May 25, 2026 • 32 mins
I unpack what a bipolar recovery coach is and why a diagnosis can describe symptoms without explaining what causes them. I share my path from trusting the chemical imbalance story, through worsening outcomes and hospitalizations, to learning how to identify and treat the real sources behind my mood symptoms.
• My early mood swings, the search for answers, and why the diagnosis felt like relief
• How symptom-focused care and long-term medication left me feeling worse and more hopeless
• The mindset shift that changed everything: nobody is coming to save me
• Becoming a detective in my own life, including earlier recognition and healthier support plans
• Why diagnoses can function like labels, not true explanations, using fire alarm, smoke, and fever analogies
• The research and books that challenged the chemical imbalance theory and reshaped my approach
• Why I built my book and The Upsiders' Tribe to offer a shorter route with guidance and support
• Common sources to investigate: trauma, unhealthy thoughts and behaviors, medication effects and withdrawal, micronutrient insufficiency, substance use
• What I do as a coach: help you find sources, choose tools, and get steady support without judgment
If you’re ready to move beyond symptom management and begin pursuing real healing and recovery, I would love to talk with you. Schedule a Discovery Session to see if The Upsiders’ Tribe is the right fit for your journey.
To book your complimentary Success Session email me: michelle@theupsideofbipolar.com
FREE Mood Cycle Survival Guide: https://theupsideofbipolar.com/free/
The Upside of Bipolar: 7 Steps to Heal Your Disorder: @upsideofbipolar | Linktree
website: https://theupsideofbipolar.com/
email: michelle@theupsideofbipolar.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theupsideofbipolar/
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
It leads people to believe they've been get given
an explanation for why they'reexperiencing these symptoms,
when in fact, all it has done istell you that you have them.
Some of the analogies that havebeen really helpful for me in
explaining this to people are ifsomebody had a fire alarm going
off in their home and you wentto somebody who is supposed to
be an expert on fire alarms, andthey came over and said, Oh, you
(00:22):
have fire alarm disorder.
And they gave you something tomuffle the alarm.
That is what we're doing withthis.
We are not identifying thesource.
Welcome to the Upside ofBipolar, where we uncover the
true sources of bipolar symptomsand share proven tools for
(00:42):
recovery.
I'm your host, MichelleReitinger, number one
international best-sellingauthor of the Upside of Bipolar
Seven Steps to Heal YourDisorder.
In this podcast, I bring yousolo insights from my journey
and guest interviews withleading researchers and experts.
Join us to transform chaos intohope and reclaim your life.
Let's heal together.
(01:17):
And that is what is a bipolarrecovery coach?
It's a question that I'm beingasked with increasing frequency.
So I thought I would take anepisode and explain what it is
that I do and how I help peoplerecover from their bipolar
disorder.
In order to start thisdiscussion, it's really
important to go back to thebeginning for me, which was
leading up to my diagnosis.
(01:39):
In college, the three yearsleading up to my diagnosis, I
had been experiencingincreasingly erratic mood
swings.
I would go for periods of timewhere I would have really
elevated mood, my mind wouldrace, I would have lots of big
thoughts and big ideas, and thenI would crash and I would get
depressed and start to strugglewanting to even go out.
(02:03):
I would watch television forexcessive periods of time.
And these shifts in mood, thesewere becoming more and more
pronounced and more and moredistressing to the people that
loved me and to myself.
I was losing confidence inmyself.
I'd spent a lot of time duringthose years reading self-help
books and trying to establishschedules for myself and trying
(02:27):
to exercise moreself-discipline, thinking that I
could just fix it because Ithought it was a moral failing
on my part if I just triedharder.
And as my family observed me,especially my aunt and uncle who
lived near me, and my parentswho lived in another state, but
were observing this through mycommunication with them, through
phone calls or the lack of phonecalls, they were observing these
(02:51):
increasingly erratic mood swingswith deep concern.
These symptoms were verydistressing for me and for the
people who loved me.
And so when I was finallyconvinced to go see a
psychiatrist, I went to thepsychiatrist looking for an
explanation.
