the old model of bipolar it was thought that the individual has emotional problems and psychological therapy was necessary. Because bipolar is actually centered in the brain and causes an inability to process emotion normally, talk therapy offers no resolution, although may provide a support person.

Once the diagnosis is accepted what does work is life management. As with most diseases it is recommended to reduce stress. Careful self observation can lead to enough awareness to let the psychiatrist know about possible medication adjustments.

I use the term “normal” to mean functioning within society, and not exhibiting extreme highs or lows.

I hope there will come a time soon that Doctors let go of talk therapy as a necessity for bipolars. As with other sufferers of brain disease, like Multiple Sclerosis, therapy is not what helps the symptoms.