A bipolar diagnosis can feel like an explanation, but we argue it often labels symptoms without identifying a root cause. We challenge the chemical imbalance narrative, question medication-first assumptions, and point toward curiosity-driven healing based on underlying sources of distress.
• bipolar as a symptom cluster rather than an etiology
• how the DSM is built and why that matters
• concerns about conflicts of interest and medication marketing
• trial-and-error prescribing plus polypharmacy risks
• why the chemical imbalance theory is disputed
• how treatment can reinforce the belief that bipolar is incurable
• validating that symptoms are real and disruptive
• why abrupt medication stopping is dangerous and why guided tapering matters
• potential root drivers: micronutrient insufficiency, ultra-processed food, iatrogenic medication effects
• other contributors: substances including high-THC marijuana, trauma, learned coping patterns
• recovery as resolving causes, not just suppressing symptoms
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The Upside of Bipolar: 7 Steps to Heal Your Disorder: @upsideofbipolar | Linktree
website: https://theupsideofbipolar.com/
email: michelle@theupsideofbipolar.com
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
When somebody is diagnosed with bipolar disorder,
they are not identifying anunderlying etiology or an
underlying disease or anunderlying condition.
And that's one of the bigbipolar is not myths is bipolar
is not identifying the source ofthe symptoms.
It is not identifying the reasonthat you're experiencing the
(00:20):
symptoms you're experiencing.
And the problem that thatcreates is that people think
that they have been told whythey're experiencing those
symptoms.
They believe that the underlyingissue has been identified.
And the problem is that thatends curiosity.
I've talked about this inprevious episodes, but it ends
curiosity into what actually isgoing on.
And so the underlying issues arenever identified and never
(00:44):
treated.
In this podcast, I bring yousolo insights from my journey
(01:06):
and guest interviews withleading researchers and experts.
Join us to transform chaos intohope and reclaim your life.
Let's heal together.
(01:32):
I've seen a lot of things onsocial media lately that are
reinforcing some false beliefsand myths about what bipolar is,
what a bipolar diagnosisactually means.
And so today we are doing anepisode What Bipolar is not and
what bipolar is.
And the hope of this is to helpspark some curiosity in you so
that you don't just take my wordfor this, that maybe you'll do a
(01:54):
little research on your own andlearn a little more.
And I don't talk, I'm nottalking about research going
into Chat GPT.
I'm not talking about going intothe DSM.
I'm talking about readingperhaps some of the books that I
have recommended in previousepisodes, and I'll mention them
again today.
But learning a little bit moreabout the history of psychiatry,
about the history of the DSM,about how these diagnoses were
(02:17):
developed in the first place, sothat you can start being a
little more skeptical andcurious about what this
diagnosis actually means andabout the idea that bipolar is
incurable, because that's one ofthe things that we're going to
talk about today.
So let's start with bipolar isnot.
I think it's important to talkabout the myths that surround
this diagnosis that keep peoplestuck.
(02:39):
When somebody is diagnosed withbipolar disorder, usually when
you go in to see a psychiatrist,you have been experiencing
symptoms, sometimes for a while,that are very distressing.
And when you go to thepsychiatrist, you're going
because you need help.
Usually most of us don't want togo see a psychiatrist.
And so if you're like me, youwill have felt like you needed
to go see somebody for a while,but you kept putting it off
(03:01):
because you were hoping that,you know, maybe you could fix it
yourself, or you don't want tobe told that you're broken.
I know when I when I went, Iwas, it took about a year after
the first recommendation wasthat I go see a psychiatrist
before I actually did.
I was struggling in college withincreasingly erratic mood
swings.
And my behavior was becomingmore and more concerning to
(03:24):
those close to me.
And I was my parents and an auntand uncle that lived near me
were increasingly requestingthat I and recommending that I
go see a psychiatrist becausethey were worried about what
they were seeing in me as far asbehavior and inconsistency and
my behavior and the choices Iwas making in my life.
(03:45):
And I finally got the courage upto go see a psychiatrist.
And I was diagnosed initiallywith depression and anxiety
disorders, and then later it waschanged to bipolar disorder
after I was started on anantidepressant.
And when I went to thepsychiatrist, I was led to
believe that I was beingdiagnosed with a chemical
imbalance.
That I was being diagnosed withan underlying etiology, that the
(04:07):
source of the problem was beingidentified.
When somebody is diagnosed withbipolar disorder, they are not
identifying an underlyingetiology or an underlying
disease or an underlyingcondition.
And that's one of the bigbipolar is not myths is bipolar
is not identifying the source ofthe symptoms.
It is not identifying the reasonthat you are experiencing the
(04:31):
symptoms you're experiencing.
And the problem that thatcreates is that people think
that they have been told whythey're experiencing those
symptoms.
They believe that the underlyingissue has been identified.
And the problem is that thatends curiosity.
I've talked about this inprevious episodes, but it ends
curiosity into what actually isgoing on.
And so the underlying issues arenever identified and never
(04:54):
treated.
And when somebody is diagnosedwith bipolar disorder, you are
not, they are not, they are notdoing blood tests, they are not
doing brain scans to diagnoseyou because there are no
benchmarks, there are no bloodtests or brain scans that are
used to determine that somebodyhas bipolar disorder.
The only thing that they use todetermine if somebody has
(05:15):
bipolar disorder are thesymptoms.
And the symptoms themselves havebeen determined.
The symptoms that decide ifsomebody has bipolar disorder or
depression or anxiety orschizophrenia are a cluster of
symptoms that was voted on by apanel of psychiatrists.
And recently, Dr.
Joseph Witt During talked aboutthis.
(05:36):
He talked about how it's afairly unscientific process,
actually, because you get a thereason why the original DSM was
created in the first place, thediagnostical statistical manual
of psychiatry was created in thefirst place was for the purpose
of medicating.
It was for the purpose oftelling psychiatrists which
medications to use to treatpeople.
(05:56):
And they created, they createdcategories or diagnoses based on
clusters of symptoms that apanel of psychiatrists had voted
on.
And when they created lateriterations of this manual, they
did the same thing.
And there has been an increasingnumber of people who are
starting to call into questionthe motives of the doctors that
(06:17):
are on this panel because manyof them, if not all of them,
have either are currently orhave received money from drug
companies.
There are, it is, the entiresystem is all wrapped up in the
idea that medication is requiredto treat patients.
And so it's it's pretending likeit's this very scientific
(06:38):
process of diagnosing andtreating somebody.
They've created really longlists of symptoms and frequency
of symptoms, and it's notactually identifying the actual
source of the symptoms, it'sjust giving you a diagnosis
based on the cluster of symptomsthat has been determined by this
group of psychiatrists.
And this has creates all kindsof problems for people that are
(07:00):
struggling with these symptomsbecause they believe that the
treatment itself is going tomake them better.
And one of the things thatProfessor Joanna Moncrief talks
about is that when they firstcreated the DSM years ago, when
they were first starting totreat people with medications,
not all psychiatrists weresubscribing to the idea that
they were fixing an underlyingproblem.
(07:21):
That when they first starteddoing this, there was a
recognition that you were usingdrugs to suppress symptoms, but
the drugged state waspreferable.
And therapists used to not treatpeople with that were on
medication because theyunderstood that this, their
emotional response was beingsuppressed, and it was not
process, it was not possible toprocess emotions in a healthy
(07:42):
way because the emotionalresponse was being blunted by
the medication.
But now we've got this idea, andmost of it has to do with the
marketing campaigns of thesedrug companies, that these drugs
are actually fixing something,that they're actually fixing an
underlying issue and and thatthey're making things better,
which is why people are toldthat we just have to keep
(08:05):
looking until we find the rightcombination of medications.
And I'm really surprised on aregular basis about how many
people are willing to acceptthis idea.
When I when I talk about thetruth about bipolar online and
on social media, I get a lot ofpushback from people who say you
just have to keep tryingdifferent medications until you
find the right one.
And it's it's surprising to mebecause I think how that's a I
(08:28):
remember thinking this when Iwas very first being treated,
that it was seemed quiteunscientific to play guess and
check with medications.
Um when I was in when I was inschool in biology, I remember a
teacher talking about the thisidea of playing guess and check.