I wanted to understand why I wasexperiencing these symptoms and
what could be done about it.
(03:12):
When I went to the doctor, thefocus there was on the symptoms.
The symptoms were, I was givenpages and pages of questions
related directly to what typesof symptoms I was having, the
severity of the symptoms, andthe frequency or duration and
duration.
All of the focus was on thesymptoms.
(03:33):
And I was given what I believedwas an explanation for why I was
having these symptoms.
I was initially diagnosed withmajor depressive disorder and
anxiety disorders.
And then later the diagnosis waschanged to bipolar disorder.
And I was told that thedefinition of these the
definition or what thesesymptoms or what these diagnoses
(03:56):
actually meant was that I had achemical imbalance, that my
brain was chemically imbalanced.
And that was why I wasexperiencing these symptoms, and
that the treatment was to usepsychotropic medications,
chemicals, to balance out thechemicals of my brain.
And it was a story that madesense to me.
Like I had very limitedunderstanding of what was going
(04:18):
on inside my head.
And so going to an expert whohad been trained medically
helped me to feel like there wasa reason that I was experiencing
that was beyond my control.
And it felt good.
I had mixed feelings when I wentto the to this appointment and
had this diagnosis given to mebecause on the one hand, I felt
like I was being told that I wasbroken, that my there was
(04:40):
something wrong with my brainthat needed to be fixed by the
doctor.
But on the other hand, it mademe feel hope that maybe there
was something that could be doneabout it.
When I was told that bipolar waslike having diabetes and the
medication was like insulin,that made me feel more hopeful
because I had lots of friendswho were diabetics.
I had friends who werehigh-level athletes that were
(05:01):
diabetics.
And I thought, well, they canfunction really well.
Their physical issues aretreated and successfully using
insulin.
And so it gave me hope that Iwould be able to treat my
bipolar disorder using thesemedications that were supposed
to balance the chemicals in mybrain.
And then I would be able to livea productive life, live the life
(05:24):
that I had hoped I'd be able tolive.
And so I trusted what I wastold.
I trusted the explanation thatwas given to me for about why I
had these symptoms and thetreatment approach that was
given to me was going to help.
I believed it.
So for the next decade, Iproactively sought psychiatric
(05:44):
treatment.
I went to every every doctor'sappointment.
Anytime I moved, I wouldimmediately establish myself
with a new psychiatrist so thatI made sure I had continuity of
care and that I continued tohave treatment.
I took every medication I wasprescribed, and it didn't get
better, it got worse.
Especially after I had mychildren.
(06:15):
I started struggling with moresymptoms.
Symptoms continued to get worse,and I ended up having additional
symptoms that I was starting tostruggle with.
And after the birth of my secondchild, my son, in 2006, I
spiraled downward.
I just kept getting worse andworse and worse.
(06:35):
And the explanation was was Istill believed it, but it was
making me hopeless at this pointbecause I was also told that the
prognosis of this diagnosis wasvery bleak, that it was lifelong
and incurable, and I would Iwould need medication for the
rest of my life to treat it, butthe medications were not fixing
(06:58):
the problem.
And then I ended up in thehospital several times.
I ended up hospitalized threetimes in two states where they
did electroconvulsive therapy onme.
I felt very, very hopeless.
And I could see the damage thatI was doing to my husband, my
children, to the people I lovedthe most.
(07:20):
And I didn't have any hope forthings getting better at that
point.
Because the experts that I'dgone to that gave me the
explanation for what I believedwas the explanation for why I
was experiencing these symptomsthat were causing so much
distress and damage, theexplanation was leading me to
feel hopeless because I didn'tbelieve that there was any other
(07:43):
way to treat this, thesesymptoms and this disorder.
But the experience that I sharedin my book, and I've shared over
and over again, watching mychildren play after my third
hospitalization and realizingthat if I ever successfully
ended my life, because I'd madeattempts on my life at that
point, that I would ruin mydaughter's life, made me look at
(08:03):
things differently.
And later on, after a fourthhospitalization, I really
started to look at thingsdifferently because I thought,
nobody's coming to save me.
