14 August 2024 – After receiving a Bipolar depression Diagnosis after a suicide At her first attempt in 2014, Tiffany Jean Taylor was prescribed antipsychotics and antidepressants and beneficial talk therapy. But while in the identical hospital 4 months later, Taylor got here full circle when she realized she wasn't recuperating. She knew she needed to try something different.
“I went home and really started my holistic mental health journey,” said Taylor, 38, who has now been off psychiatric medications for a decade. “It was at that moment that I decided to look at different theories and methods for my healing.”
People with bipolar depression are sometimes treated with Antipsychotics for mania and Antidepressants for depressive symptoms. But some patients like Taylor are in search of alternative treatments for the condition without prescribed drugs, says Maria Ingalla, a psychiatric nurse and owner of Paperflower Psychiatry, which has several locations in Arizona.
“I've had a lot of patients who just weren't interested in medication, or who had tried medication before and had really bad side effects,” Ingalla said. “The medications have to be taken for life because it's a chronic disease.”
Although prescription medications are the first type of treatment for bipolar disorder, “I think it's important to be clear: medications are not the only form of treatment for bipolar disorder. There are so many other things that can be done to modulate the problems that often accompany bipolar disorder and particularly bipolar depression,” said Dr. John Leslie Beyer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine.
Chemical imbalance within the brain plays a job in bipolar disorder, and prescription medications might help balance those brain chemicals. But psychiatric drugs “don't add or remove chemicals from your brain,” Ingalla said. Rather, they potentially stabilize an overactive chemical that would trigger certain bipolar symptoms.
Historically, one of the vital characteristic signs of bipolar disorder has been a severe and chronic illness through which the person experiences a depressive or manic episode that they can't control, Beyer said. It's also essential to notice that bipolar disorder is a recurrent illness in 90% of patients, meaning they are going to have one other episode sooner or later of their lives.
But over the past decade, the term “bipolar disorder” has been used more flexibly. Because the condition is increasingly understood as a spread between normal and disordered emotions, the term is commonly applied not only to full-syndrome bipolar disorder but in addition to a milder tendency for an individual's mood to deviate from baseline levels, Beyer said.
For the latter, non-drug treatments could also be an option, especially given certain unwanted side effects related to prescribed drugs, he said. Among probably the most worrying unwanted side effects of psychotropic drugs are complications that develop throughout the liver and the KidneysAnd some medications could also affect your Blood sugarwhich can increase the chance of diabetes.
“I think it starts with recognizing what impact bipolar disorder is having on that person's life,” Beyer said. “If it's so severe that it's caused significant problems with functioning, problems with relationships, problems in the workplace, problems with divorce – which is what bipolar disorder is known to do – then I wouldn't hesitate to say we need to think about medication.”
So who may be a superb candidate for a more holistic approach? If your mood is stable but you were diagnosed with bipolar disorder during a traumatic period in your life while you struggled with emotional ups and downs, you may be a candidate for exploring treatment options outside of medication. This is particularly true should you are stable but were diagnosed between the ages of 16 and 24, when the brain continues to be developing.
“It's possible that as the person's brain matures, they have settled into their life to the point where they can deal with some of the challenges they encountered earlier in a different way than they did during the bipolar episode,” Beyer said.
“For people who do not have high-risk bipolar disorder – that is, severe and persistent mental illness – we probably need to be open-minded about things that happened during that person's adolescence.”
But remember: It's essential to talk over with your psychiatrist before stopping taking medication for bipolar depression, as many medications require a slow tapering as directed by your doctor. Be much more cautious if you've got serious mental health problems, equivalent to: destructive manic episodessaid Ingalla.
“Many people – but not all – are able to find a good place to heal and maintain their mental health while maintaining a good lifestyle” while attempting to stop taking medications, she said.
After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder six times by six doctors, enduring multiple hospitalizations and affected by severe depression, Caitlin Pyle was prescribed nearly a dozen antipsychotics and antidepressants over the course of several years. Pyle, 37, began researching possible causes for her mental health issues — equivalent to the mounting stress of a tumultuous divorce. Now, after 4 years of healing from bipolar depression without psychiatric medication, the Florida-based transformational life coach said self-awareness is a crucial a part of recovery, and she or he refused to just accept the standard wisdom that you may't cure bipolar disorder without prescription medication. Taylor, who now works as a mental wellness coach and practitioner in Ohio, shares that sentiment.
“I had to change my identity. I had to change my behavior. I had to change my reaction. I had to get in touch with my feelings. I had to connect with myself. I had to become self-aware. I had to be self-responsible. I had to be self-actualized,” she said.
Possible non-drug treatments
One type of non-drug treatment is social rhythm therapy, which Beyer says has proven to be a wonderful alternative for treating unstable bipolar moods. This style of psychotherapy focuses on managing lifestyle and following a every day routine that features things like a healthy weight loss program, regular exercise, self-care practices, and maintaining a daily Sleep-wake rhythm.
“There's some really good data on its effectiveness in treating patients both with and without medication,” Beyer said. “The same ideas that support social rhythm therapy are also good ideas about how to help people control their own mood and take care of themselves by noticing if they have mood problems and finding out where stress is affecting mood reactivity.”
Travel, late nights, and certain stimulants — like caffeine, alcohol, and medicines — can trigger unstable moods in bipolar disorder, in accordance with Ingalla. Exposure to shiny light within the morning might help regulate your mood. If you're having a manic episode, try dark therapy, Ingalla suggests. Go right into a pitch-black room between 6 p.m. and eight a.m. and check out to chill out as much as possible. Get a pair of Blue light filter glasses may be helpful in practicing dark therapy.
Don’t let the diagnosis define you
Not letting the diagnosis limit you and believing you may get through seemingly unbearable moments is paramount to recovery, Taylor said. She recalled a time when depression had confined her to bed for several years.
“I had to be honest and say no one is going to get me out of this bed,” she said. “I'm literally the only person who can force myself to move, to be around other people, to shower and to eat.”
Taylor also said that she had fewer symptoms of mania when she ended relationships through which she felt disrespected or through which certain boundaries were crossed.
Remember that your doctor plays a key role in any plans to regulate and even stop medications completely, Beyer said.
“It's important to build a good relationship with your doctor and discuss things like, 'What should I look for?' or 'What are the early signs that I might actually have bipolar disorder?'” he said.
If you and your doctor agree, you need to stop taking bipolar medications by consulting a superb therapist will probably be crucial to the following a part of your healing process because they may assist you to control and monitor your emotions, Ingalla said. “Medications can do some things, but therapy can do everything, in my opinion.”