So guess and check is when youmake a guess at what might be
(08:49):
what might work or what might beappropriate in a certain
situation.
You try it, and if it doesn'twork, then you try again.
And you just keep trying untilyou hit on the right, you
hopefully hit on the rightthing.
And with psychotropic drugs,this is a really dangerous
approach.
I I don't know what other wordto use for it because
psychotropic medications arepowerful mind-altering
(09:12):
substances that we don't fullyunderstand.
And most drugs are not tested,they are tested for the most at
for like 12 weeks.
These drugs have not been testedfor long-term safety or
efficacy.
And there is no financialmotivation to test them for
(09:32):
that.
There is no, in fact, there arehuge financial disincentives
preventing people from beingwilling to test these
medications for their long-termimpact, for whether or not they
are safe.
These drugs are not tested whenthey're being used to get to
with each other.
It's something that is calledpolypharmacy.
When you are taking multiplepsychotropic medications, these
(09:54):
drugs aren't tested for that.
We don't we don't go in and sayand test, you know, one of the
common things when somebody isdiagnosed with bipolar disorder
is to be put on like a moodstabilizer, mood stabilizer or
antipsychotic and anantidepressant.
They don't test for combiningthese drugs with each other.
And so the people that are thetest subjects are the patients.
(10:17):
We are the test subjects, andthere is no willingness to
consider that maybe what we'redoing is not helping people,
maybe what we're doing isactually harming people, which
leads to the chemical imbalancetheory.
And one of the things that I Iwant to address here because
it's it has been brought up, um,is if we're going to if we're
(10:40):
going along with this theme,bipolar is not.
Bipolar is not a chemicalimbalance.
It is not.
And Professor Joanna Moncrief,who I've had on my program
twice, who I've had on mypodcast twice, led the research
team that reviewed 20 years ofresearch and determined that the
chemical imbalance theory isfalse.
And the problem is that it hasbeen used so widely in marketing
(11:05):
that even psychiatrists believethat the chemical imbalance
theory is true.
There's been zero curiosityabout whether or not it's true.
It's just a convenient,comfortable way to explain why
psychotropic drugs are areneeded.
And that's actually how thetheory developed in the first
place.
This was a theory that wasdeveloped back in the 1950s to
(11:27):
try and explain why certainmedications had an impact on
people who were suffering fromwhat they called melancholia.
And it's that's what we wouldcall depression today.
And it was the original um, Ithink it's called Lamotrogen.
There was a medication that wasused to treat, I think, malaria.
(11:47):
I apologize that I can'tremember it offhand.
I should have written it,written it down.
But there was a medication thatwas used, I think it was to
treat malaria.
And the doctors observed thatthe patients would get happy
when they when they took thismedication.
They would be dancing around theward and they would feel
elevated and happy.
And so their mood would beelevated.
And the observation was, Iwonder if we could use this
(12:10):
medication to treat melancholia,people who are depressed.
So they started using it, notunderstanding, not understanding
the drug, not understanding whyit was impacting people this
way, but hoping that maybe thismight help people who were
struggling with low mood, with adepressed state.
And as these medications werestarting to be used to try and
(12:30):
treat people who were strugglingwith these symptoms of
depression, they developed atheory as to why the medication
was working, why it was helpingpeople elevate their moods.
And the theory was the chemicalimbalance, that the brain, the
brain chemistry was out ofbalance and that serotonin
production was off.
(12:50):
And so that the medication wasimproving the serotonin in the
brain, which was why, you know,why this was working.
That was the theory.
And interestingly, over thedecades since that theory was
developed, there have beennumerous attempts to try and
prove this theory true.
And not only did they prove thatit wasn't true, that there was
(13:11):
no chemistry, there was no brainchemical imbalance in the first
place, but they discovered thatthe medications themselves were
causing a chemical imbalance inthe brain because these
medications are not natural tothe brain.
When we talk about brainchemicals, we're not talking
about artificial chemicals thatare developed in a lab.
We're talking about brainchemistry.
(13:32):
And they're they're twodifferent things.
These brain chemistry, theneurotransmitters in the brain,
are naturally occurringprocesses.
And the things that arenecessary to help improve these
natural occurring processes arenot chemicals.
They are micronutrients, theyare vitamins and minerals and
omega-3s and amino acids.
(13:53):
Those are the things that ourbody needs to function in a
healthy way.
And in order for our brains toget what it needs to function in
a healthy way, we need to have ahealthy diet.
And nobody, because we startedback in the 90s with
psychotropic medications andthat became the focus, most
doctors were not interested inlearning more about whether
(14:15):
people could just improve theirdiets to improve their mental
health.
So all of the focus over thepast 75 years in psychiatric
research and development wastrying to prove the chemical
imbalance theory, trying toprove that these medications
work, trying to find newmedications to fix the problems
that people are having.
And it made it so that there wasno curiosity into whether or not
(14:38):
what they were doing wasactually working or beneficial
to their patients.
And this leads to anotherbipolar is not, which is bipolar
is not incurable.
First of all, we go back to thebeginning.
Bipolar is not identifying anunderlying etiology.
So we're not identifying adisease or a, you know, an
actual etiology, an underlyingcondition.
We're just identifying a clusterof symptoms.
(15:00):
And we know now, because of theresearch from Professor Joanna
Moncrief, that it is not achemical imbalance.
That theory was totallydisproven.
And a lot of times, one of thethings, one of the, I forgot to
mention this, but one of theways that people push back on me
using Professor Moncrief's workin talking about how bipolar is
not a chemical imbalance, isthey'll say, well, she's talking
(15:21):
about depression, but bipolarreally is a chemical imbalance.
And that's not true because allof the chemical imbalance
theories rest on this idea thatdepression was a chemical
imbalance.
All of the theories of chemicalimbalance for mental illness
began with that original theory.
It is a house of cards that wasbuilt on a faulty foundation in
the first place.
And there have been numerousattempts.
(15:41):
I hear I have people all thetime saying, well, if you look
at my brain scan, look at brainscans all you want.
But there's a reason that we wedon't use brain scans and
diagnosing.
There's a reason we don't useblood tests and diagnosing,
because an underlying etiologyhas never been identified.
But the reason that bipolardisorder, quote unquote bipolar
disorder, has become incurableis because of the treatment
(16:03):
approach itself.
The treatment approach thatassumes that we've identified a
disease when we identify whensomebody is diagnosed with
bipolar disorder, and thenassumes, based on the last 75
years of treatment throughpsychiatry, that they will
require medication for life,medication that changes the
brain chemistry and does notaddress the underlying issue.
We created an incurablecondition because the treatment
(16:26):
itself is preventing the cure.
The treatment itself is notaddressing or identifying the
underlying issues.
It is changing the brainchemistry in an abnormal way
that makes the brain function inan abnormal way.
And so the person stays sick.
Bipolar does not need to beincurable, it does not need to
be a lifelong condition.
It is possible to identify theunderlying sources of the
(16:49):
symptoms and then treat theunderlying source and resolve
those sources of symptoms, whichleads me to what bipolar is.
Bipolar is observing very realand very distressing symptoms.
When I say that bipolar is not adisorder, it's not identifying
an underlying ideology.
I'm not saying that the symptomsaren't real.
And I'm not saying that they'renot distressing and very
(17:11):
disruptive to your life.
They are.
I lived with it.
There's a reason I went to thepsychiatrist in the first place.
I it took a year for me to getthe courage up to go.
But when I finally went, I washopeful that they were going to
be able to help me because thesymptoms I was experiencing were
very distressing.
They were so disruptive to mylife.
They were destroyingrelationships, they were
(17:34):
embarrassing, they werehumiliating, they were
discouraging.
Bipolar symptoms are very real.
There's a reason that people goto the psychiatrists in the
first place.
We're experiencing very realdistress that all the diagnosis
does is observe the distressyou're experiencing.
It does not identify why you areexperiencing that distress.
And so it's so important for usto get curious.
(17:56):
Have some scientific curiosity,have some curiosity into what's
actually happening.
Your brain is in distress.
Why?
What's actually happening?
It feels good.
It does.
It does feel good to have adiagnosis that that alleviates
you from having responsibilityfor it.