I've got to find a way to savemyself.
And that shift in my brain, thatdetermination to find another
way, changed the way that Iapproached these symptoms.
(08:24):
It changed the way that Iapproached what I was
experiencing.
It wasn't a, I didn't realizewhat a significant difference it
was going to make initially.
I just was desperately trying tofind a way to be a better mom
for my children.
I didn't think my life had muchvalue, but I definitely knew
theirs did.
And I wanted them to have thebest, healthiest mom that they
(08:45):
could, and I wanted to find abetter way to manage what I
believed was a lifelong andcurable condition.
And that started with mebecoming a detective in my own
life.
I started looking first for whatI understood about what I was
dealing with.
I'd been living with thesesymptoms for over a decade at
(09:06):
that point.
And I started looking at them,thinking, what do I know about
what I'm dealing with and whatcan I do differently?
And that led to the developmentof the first tool that I share,
which is the mood cycle survivalguide.
I started thinking about, youknow, some of the damage that
this was doing.
It was doing a tremendous damageto relationships, first of all,
(09:28):
because I wouldn't ask for help.
I was so embarrassed by what Iwas dealing with that I wouldn't
ask for help until I was incrisis.
And that always damagedrelationships.
So I started thinking, well,okay, now I know that I
definitely know that I needhelp.
I can't do this on my own.
I need help.
So how do I ask for help in away that doesn't ruin my
(09:49):
relationships, that doesn't makeme feel humiliated every time I
have to ask for help?
I started thinking about whatkind of help I needed, who I
could ask for the help, and howI could respect the people I was
asking for help from by creatinghealthy boundaries around that
assistance.
I started thinking about how Ican recognize these symptoms
earlier?
(10:09):
Is there a way for me toanticipate them so that I can be
more proactive in managing them?
Is there a way for me to managemy emotional resources better so
that I don't use everything updoing things that don't matter
and then making myself and thepeople that are closest to me
suffer because there's nothingleft for them?
(10:30):
And how do I get back to ahealthy, balanced mental state?
How do I, how do I be proactiveand seeking to get balanced
again rather than just sittingaround feeling like a victim and
waiting for things to getbetter?
That was the beginning of atotal mind shift for me.
I shifted the way that I lookedat myself, I shifted the way
that I looked at my treatment,and I changed my approach.
(10:54):
And that itself was a total gamechanger for me because up to
that point, I had been lookingto the doctors to fix me.
I'd been feeling like they toldme what was wrong with me.
They're the experts, they knowwhat to do, they know what's
best.
And so I just kept doing whatthey were telling me.
And I was a good patient.
I did everything they told me todo, but it was not working.
(11:15):
It was not helping.
I was still suffering.
And I was told that it wasnormal that I was suffering and
that everybody else just neededto suffer along with me,
basically.
But that wasn't good enough forme anymore because it was
hurting my children and I didn'twant to hurt my kids.
Along the way, I starteddiscovering additional tools and
resources.
I started looking for otherthings that could help me.
(11:37):
And I was really blessed becausea friend of mine introduced me
to True Hope, which is themicronutrient company that
helped me to safely titrate offmy medications and get on the
nutrients necessary for my brainto start to heal.
I started finding other toolsand resources that were going to
start helping resolve theunderlying sources of the
symptoms, even though I didn'treally understand that at the
(11:59):
time.
I thought I was just learninghow to manage them better.
And then things really shiftedfor me when I started to share
what I was learning.
In 2020, we had a terriblefamily tragedy that helped me to
recognize how far I'd comementally and emotionally,
(12:20):
because even though I wentthrough a natural grieving
process in this tragedy, I wasstill able to stay balanced.
I was still able to function andtake care of myself and take
care of my family.
In the past, I hadn't been ableto handle minor problems.
And here was a majorlife-changing, life-altering
(12:44):
tragedy that I was able tonavigate in a healthy way.
And when I started recognizingthat, I wanted to share what I'd
learned.
I thought, I need to share whatI've learning.