It blames it on a chemicalimbalance in your brain or
something outside of yourcontrol because then you don't
(18:17):
have to be responsible for it.
You can just take some drugs andand it would it would be great.
It would feel good to be able totake some medication, have it
all go away and get back to yourlife.
And there is a small percentageof people who find relief from
the medication and are able toeventually figure out how to
live their lives with themedication and with the
(18:37):
underlying distress never beingidentified because a medication
is able to suppress it in a in asufficient way for them to go
about their lives.
But one of the things that makesme very sad about that is that
there are serious long-termnegative impacts of these
medications on the body and thebrain.
I remember every time I wouldtake my medications, I would,
(18:58):
every single time.
I don't think there was a daythat I was on the medications
for that 12 years that I didn'tfeel sick to my stomach about
what I was putting in my body.
I was a very healthy person.
I was a competitive athletethrough high school and college.
I ate very healthy.
I took very good care of mybody.
I never drank alcohol.
I never smoked.
And I was putting substances inmy body that I was fully aware
(19:19):
were doing serious damage to me.
And I didn't feel like I had anychoice.
I felt like I had to take thosemedications because I was told
by the doctor that that wasnecessary to treat my
quote-unquote disorder.
That one of the medications Iwas on depict damages the liver.
I had to go in regularly forliver function tests.
And I remember one day crying onmy way home from having my liver
(19:41):
function test, thinking I havespent my entire life abstaining
from alcohol and I am doingsignificant damage to my liver
with this medication.
It's going to destroy my liverand I have to take it.
And it just made me sick everytime I took it.
These medications are notnatural substances to our body,
and they do long-term damage.
(20:02):
And so if there's a way to treatthe underlying source and
resolve them so you don't haveto be on medication for the rest
of your life, wouldn't you wantto know?
And I want to put a caveat inhere.
This does not mean if you're onmedication to go take, stop
taking your medication.
As I mentioned earlier, thesemedications cause a chemical
imbalance in the brain.
And so you have to work with anexpert on how to withdraw these
(20:24):
medications from your systemsafely so that you don't end up,
you know, harming yourself.
They can have serious withdrawalsymptoms and it takes time.
I had a client recently that gotthrough her cross-titration.
We call it cross-titration whenyou're helping your brain heal
through micronutrition andhelping you safely, slowly
withdraw from the medication.
(20:45):
And it took her a year and ahalf to get off the medication.
She did it safely.
She did it with very littledistress, really.
But she had to use, she had tohave expert guidance through the
process to help safely withdrawher from the medication.
So please don't go stop takingyour medications.
If you want help, if you wanthelp, you can contact me.
You can contact, I've Iinterviewed Angie Peacock.
(21:06):
She's somebody who helps peopleget off of medications safely.
I I would I would recommendYosef Witt During's uh clinic,
but it I've heard recently thatit's gotten quite expensive.
And so I think he is referringpeople to other places.
But he's a psychiatrist who cameup through the traditional
psychiatric training and wasvery suspicious of what he was
being taught, did more research,worked for the FDA, worked for
(21:29):
drug company, and discovered thetruth about psychiatric
medications.
If you haven't listened to himtalk about it, I would encourage
you to go find him on socialmedia.
It's I'll I'll link him in thein the show notes.
But these medications are nottreating an underlying cause.
They are trying to suppresssymptoms, and they do it in a
way that does tremendous damageto our minds and to our bodies.
And so it is it is so importantto understand that yes, bipolar
(21:52):
is observing very real symptomsthat are very distressing, but
we need to have curiosity aboutwhat's actually happening.
What is actually the source ofthose symptoms?
I've talked about this onprevious episodes, but just for
you know the sake of what I'msaying here, some of the main
sources of symptoms for peopleare, as I mentioned,
micronutrient insufficiency.
If your brain is not gettingadequate nutrition, it will not
(22:14):
function in a healthy way.
And it will manifest in allmanner of symptoms.
We can all have all kinds ofmental health symptoms that can
be the result of not gettingadequate nutrition for our
brains.
You can end up with ADHDsymptoms and depression symptoms
and anxiety symptoms and bipolarsymptoms and even schizophrenia.
People who are struggling withthose types of serious symptoms
(22:36):
can be the result of not gettingadequate nutrition for your
brain.
That is one of the mainunderlying sources.
It's why we've seen such adramatic increase in the number
of people being diagnosed withmental health conditions in the
last 50 years, because our foodis not food anymore.
Everything is ultra-processed.
Even people who are eating, youknow, trying to eat whole food
diets, if you're shopping at thegrocery store, most of that,
(22:57):
those foods have come from far,far away.
And so the nutritional value isvery low.
I did a podcast episode on thislike a year and a half or two
years ago with an expert on foodtransportation, and he talked
about how depleted our foodsources are in nutrition,
largely because of how far theytravel.
And so that is one of the mainculprits is the lack of
(23:20):
nutrition, the lack of themicronutrients, the building
blocks of the neurotransmittersin our brains.
The next one is ironicallyiatrogenic.
So somebody starts strugglingwith, you know, even mild, you
know, mild depression, you know,if it gets distressing enough
and you go to psychiatrist andyou're put on an antidepressant,
over two-thirds of the peoplediagnosed with bipolar disorder
were first treated fordepression.
(23:42):
They were put on anantidepressant, which causes a
chemical imbalance in your brainand often will lead to symptoms
of mania or hypomania.
And then instead of beingrecognizing that they caused
those symptoms to occur with themedication, they are told, we
misdiagnosed you.
You actually have bipolardisorder.
And then they load you up onmore drugs.
(24:03):
So the iatrogenic, the medicalharm from the medications
themselves causes symptoms thatthen lead to more diagnoses that
cause you to need moremedication.
So helping your brain heal fromthe effects of these medications
is key as, you know, in helpingsomebody to actually heal, to
heal their brain and heal theunderlying sources of the
(24:25):
symptoms.
Drug use, not just a illicitdrug or not just legal drugs,
and there are other medicationsthat people can take for other
health conditions that canactually lead to mental health
symptoms that then lead to adiagnosis.
So it's not just psychotropicdrugs.
You can be taking another typeof medication that can cause
symptoms of depression oranxiety that can then lead you
(24:45):
to be diagnosed with a mentalhealth condition.
Drug use is a big one.
And marijuana is especiallyrelevant today.
And I've there have been anumber of different
psychiatrists talking about thisissue that are holistic
psychiatrists that are trying topromote help helping people to
heal.
And this is actually somebodythat I'm going to have on my
podcast soon, is a woman who hasa mother who has started an
(25:10):
organization that is trying tohelp make people aware of the
dangers of marijuana use.
She was lives in Colorado.
And once it got legalized there,all of a sudden they saw a spike
in the number of people beingdiagnosed with mental health
conditions directly related tothe use of marijuana.
And it's because the, I believeit's if I say this wrong, I
apologize, but I think it's theTHC level in the marijuana is
(25:32):
dramatically higher than what itwas, you know, 50 years ago.
50 years ago when pot was beingused all the time, 60 years ago,
70 years ago, when it was beingused all the time, it was very
low levels of THC in the in thedrug.
And now there has been such adramatic increase in the level
of THC that it is actuallycausing symptoms of psychosis
(25:53):
and mania in people.
And instead of any curiosityabout what's actually causing
the symptoms, they are diagnosedwith bipolar disorder or
schizophrenia and put onpsychotropic medications.
We've got people who are dealingwith severe trauma, but trauma
is a big underlying source ofsymptoms.
You can have somebody who has,you know, traumatic experiences,
(26:14):
like one time you can have atraumatic experience or multiple
traumatic experiences orlifelong neglect or things like
that that can causedysregulation in the brain,
cause depression, and causeanxiety.
You know, you could experiencetrauma responses that are then I
diagnosed as bipolar disorder oranxiety disorder, and then
you're put on medication and theunderlying issue has never been
addressed.
You're just drugged up.
(26:35):
People are suffering and theyare being put on drugs.
You, you know, if somebody isexperiencing symptoms and they
experience them for prolongedperiods of time, you can develop
unhealthy thought and behaviorpatterns as a result.
And this can lead to emotionaldysregulation.
There's all kinds of things thatcan actually be the underlying
source of the symptoms.
And if you don't ever identifywhat the source is, you can't
(26:57):
treat it.
So that's why it's so importantto take these very serious
symptoms and get curious aboutwhat's actually causing them.
The next bipolar is, is thisleads to the next bipolar is,
which is it is disruptive toyour life.
These symptoms are verydisruptive.
And that's why we look for help.
That's why we go topsychiatrists.
That's why we go looking for,you know, somebody to help us
(27:19):
understand why, why you'restruggling with these symptoms
that often lead to verydisruptive and damaging
destructive behavior.
And we want to know why.
We want to know why we'restruggling with compulsive
behaviors.
We want to know why we'restruggling with irrational
thoughts and racing thoughts andelevated moods that lead us to
do crazy, sometimes dangerousthings.
(27:41):
But again, it is not a chemicalimbalance.
It is not an underlying etiologythat's being identified.
It's just the symptoms that arebeing observed.
Like somebody who is strugglingwith fever is being told that
they have fever disorder.
That's not helpful.
Yes, running a fever of 105 isvery dangerous.
If somebody is running a reallyhigh fever, it's very dangerous
and very distressing.
(28:01):
And you want to do whatever youcan to get to address it as soon
as possible so that you don'tend up with brain damage.
But we don't assume that youhave fever disorder and we don't
put you on anti-inflammatoriesfor the rest of your life.
We look with curiosity at whatcould be causing the fever.
So we might give you somethingtemporarily to suppress the
fever so that we can preventdamage to the brain and to the
(28:22):
body, but then we look withcuriosity at to what is actually
causing the fever to occur.
That's what we need to do withmental health challenges.
We need to look with curiosityat the source of the symptoms
you're experiencing.
There are times when people needsomething to, if they're a
danger to themselves or others,you know, sometimes when
somebody gets diagnosed, theyget diagnosed because they have
a severe psychotic episode.
(28:44):
If you're a danger to yourselfor others, we need something
temporarily to help bring that,bring you back into a safe place
emotionally or mentally, right?
So I am not totallyanti-medication.
I think that there are timeswhen it's appropriate to use
them for short periods of timeto bring somebody back into a
safe place mentally so thatthey're not a danger to
themselves or others.
But then we need to get curiouswhat caused the symptoms in the
(29:08):
first place.
It is not bipolar disorder andit is not these diagnoses that
only observe the symptoms.
What is the source?
What is actually causing it sothat we can treat the source
using research-based integratedtreatment?
There is so much research outthere now.
It's incredible to me.
I'm so excited because there areso many people now that are
actually getting curious aboutthe sources of people's
(29:30):
symptoms.
I love talking to Dr.
Bonnie Kaplan about herresearch, her groundbreaking
research, in my opinion, onmicronutrition and the role that
it plays in our mental healthand how we can solve the
problems.
You know, we've I've read TheBody Keeps the Score and talking
about how trauma impacts theemotional regulation of our
brains and our bodies.
(29:51):
And when you are not addressingthe underlying issues, you will
not resolve the symptoms.
We need to get curious.
We need to get curious aboutwhat is causing these symptoms
to occur in the first place andthen use research-based
treatments that will actuallyhelp resolve the source so that
you can heal.
The last, this leads me to thelast bipolar is, which is
(30:13):
bipolar is curable.
It is possible to resolve theunderlying sources of the
symptoms so that you can heal.
When I first started my blogback in uh January of 2021, I
didn't know that I had beenhealing.
I I thought that I believed whatI had been told about bipolar
being a lifelong and curablecondition, that I would have it
(30:35):
forever, and that I just neededto learn how to manage it.
And I thought that I I had gonelonger and longer and longer
periods of time without anysymptoms.
I hadn't had any manic symptomsat that point.
So in 2021, I hadn't had anymanic symptoms for over a
decade.
And I and I I had been I startedon the micronutrients back in
(30:55):
2010 and I got off mymedications back in 2010.
I had not experienced the maniasince then.
And I was having longer periodsof time where I was not
experiencing depression, and mydepression was manageable.
It wasn't gone completely, butit was manageable.
And my anxiety symptoms werestarting to resolve, and I was
(31:15):
starting to understand what wascausing the anxiety symptoms.
So I thought that I had justlearned to manage what I
believed still at that point wasa lifelong and curable
condition.
And as I did more research totry and help people, as I
decided to start sharing what Iwas learning, I wanted to share
what I was learning because Ihad wished that somebody else
had shared it with me, which iswhy I started my blog.
(31:36):
And then I started the podcast.
And as I started doing moreresearch, I started recognizing
that what I had been told aboutmy bipolar diagnosis was not
true.
And even though I startedbelieving it about myself, I was
hesitant to share it with otherpeople because I thought, well,
maybe I'm different.
Maybe I, you know, which is whatoften people will say, you were
misdiagnosed or, you know,you're you must not have had
(31:57):
bipolar disorder, because again,we believe that bipolar disorder
is incurable.
And so if somebody's heals, thenthey must not have had bipolar
disorder.
Again, super unscientific.
Like we need to be curious aboutthese things.
Like if somebody was diagnosedby eight separate psychiatrists
like I was over a 12-year periodof time, hospitalized multiple
times.
(32:17):
If if somebody who went throughthat says that you can heal,
shouldn't we be curious about itinstead of dogpiling and say
you're a liar or you'remisinformed or you're dangerous?
Shouldn't there be somecuriosity?
Science is all about curiosity.
True science is about curiosity.
Being curious, being open to theidea that maybe you were wrong.
(32:38):
So if somebody is saying thattheir process is scientific, but
they're not open, be suspicious.
Because that's not scientific.
That is very anti-science, infact.
It is possible to identify theunderlying sources of the
symptoms that led to yourbipolar diagnosis and treat
(32:58):
those underlying sources usingresearch-based methods that will
help you to heal.
Bipolar disorder is curable.
It is possible to heal.
And I learned that for myself.
If I as I was doing moreresearch and I started becoming
more curious and more suspiciousof what I had been told, I
started recognizing that I washealing, that what I had been
doing for that previous decadethat had led me to greater and
(33:22):
greater periods of stability wasactually, I was actually
healing.
I was actually resolving sourcesof symptoms.
It started with getting off themedication safely and getting on
the micronutrients and helpingmy brain begin to heal from the
effects of the medication andfor the effects of not having
enough adequate nutrition for mybrain to function in a healthy
way.
Once I, once I resolved thosetwo sources, then I was able to
(33:44):
start resolving some of theother sources of symptoms,
unhealed trauma, unhealthythought and behavior patterns,
unhealthy coping mechanisms.
I started recognizing thesymptoms for what they actually
were, which was information.
My brain was asking for help,and I started recognizing what
it was saying to me and how togive it the help that it needed.
I had to develop new habits forthe way that I interacted with
(34:04):
the world and in relationships.
I had to change the way that Iwas what that I was interacting
with people and with life andwith the world around me, so
that I was interacting withthose things in a healthy way.
I had to create habits forhealing.
So let's review.
Bipolar is not identifying anunderlying etiology or disease.
It is only identifying a clusterof symptoms.
(34:26):
Bipolar is not a chemicalimbalance.
That has been completelydisproven.
In fact, when you take thesepsychotropic medications, you
create a chemical imbalance inyour brain.
Bipolar disorder is notincurable.
Yes, bipolar disorder is thesesymptoms are observing very real
and very distressing symptoms.
(34:48):
And yes, these symptoms arebipolar is very disruptive to
your life.
But the good news is thatbipolar is curable.
It is possible to heal bipolardisorder.
If you are ready to start yourpath, I would encourage you to
read my book, The Upside ofBipolar, Seven Steps to Heal
Your Disorder.
I would encourage you to developyour own mood cycle survival
(35:09):
guide that will be the beginningof your journey to healing and
recovery by helping you to learnhow to proactively manage your
symptoms.
And then if you have alreadydone those things and you're
ready to begin your own healingjourney, please reach out.
Let's get together and talkabout the Upsiders Tribe, my
coaching program where I coachpeople through the healing
process.
I would love to hear from you.
(35:29):
Please send me an email or amessage on social media and let
me know your thoughts about whatI've shared today.