I had been learning for about adecade at that point, working on
tools and resources that hadhelped me to go longer and
longer periods of time withoutsymptoms.
(13:05):
The symptoms had become muchmore manageable and mild
comparatively.
And I wanted to share what I'dlearned.
I thought I found the way tomanage bipolar because I still
at the time believed what I hadbeen told about bipolar being
lifelong and incurable.
I still believed theexplanation.
I just thought maybe I'd foundalternative treatments that were
more effective in helping tomanage these, this quote-unquote
(13:29):
disorder.
So I started my blog in 2021.
And then shortly after that, Istarted my podcast.
And as I did that, I wanted toget better information for
people.
Now, up to that point, for thatfirst 10 years, I had been
learning these things for myselfand applying them on my own.
(13:50):
But now I wanted to teach otherpeople and I wanted to make sure
I was giving them moreinformation.
I didn't want them just to takemy word for it.
I wanted them to know the sourceof these tools and habits that I
had developed that had helpedme.
So I started doing moreresearch.
And that was when thingscompletely changed for me.
Because in reading books likeAnatomy of an Epidemic and
(14:11):
Madden America, which are bothby Robert Whittaker, reading the
books by Professor JoannaMoncrieff on the chemical
imbalance theory and how it wasfalse, reading books like The
Better Brain by Dr.
Bonnie Kaplan and JuliaRuckledge, and The Body Keeps
the Score by Dr.
Bessel Banderkolk.
(14:32):
All of those changed the waythat I viewed the symptoms that
I was experiencing.
As I said at the very beginning,this all started with symptoms.
I was having very distressingsymptoms I didn't understand.
And I was looking for anexplanation as to why I was
experiencing these symptoms andwhat I could do about them.
And what I had been told wasthat they were a medical
(14:54):
condition, that it was outsideof my control, that it was a
chemical imbalance in my brain,and that I had to use medication
to treat it.
And as I read through thesebooks and started understanding
the sources of the symptoms, Istarted questioning everything
I'd been told.
I started to understand thatthese diagnoses were not
(15:17):
identifying an underlyingmedical condition.
They weren't identifying anetiology, they weren't
identifying a source.
They were simply giving adescription to the symptoms.
It was describing the symptoms,not identifying or explaining
them.
And over time, I've started tocome up with analogies to help
(15:38):
people understand this becausewe are so thoroughly
indoctrinated, for lack of abetter word, into this idea that
these disorders are medicalconditions, that it's really
hard to change the way that weview this.
I've had people come to me tojoin my program and say, well, I
haven't received a bipolardiagnosis, so I don't know if
(15:59):
you can help me.
And I really have to work hardto help people understand a
bipolar diagnosis is not anexplanation.
It doesn't help you.
And actually, I think causes alot of harm because it leads
people to believe they've beengiven an explanation for why
they're experiencing thesesymptoms, when in fact, all it
has done is tell you that youhave them.
Some of the analogies that havebeen really helpful for me in
(16:22):
explaining this to people are ifsomebody had a fire alarm going
off in their home and they theydidn't know what it was, if you
had a really loud alarm goingoff and it was really annoying
and really distressing andcausing problems, and you went
to somebody who was supposed tobe an expert on fire alarms and
asked them what was going on,and they came over and said, Oh,
(16:43):
you have fire alarm disorder.
And they gave you something tomuffle the alarm.
That is what we're doing withthis diagnosis.
We're not, we are notidentifying the source.
We know logically that a firealarm goes off when a fire or
smoke is detected.
(17:03):
The fire alarm is there todetect something and to give you
a warning that there issomething that is unsafe.
Smoke or a fire is occurring andyou need to find the fire or the
smoke.
Don't shut the alarm off.
Don't take the batteries out.
The alarm is there to help you.
The alarm will go off when thesymptom or the source is
(17:24):
resolved, right?
Another analogy that was hasbeen helpful is if you had a car
that started emitting blacksmoke from your tailpipe and you
went to a mechanic and theysaid, Oh, you've got smoke
disorder in your car.