What do you think Bipolar is?
Until next time, Upsiders.
Thanks for joining me on theUpside of Bipolar.
(35:50):
Your journey to recoverymatters, and I'm grateful you're
here.
For more resources, visitwww.theupsideofbipolar.com.
If you're ready to dive deeper,grab my book, The Upside of
Bipolar, seven steps to healyour disorder.
If you're ready to heal yoursymptoms, join my monthly
membership, The Upsiders Tribe,to transform chaos into hope.
(36:12):
Until next time, Upsiders
When somebody is diagnosed with bipolar disorder,
they are not identifying anunderlying etiology or an
underlying disease or anunderlying condition.
And that's one of the bigbipolar is not myths is bipolar
is not identifying the source ofthe symptoms.
It is not identifying the reasonthat you're experiencing the
(00:20):
symptoms you're experiencing.
And the problem that thatcreates is that people think
that they have been told whythey're experiencing those
symptoms.
They believe that the underlyingissue has been identified.
And the problem is that thatends curiosity.
I've talked about this inprevious episodes, but it ends
curiosity into what actually isgoing on.
And so the underlying issues arenever identified and never
(00:44):
treated.
In this podcast, I bring yousolo insights from my journey
(01:06):
and guest interviews withleading researchers and experts.
Join us to transform chaos intohope and reclaim your life.
Let's heal together.
(01:32):
I've seen a lot of things onsocial media lately that are
reinforcing some false beliefsand myths about what bipolar is,
what a bipolar diagnosisactually means.
And so today we are doing anepisode What Bipolar is not and
what bipolar is.
And the hope of this is to helpspark some curiosity in you so
that you don't just take my wordfor this, that maybe you'll do a
(01:54):
little research on your own andlearn a little more.
And I don't talk, I'm nottalking about research going
into Chat GPT.
I'm not talking about going intothe DSM.
I'm talking about readingperhaps some of the books that I
have recommended in previousepisodes, and I'll mention them
again today.
But learning a little bit moreabout the history of psychiatry,
about the history of the DSM,about how these diagnoses were
(02:17):
developed in the first place, sothat you can start being a
little more skeptical andcurious about what this
diagnosis actually means andabout the idea that bipolar is
incurable, because that's one ofthe things that we're going to
talk about today.
So let's start with bipolar isnot.
I think it's important to talkabout the myths that surround
this diagnosis that keep peoplestuck.
(02:39):
When somebody is diagnosed withbipolar disorder, usually when
you go in to see a psychiatrist,you have been experiencing
symptoms, sometimes for a while,that are very distressing.
And when you go to thepsychiatrist, you're going
because you need help.
Usually most of us don't want togo see a psychiatrist.
And so if you're like me, youwill have felt like you needed
to go see somebody for a while,but you kept putting it off
(03:01):
because you were hoping that,you know, maybe you could fix it
yourself, or you don't want tobe told that you're broken.
I know when I when I went, Iwas, it took about a year after
the first recommendation wasthat I go see a psychiatrist
before I actually did.
I was struggling in college withincreasingly erratic mood
swings.
And my behavior was becomingmore and more concerning to
(03:24):
those close to me.
And I was my parents and an auntand uncle that lived near me
were increasingly requestingthat I and recommending that I
go see a psychiatrist becausethey were worried about what
they were seeing in me as far asbehavior and inconsistency and
my behavior and the choices Iwas making in my life.
(03:45):
And I finally got the courage upto go see a psychiatrist.
And I was diagnosed initiallywith depression and anxiety
disorders, and then later it waschanged to bipolar disorder
after I was started on anantidepressant.
And when I went to thepsychiatrist, I was led to
believe that I was beingdiagnosed with a chemical
imbalance.
That I was being diagnosed withan underlying etiology, that the
(04:07):
source of the problem was beingidentified.
When somebody is diagnosed withbipolar disorder, they are not
identifying an underlyingetiology or an underlying
disease or an underlyingcondition.
And that's one of the bigbipolar is not myths is bipolar
is not identifying the source ofthe symptoms.
It is not identifying the reasonthat you are experiencing the
(04:31):
symptoms you're experiencing.
And the problem that thatcreates is that people think
that they have been told whythey're experiencing those
symptoms.
They believe that the underlyingissue has been identified.
And the problem is that thatends curiosity.
I've talked about this inprevious episodes, but it ends
curiosity into what actually isgoing on.
And so the underlying issues arenever identified and never
(04:54):
treated.
And when somebody is diagnosedwith bipolar disorder, you are
not, they are not, they are notdoing blood tests, they are not
doing brain scans to diagnoseyou because there are no
benchmarks, there are no bloodtests or brain scans that are
used to determine that somebodyhas bipolar disorder.
The only thing that they use todetermine if somebody has
(05:15):
bipolar disorder are thesymptoms.
And the symptoms themselves havebeen determined.
The symptoms that decide ifsomebody has bipolar disorder or
depression or anxiety orschizophrenia are a cluster of
symptoms that was voted on by apanel of psychiatrists.
And recently, Dr.
Joseph Witt During talked aboutthis.
(05:36):
He talked about how it's afairly unscientific process,
actually, because you get a thereason why the original DSM was
created in the first place, thediagnostical statistical manual
of psychiatry was created in thefirst place was for the purpose
of medicating.
It was for the purpose oftelling psychiatrists which
medications to use to treatpeople.
(05:56):
And they created, they createdcategories or diagnoses based on
clusters of symptoms that apanel of psychiatrists had voted
on.
And when they created lateriterations of this manual, they
did the same thing.
And there has been an increasingnumber of people who are
starting to call into questionthe motives of the doctors that
(06:17):
are on this panel because manyof them, if not all of them,
have either are currently orhave received money from drug
companies.
There are, it is, the entiresystem is all wrapped up in the
idea that medication is requiredto treat patients.
And so it's it's pretending likeit's this very scientific
(06:38):
process of diagnosing andtreating somebody.
They've created really longlists of symptoms and frequency
of symptoms, and it's notactually identifying the actual
source of the symptoms, it'sjust giving you a diagnosis
based on the cluster of symptomsthat has been determined by this
group of psychiatrists.
And this has creates all kindsof problems for people that are
(07:00):
struggling with these symptomsbecause they believe that the
treatment itself is going tomake them better.
And one of the things thatProfessor Joanna Moncrief talks
about is that when they firstcreated the DSM years ago, when
they were first starting totreat people with medications,
not all psychiatrists weresubscribing to the idea that
they were fixing an underlyingproblem.
(07:21):
That when they first starteddoing this, there was a
recognition that you were usingdrugs to suppress symptoms, but
the drugged state waspreferable.
And therapists used to not treatpeople with that were on
medication because theyunderstood that this, their
emotional response was beingsuppressed, and it was not
process, it was not possible toprocess emotions in a healthy
(07:42):
way because the emotionalresponse was being blunted by
the medication.
But now we've got this idea, andmost of it has to do with the
marketing campaigns of thesedrug companies, that these drugs
are actually fixing something,that they're actually fixing an
underlying issue and and thatthey're making things better,
which is why people are toldthat we just have to keep
(08:05):
looking until we find the rightcombination of medications.
And I'm really surprised on aregular basis about how many
people are willing to acceptthis idea.
When I when I talk about thetruth about bipolar online and
on social media, I get a lot ofpushback from people who say you
just have to keep tryingdifferent medications until you
find the right one.
And it's it's surprising to mebecause I think how that's a I
(08:28):
remember thinking this when Iwas very first being treated,
that it was seemed quiteunscientific to play guess and
check with medications.
Um when I was in when I was inschool in biology, I remember a
teacher talking about the thisidea of playing guess and check.
So guess and check is when youmake a guess at what might be
(08:49):
what might work or what might beappropriate in a certain
situation.
You try it, and if it doesn'twork, then you try again.
And you just keep trying untilyou hit on the right, you
hopefully hit on the rightthing.
And with psychotropic drugs,this is a really dangerous
approach.
I I don't know what other wordto use for it because
psychotropic medications arepowerful mind-altering
(09:12):
substances that we don't fullyunderstand.
And most drugs are not tested,they are tested for the most at
for like 12 weeks.
These drugs have not been testedfor long-term safety or
efficacy.
And there is no financialmotivation to test them for
(09:32):
that.
There is no, in fact, there arehuge financial disincentives
preventing people from beingwilling to test these
medications for their long-termimpact, for whether or not they
are safe.
These drugs are not tested whenthey're being used to get to
with each other.
It's something that is calledpolypharmacy.
When you are taking multiplepsychotropic medications, these
(09:54):
drugs aren't tested for that.
We don't we don't go in and sayand test, you know, one of the
common things when somebody isdiagnosed with bipolar disorder
is to be put on like a moodstabilizer, mood stabilizer or
antipsychotic and anantidepressant.
They don't test for combiningthese drugs with each other.
And so the people that are thetest subjects are the patients.
(10:17):
We are the test subjects, andthere is no willingness to
consider that maybe what we'redoing is not helping people,
maybe what we're doing isactually harming people, which
leads to the chemical imbalancetheory.
And one of the things that I Iwant to address here because
it's it has been brought up, um,is if we're going to if we're
(10:40):
going along with this theme,bipolar is not.
Bipolar is not a chemicalimbalance.
It is not.
And Professor Joanna Moncrief,who I've had on my program
twice, who I've had on mypodcast twice, led the research
team that reviewed 20 years ofresearch and determined that the
chemical imbalance theory isfalse.
And the problem is that it hasbeen used so widely in marketing
(11:05):
that even psychiatrists believethat the chemical imbalance
theory is true.
There's been zero curiosityabout whether or not it's true.
It's just a convenient,comfortable way to explain why
psychotropic drugs are areneeded.
And that's actually how thetheory developed in the first
place.
This was a theory that wasdeveloped back in the 1950s to
(11:27):
try and explain why certainmedications had an impact on
people who were suffering fromwhat they called melancholia.
And it's that's what we wouldcall depression today.
And it was the original um, Ithink it's called Lamotrogen.
There was a medication that wasused to treat, I think, malaria.
(11:47):
I apologize that I can'tremember it offhand.
I should have written it,written it down.
But there was a medication thatwas used, I think it was to
treat malaria.
And the doctors observed thatthe patients would get happy
when they when they took thismedication.
They would be dancing around theward and they would feel
elevated and happy.
And so their mood would beelevated.
And the observation was, Iwonder if we could use this
(12:10):
medication to treat melancholia,people who are depressed.
So they started using it, notunderstanding, not understanding
the drug, not understanding whyit was impacting people this
way, but hoping that maybe thismight help people who were
struggling with low mood, with adepressed state.
And as these medications werestarting to be used to try and
(12:30):
treat people who were strugglingwith these symptoms of
depression, they developed atheory as to why the medication
was working, why it was helpingpeople elevate their moods.
And the theory was the chemicalimbalance, that the brain, the
brain chemistry was out ofbalance and that serotonin
production was off.
(12:50):
And so that the medication wasimproving the serotonin in the
brain, which was why, you know,why this was working.
That was the theory.
And interestingly, over thedecades since that theory was
developed, there have beennumerous attempts to try and
prove this theory true.
And not only did they prove thatit wasn't true, that there was
(13:11):
no chemistry, there was no brainchemical imbalance in the first
place, but they discovered thatthe medications themselves were
causing a chemical imbalance inthe brain because these
medications are not natural tothe brain.
When we talk about brainchemicals, we're not talking
about artificial chemicals thatare developed in a lab.
We're talking about brainchemistry.
(13:32):
And they're they're twodifferent things.
These brain chemistry, theneurotransmitters in the brain,
are naturally occurringprocesses.
And the things that arenecessary to help improve these
natural occurring processes arenot chemicals.
They are micronutrients, theyare vitamins and minerals and
omega-3s and amino acids.
(13:53):
Those are the things that ourbody needs to function in a
healthy way.
And in order for our brains toget what it needs to function in
a healthy way, we need to have ahealthy diet.
And nobody, because we startedback in the 90s with
psychotropic medications andthat became the focus, most
doctors were not interested inlearning more about whether
(14:15):
people could just improve theirdiets to improve their mental
health.
So all of the focus over thepast 75 years in psychiatric
research and development wastrying to prove the chemical
imbalance theory, trying toprove that these medications
work, trying to find newmedications to fix the problems
that people are having.
And it made it so that there wasno curiosity into whether or not
(14:38):
what they were doing wasactually working or beneficial
to their patients.
And this leads to anotherbipolar is not, which is bipolar
is not incurable.
First of all, we go back to thebeginning.
Bipolar is not identifying anunderlying etiology.
So we're not identifying adisease or a, you know, an
actual etiology, an underlyingcondition.
We're just identifying a clusterof symptoms.
(15:00):
And we know now, because of theresearch from Professor Joanna
Moncrief, that it is not achemical imbalance.
That theory was totallydisproven.
And a lot of times, one of thethings, one of the, I forgot to
mention this, but one of theways that people push back on me
using Professor Moncrief's workin talking about how bipolar is
not a chemical imbalance, isthey'll say, well, she's talking
(15:21):
about depression, but bipolarreally is a chemical imbalance.
And that's not true because allof the chemical imbalance
theories rest on this idea thatdepression was a chemical
imbalance.
All of the theories of chemicalimbalance for mental illness
began with that original theory.
It is a house of cards that wasbuilt on a faulty foundation in
the first place.
And there have been numerousattempts.
(15:41):
I hear I have people all thetime saying, well, if you look
at my brain scan, look at brainscans all you want.
But there's a reason that we wedon't use brain scans and
diagnosing.
There's a reason we don't useblood tests and diagnosing,
because an underlying etiologyhas never been identified.
But the reason that bipolardisorder, quote unquote bipolar
disorder, has become incurableis because of the treatment
(16:03):
approach itself.
The treatment approach thatassumes that we've identified a
disease when we identify whensomebody is diagnosed with
bipolar disorder, and thenassumes, based on the last 75
years of treatment throughpsychiatry, that they will
require medication for life,medication that changes the
brain chemistry and does notaddress the underlying issue.
We created an incurablecondition because the treatment
(16:26):
itself is preventing the cure.
The treatment itself is notaddressing or identifying the
underlying issues.
It is changing the brainchemistry in an abnormal way
that makes the brain function inan abnormal way.
And so the person stays sick.
Bipolar does not need to beincurable, it does not need to
be a lifelong condition.
It is possible to identify theunderlying sources of the
(16:49):
symptoms and then treat theunderlying source and resolve
those sources of symptoms, whichleads me to what bipolar is.
Bipolar is observing very realand very distressing symptoms.
When I say that bipolar is not adisorder, it's not identifying
an underlying ideology.
I'm not saying that the symptomsaren't real.
And I'm not saying that they'renot distressing and very
(17:11):
disruptive to your life.
They are.
I lived with it.
There's a reason I went to thepsychiatrist in the first place.
I it took a year for me to getthe courage up to go.
But when I finally went, I washopeful that they were going to
be able to help me because thesymptoms I was experiencing were
very distressing.
They were so disruptive to mylife.
They were destroyingrelationships, they were
(17:34):
embarrassing, they werehumiliating, they were
discouraging.
Bipolar symptoms are very real.
There's a reason that people goto the psychiatrists in the
first place.
We're experiencing very realdistress that all the diagnosis
does is observe the distressyou're experiencing.
It does not identify why you areexperiencing that distress.
And so it's so important for usto get curious.
(17:56):
Have some scientific curiosity,have some curiosity into what's
actually happening.
Your brain is in distress.
Why?
What's actually happening?
It feels good.
It does.
It does feel good to have adiagnosis that that alleviates
you from having responsibilityfor it.
It blames it on a chemicalimbalance in your brain or
something outside of yourcontrol because then you don't
(18:17):
have to be responsible for it.
You can just take some drugs andand it would it would be great.
It would feel good to be able totake some medication, have it
all go away and get back to yourlife.
And there is a small percentageof people who find relief from
the medication and are able toeventually figure out how to
live their lives with themedication and with the
(18:37):
underlying distress never beingidentified because a medication
is able to suppress it in a in asufficient way for them to go
about their lives.