Here, let's put something overthe tailpipe to stop the smoke
from coming out.
That's not going to help thecar, and it's actually going to
(17:45):
cause a tremendous amount ofharm because you're not
identifying the source of thesmoke.
You're not identifying why thecar is smoking.
You're just trying to stop thesmoke.
And you're you're calling itsmoke disorder, which doesn't
tell you why there's smokecoming out of the car, it just
tells you that there's smokecoming out of the car.
And the final explanation thatI've used that is most relatable
(18:10):
because it talks about somethingthat we actually experience
ourselves as human beings, whichis fever disorder.
If you started runningpersistent fevers and they were
getting worse and worse andworse, and you went to the
doctor and they told you you hadfever disorder, and then they
just started giving youibuprofen and said you're just
going to need to take this forthe rest of your life, that is
(18:32):
not telling you why you'rehaving a fever.
It is identifying that you'rehaving a fever, which you
already know, and then givingyou something that is going to
do more damage to your body andnot actually resolve the source
of the symptoms.
It might be resolving thesymptom mechanism, but it's not
actually resolving the sourcebecause you don't know what's
causing your fever.
You haven't identified thesource of the fever.
(18:53):
You've just identified that youhave a fever and you're trying
to stop the fever.
The fever is the body's alarmmechanism.
There's something wrong.
We need to figure out what itis.
And that's what's going on whenyou have a bipolar disorder, a
bipolar disorder diagnosis, oran anxiety disorder diagnosis,
or a major depressive disorderdiagnosis.
(19:14):
You have an alarm going off, ormultiple alarms going off, and
you need to learn how to becomea detective in your life and
look for the sources of thesymptoms.
As I was developing theseresources for people to try and
guide them, help them learn whatI had learned and sharing the
research that I had learned, Istarted recognizing that I was
(19:39):
very blessed that I was able tofind these, all of these tools,
learn how to apply them.
Took a long time.
It took me probably 15 years,really, to go through the whole
process of recovery, partlybecause I didn't know that I was
recovering and I didn't reallyunderstand what I was doing.
I was just desperately trying, Iwas a mom who was desperately
(20:00):
trying to live better for mykids so that they could have a
healthy mom and hopefully have achance at a healthy life.
But I wanted to provide ashorter route for people.
I didn't want them to have tostumble around finding these
things for themselves.
I was actually quite frustratedat one point, several points
probably, that I'd had to findthese things for myself.
(20:20):
All the research is there.
I was frustrated that when Iwent looking for help, that I
was given a false explanationand false understanding of what
was going on.
When there's all this researchout there that's actually
helping us identify the actualsources of people's symptoms and
how to treat them effectively.
(20:43):
And so that's why I started myprogram, The Upsiders Tribe.
And that's why I wrote my book.
The more I was learning, themore information I had, the
harder it was to teach peoplewhat I had learned.
Because it was a bit like tryingto drink through a fire hose.
Whenever I would have somebodyask me to tell them how I had
(21:03):
recovered, I would try to shareeverything I had learned in the
previous decade, all theresearch that I'd done, all the
tools that I developed, all ofthe meaning behind it.
(21:33):
That taught it tells my story sothat you understand my story and
how I ended up with thisdiagnosis and how the treatment
affected me, the psychiatrictreatment affected me.
And then how I discovered theactual sources of my symptoms
and how to treat themeffectively so that you could
resolve the sources of thesymptoms.
(21:54):
This is identifying where thefire is in your house and
putting the fire out.
It's identifying what's causingthe smoke to occur in your car
and fixing the source of theproblem.
It's identifying what's causingthe fever to rage in your body
and treating the source of thefever.
(22:14):
You don't need to treat thesymptoms long term.
You might initially, because,you know, for somebody who's
running a fever of 105, that'sdangerous.
It can cause brain damage.
And so you might need somethinginitially to bring yourself back
into a safe place, but then youdon't stop there.
You don't spend the rest of yourlife taking ibuprofen for
fevers.
(22:34):
If you took ibuprofen every dayfor the rest of your life for
fevers, you'll destroy yourstomach.