But one of the things that makesme very sad about that is that
there are serious long-termnegative impacts of these
medications on the body and thebrain.
I remember every time I wouldtake my medications, I would,
(18:58):
every single time.
I don't think there was a daythat I was on the medications
for that 12 years that I didn'tfeel sick to my stomach about
what I was putting in my body.
I was a very healthy person.
I was a competitive athletethrough high school and college.
I ate very healthy.
I took very good care of mybody.
I never drank alcohol.
I never smoked.
And I was putting substances inmy body that I was fully aware
(19:19):
were doing serious damage to me.
And I didn't feel like I had anychoice.
I felt like I had to take thosemedications because I was told
by the doctor that that wasnecessary to treat my
quote-unquote disorder.
That one of the medications Iwas on depict damages the liver.
I had to go in regularly forliver function tests.
And I remember one day crying onmy way home from having my liver
(19:41):
function test, thinking I havespent my entire life abstaining
from alcohol and I am doingsignificant damage to my liver
with this medication.
It's going to destroy my liverand I have to take it.
And it just made me sick everytime I took it.
These medications are notnatural substances to our body,
and they do long-term damage.
(20:02):
And so if there's a way to treatthe underlying source and
resolve them so you don't haveto be on medication for the rest
of your life, wouldn't you wantto know?
And I want to put a caveat inhere.
This does not mean if you're onmedication to go take, stop
taking your medication.
As I mentioned earlier, thesemedications cause a chemical
imbalance in the brain.
And so you have to work with anexpert on how to withdraw these
(20:24):
medications from your systemsafely so that you don't end up,
you know, harming yourself.
They can have serious withdrawalsymptoms and it takes time.
I had a client recently that gotthrough her cross-titration.
We call it cross-titration whenyou're helping your brain heal
through micronutrition andhelping you safely, slowly
withdraw from the medication.
(20:45):
And it took her a year and ahalf to get off the medication.
She did it safely.
She did it with very littledistress, really.
But she had to use, she had tohave expert guidance through the
process to help safely withdrawher from the medication.
So please don't go stop takingyour medications.
If you want help, if you wanthelp, you can contact me.
You can contact, I've Iinterviewed Angie Peacock.
(21:06):
She's somebody who helps peopleget off of medications safely.
I I would I would recommendYosef Witt During's uh clinic,
but it I've heard recently thatit's gotten quite expensive.
And so I think he is referringpeople to other places.
But he's a psychiatrist who cameup through the traditional
psychiatric training and wasvery suspicious of what he was
being taught, did more research,worked for the FDA, worked for
(21:29):
drug company, and discovered thetruth about psychiatric
medications.
If you haven't listened to himtalk about it, I would encourage
you to go find him on socialmedia.
It's I'll I'll link him in thein the show notes.
But these medications are nottreating an underlying cause.
They are trying to suppresssymptoms, and they do it in a
way that does tremendous damageto our minds and to our bodies.
And so it is it is so importantto understand that yes, bipolar
(21:52):
is observing very real symptomsthat are very distressing, but
we need to have curiosity aboutwhat's actually happening.
What is actually the source ofthose symptoms?
I've talked about this onprevious episodes, but just for
you know the sake of what I'msaying here, some of the main
sources of symptoms for peopleare, as I mentioned,
micronutrient insufficiency.
If your brain is not gettingadequate nutrition, it will not
(22:14):
function in a healthy way.
And it will manifest in allmanner of symptoms.
We can all have all kinds ofmental health symptoms that can
be the result of not gettingadequate nutrition for our
brains.
You can end up with ADHDsymptoms and depression symptoms
and anxiety symptoms and bipolarsymptoms and even schizophrenia.
People who are struggling withthose types of serious symptoms
(22:36):
can be the result of not gettingadequate nutrition for your
brain.
That is one of the mainunderlying sources.
It's why we've seen such adramatic increase in the number
of people being diagnosed withmental health conditions in the
last 50 years, because our foodis not food anymore.
Everything is ultra-processed.
Even people who are eating, youknow, trying to eat whole food
diets, if you're shopping at thegrocery store, most of that,
(22:57):
those foods have come from far,far away.
And so the nutritional value isvery low.
I did a podcast episode on thislike a year and a half or two
years ago with an expert on foodtransportation, and he talked
about how depleted our foodsources are in nutrition,
largely because of how far theytravel.
And so that is one of the mainculprits is the lack of
(23:20):
nutrition, the lack of themicronutrients, the building
blocks of the neurotransmittersin our brains.
The next one is ironicallyiatrogenic.
So somebody starts strugglingwith, you know, even mild, you
know, mild depression, you know,if it gets distressing enough
and you go to psychiatrist andyou're put on an antidepressant,
over two-thirds of the peoplediagnosed with bipolar disorder
were first treated fordepression.
(23:42):
They were put on anantidepressant, which causes a
chemical imbalance in your brainand often will lead to symptoms
of mania or hypomania.
And then instead of beingrecognizing that they caused
those symptoms to occur with themedication, they are told, we
misdiagnosed you.
You actually have bipolardisorder.
And then they load you up onmore drugs.
(24:03):
So the iatrogenic, the medicalharm from the medications
themselves causes symptoms thatthen lead to more diagnoses that
cause you to need moremedication.
So helping your brain heal fromthe effects of these medications
is key as, you know, in helpingsomebody to actually heal, to
heal their brain and heal theunderlying sources of the
(24:25):
symptoms.
Drug use, not just a illicitdrug or not just legal drugs,
and there are other medicationsthat people can take for other
health conditions that canactually lead to mental health
symptoms that then lead to adiagnosis.
So it's not just psychotropicdrugs.
You can be taking another typeof medication that can cause
symptoms of depression oranxiety that can then lead you
(24:45):
to be diagnosed with a mentalhealth condition.
Drug use is a big one.
And marijuana is especiallyrelevant today.
And I've there have been anumber of different
psychiatrists talking about thisissue that are holistic
psychiatrists that are trying topromote help helping people to
heal.
And this is actually somebodythat I'm going to have on my
podcast soon, is a woman who hasa mother who has started an
(25:10):
organization that is trying tohelp make people aware of the
dangers of marijuana use.
She was lives in Colorado.
And once it got legalized there,all of a sudden they saw a spike
in the number of people beingdiagnosed with mental health
conditions directly related tothe use of marijuana.
And it's because the, I believeit's if I say this wrong, I
apologize, but I think it's theTHC level in the marijuana is
(25:32):
dramatically higher than what itwas, you know, 50 years ago.
50 years ago when pot was beingused all the time, 60 years ago,
70 years ago, when it was beingused all the time, it was very
low levels of THC in the in thedrug.
And now there has been such adramatic increase in the level
of THC that it is actuallycausing symptoms of psychosis
(25:53):
and mania in people.
And instead of any curiosityabout what's actually causing
the symptoms, they are diagnosedwith bipolar disorder or
schizophrenia and put onpsychotropic medications.
We've got people who are dealingwith severe trauma, but trauma
is a big underlying source ofsymptoms.
You can have somebody who has,you know, traumatic experiences,
(26:14):
like one time you can have atraumatic experience or multiple
traumatic experiences orlifelong neglect or things like
that that can causedysregulation in the brain,
cause depression, and causeanxiety.
You know, you could experiencetrauma responses that are then I
diagnosed as bipolar disorder oranxiety disorder, and then
you're put on medication and theunderlying issue has never been
addressed.
You're just drugged up.
(26:35):
People are suffering and theyare being put on drugs.
You, you know, if somebody isexperiencing symptoms and they
experience them for prolongedperiods of time, you can develop
unhealthy thought and behaviorpatterns as a result.
And this can lead to emotionaldysregulation.
There's all kinds of things thatcan actually be the underlying
source of the symptoms.
And if you don't ever identifywhat the source is, you can't
(26:57):
treat it.
So that's why it's so importantto take these very serious
symptoms and get curious aboutwhat's actually causing them.
The next bipolar is, is thisleads to the next bipolar is,
which is it is disruptive toyour life.
These symptoms are verydisruptive.
And that's why we look for help.
That's why we go topsychiatrists.
That's why we go looking for,you know, somebody to help us
(27:19):
understand why, why you'restruggling with these symptoms
that often lead to verydisruptive and damaging
destructive behavior.
And we want to know why.
We want to know why we'restruggling with compulsive
behaviors.
We want to know why we'restruggling with irrational
thoughts and racing thoughts andelevated moods that lead us to
do crazy, sometimes dangerousthings.
(27:41):
But again, it is not a chemicalimbalance.
It is not an underlying etiologythat's being identified.
It's just the symptoms that arebeing observed.
Like somebody who is strugglingwith fever is being told that
they have fever disorder.
That's not helpful.
Yes, running a fever of 105 isvery dangerous.
If somebody is running a reallyhigh fever, it's very dangerous
and very distressing.
(28:01):
And you want to do whatever youcan to get to address it as soon
as possible so that you don'tend up with brain damage.
But we don't assume that youhave fever disorder and we don't
put you on anti-inflammatoriesfor the rest of your life.
We look with curiosity at whatcould be causing the fever.
So we might give you somethingtemporarily to suppress the
fever so that we can preventdamage to the brain and to the
(28:22):
body, but then we look withcuriosity at to what is actually
causing the fever to occur.
That's what we need to do withmental health challenges.
We need to look with curiosityat the source of the symptoms
you're experiencing.
There are times when people needsomething to, if they're a
danger to themselves or others,you know, sometimes when
somebody gets diagnosed, theyget diagnosed because they have
a severe psychotic episode.
(28:44):
If you're a danger to yourselfor others, we need something
temporarily to help bring that,bring you back into a safe place
emotionally or mentally, right?
So I am not totallyanti-medication.
I think that there are timeswhen it's appropriate to use
them for short periods of timeto bring somebody back into a
safe place mentally so thatthey're not a danger to
themselves or others.
But then we need to get curiouswhat caused the symptoms in the
(29:08):
first place.
It is not bipolar disorder andit is not these diagnoses that
only observe the symptoms.
What is the source?
What is actually causing it sothat we can treat the source
using research-based integratedtreatment?
There is so much research outthere now.
It's incredible to me.
I'm so excited because there areso many people now that are
actually getting curious aboutthe sources of people's
(29:30):
symptoms.
I love talking to Dr.
Bonnie Kaplan about herresearch, her groundbreaking
research, in my opinion, onmicronutrition and the role that
it plays in our mental healthand how we can solve the
problems.
You know, we've I've read TheBody Keeps the Score and talking
about how trauma impacts theemotional regulation of our
brains and our bodies.
(29:51):
And when you are not addressingthe underlying issues, you will
not resolve the symptoms.
We need to get curious.
We need to get curious aboutwhat is causing these symptoms
to occur in the first place andthen use research-based
treatments that will actuallyhelp resolve the source so that
you can heal.
The last, this leads me to thelast bipolar is, which is
(30:13):
bipolar is curable.
It is possible to resolve theunderlying sources of the
symptoms so that you can heal.
When I first started my blogback in uh January of 2021, I
didn't know that I had beenhealing.
I I thought that I believed whatI had been told about bipolar
being a lifelong and curablecondition, that I would have it
(30:35):
forever, and that I just neededto learn how to manage it.
And I thought that I I had gonelonger and longer and longer
periods of time without anysymptoms.
I hadn't had any manic symptomsat that point.
So in 2021, I hadn't had anymanic symptoms for over a
decade.
And I and I I had been I startedon the micronutrients back in
(30:55):
2010 and I got off mymedications back in 2010.
I had not experienced the maniasince then.
And I was having longer periodsof time where I was not
experiencing depression, and mydepression was manageable.
It wasn't gone completely, butit was manageable.
And my anxiety symptoms werestarting to resolve, and I was
(31:15):
starting to understand what wascausing the anxiety symptoms.
So I thought that I had justlearned to manage what I
believed still at that point wasa lifelong and curable
condition.
And as I did more research totry and help people, as I
decided to start sharing what Iwas learning, I wanted to share
what I was learning because Ihad wished that somebody else
had shared it with me, which iswhy I started my blog.
(31:36):
And then I started the podcast.
And as I started doing moreresearch, I started recognizing
that what I had been told aboutmy bipolar diagnosis was not
true.
And even though I startedbelieving it about myself, I was
hesitant to share it with otherpeople because I thought, well,
maybe I'm different.
Maybe I, you know, which is whatoften people will say, you were
misdiagnosed or, you know,you're you must not have had
(31:57):
bipolar disorder, because again,we believe that bipolar disorder
is incurable.
And so if somebody's heals, thenthey must not have had bipolar
disorder.
Again, super unscientific.
Like we need to be curious aboutthese things.
Like if somebody was diagnosedby eight separate psychiatrists
like I was over a 12-year periodof time, hospitalized multiple
times.
(32:17):
If if somebody who went throughthat says that you can heal,
shouldn't we be curious about itinstead of dogpiling and say
you're a liar or you'remisinformed or you're dangerous?
Shouldn't there be somecuriosity?
Science is all about curiosity.
True science is about curiosity.
Being curious, being open to theidea that maybe you were wrong.
(32:38):
So if somebody is saying thattheir process is scientific, but
they're not open, be suspicious.
Because that's not scientific.
That is very anti-science, infact.
It is possible to identify theunderlying sources of the
symptoms that led to yourbipolar diagnosis and treat
(32:58):
those underlying sources usingresearch-based methods that will
help you to heal.
Bipolar disorder is curable.
It is possible to heal.
And I learned that for myself.
If I as I was doing moreresearch and I started becoming
more curious and more suspiciousof what I had been told, I
started recognizing that I washealing, that what I had been
doing for that previous decadethat had led me to greater and
(33:22):
greater periods of stability wasactually, I was actually
healing.
I was actually resolving sourcesof symptoms.
It started with getting off themedication safely and getting on
the micronutrients and helpingmy brain begin to heal from the
effects of the medication andfor the effects of not having
enough adequate nutrition for mybrain to function in a healthy
way.
Once I, once I resolved thosetwo sources, then I was able to
(33:44):
start resolving some of theother sources of symptoms,
unhealed trauma, unhealthythought and behavior patterns,
unhealthy coping mechanisms.
I started recognizing thesymptoms for what they actually
were, which was information.
My brain was asking for help,and I started recognizing what
it was saying to me and how togive it the help that it needed.
I had to develop new habits forthe way that I interacted with
(34:04):
the world and in relationships.
I had to change the way that Iwas what that I was interacting
with people and with life andwith the world around me, so
that I was interacting withthose things in a healthy way.
I had to create habits forhealing.
So let's review.
Bipolar is not identifying anunderlying etiology or disease.
It is only identifying a clusterof symptoms.
(34:26):
Bipolar is not a chemicalimbalance.
That has been completelydisproven.
In fact, when you take thesepsychotropic medications, you
create a chemical imbalance inyour brain.
Bipolar disorder is notincurable.
Yes, bipolar disorder is thesesymptoms are observing very real
and very distressing symptoms.
(34:48):
And yes, these symptoms arebipolar is very disruptive to
your life.
But the good news is thatbipolar is curable.
It is possible to heal bipolardisorder.
If you are ready to start yourpath, I would encourage you to
read my book, The Upside ofBipolar, Seven Steps to Heal
Your Disorder.
I would encourage you to developyour own mood cycle survival
(35:09):
guide that will be the beginningof your journey to healing and
recovery by helping you to learnhow to proactively manage your
symptoms.
And then if you have alreadydone those things and you're
ready to begin your own healingjourney, please reach out.
Let's get together and talkabout the Upsiders Tribe, my
coaching program where I coachpeople through the healing
process.
I would love to hear from you.
(35:29):
Please send me an email or amessage on social media and let
me know your thoughts about whatI've shared today.
What do you think Bipolar is?
Until next time, Upsiders.
Thanks for joining me on theUpside of Bipolar.
(35:50):
Your journey to recoverymatters, and I'm grateful you're
here.
For more resources, visitwww.theupsideofbipolar.com.
If you're ready to dive deeper,grab my book, The Upside of
Bipolar, seven steps to healyour disorder.
If you're ready to heal yoursymptoms, join my monthly
membership, The Upsiders Tribe,to transform chaos into hope.
(36:12):
Until next time, Upsiders
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