You'll do tremendous damage toyour body because that drug is
not safe long term in your body.
And it's not resolving thesource.
If you can identify the sourceof the fever and treat the
source, then you can resolve thesymptom.
The symptoms are a secondaryissue and they are the alarm
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system.
We don't want to shut off thealarm system.
We want to figure out why thealarm's going off in the first
place.
So when I wrote the upside ofbipolar, I wrote it as a
self-help book.
I wanted people to be able totake the book and apply what
they were learning in the bookand resolve their sources of
(23:19):
symptoms.
And I included all of theresearch that I'd done up to
that point.
I've done more since then, but Iup to that point, I incorporated
all of the research that I'ddone, provided all the sources
so that they could do thatresearch for themselves if they
wanted to.
I didn't want people just tofeel like they could take, they
just had to take my word for it.
I wanted them to be able to seethe research for themselves.
(23:40):
But one of the things that Ihave learned is that this is a
really hard road to walk on yourown.
And it can be really scary.
(24:19):
And so when I went through allthe different challenges that
are part of cross-titration and,you know, the over-medication
and the med releases and thewithdrawals, I just kept hanging
on because it wasn't any worsethan what I had already been
experiencing.
But what I learned through thatexperience is that there is a
better way to navigate that.
(24:40):
And that if you have somebodywho's been through it before who
can guide you through theprocess, who can help you know
how to do it effectively, thatit can help it be much more
smooth.
It's been really fantastic towatch the people in my program
who go through cross-titrationbecause I they benefit from what
I've learned.
(25:01):
They benefit from all of mymistakes.
I teach them how to go throughthis process in the smoothest
way possible.
And True Hope is a phenomenalresource for this.
I teach them how to use TrueHope's customer support
effectively, how to go to themwhen you need their help, and
(25:22):
how to navigate this process ina safe and effective way.
And so it's so thrilling whenpeople finally get off of their
medications, their brains arefeeling better and they're
starting to really heal andreally feel the effects of
healing.
And then they're actually ableto start working on the other
sources of their symptoms.
What should have been done inthe first place?
(25:46):
In this program that I created,the Upsiders Tribe, I coach
people through recovery.
I help people learn how to applywhat is in my book, The Upside
of Bipolar, Seven Steps to HealYour Disorder.
I teach them how to take thesetools.
And number one, look withcuriosity for the sources of
your symptoms.
(26:07):
So this all started withsymptoms.
And this the reason people goand get diagnosed, diagnosed is
because of their symptoms.
They are, like I was, lookingfor an explanation.
And we were, they're looking tosomebody who they believe is an
expert who's going to tell themwhy they're experiencing these
symptoms and how to fix it.
(26:28):
And unfortunately, that's notthe case when you go in for a
psychiatric diagnosis.
They're not telling you whyyou're experiencing these
symptoms.
They're just telling you thatyou have the symptoms.
It is an observation, not anexplanation.
So, what we do in bipolarrecovery is number one, we teach
(26:49):
you how to become a detective inyour own life, how to look for
the sources of your symptoms.
And then I teach you how toidentify, once you've identified
the sources of your symptoms,what the tools are and the
resources that are going to helpyou treat the source.
(27:09):
We're not looking for the alarm.
We've already found the alarm.
The alarm's going off.
We're looking for the fire.
Maybe there are multiple firesgoing.
A lot of people have more thanone source of symptoms.
And so we use the researchthat's helped us to learn what
the most common sources ofsymptoms are.
And then we look for thosesources.
(27:29):
Do you have these sources inyour life?
Is there unhealed trauma in yourlife?
Do you have a history of trauma?
Unhealthy thought and behaviorpatterns?
Do you have a history ofpsychiatric diagnosis?
A lot of people's symptoms arecaused by psychiatric meds,
which sounds counterintuitive,but it's true.
If you've started off with adiagnosis of anxiety or ADHD or
(27:53):
depression, and that evolvedinto a bipolar diagnosis, it
didn't reveal it, it caused it.
The source of the symptom is themedication.
Micronutrient insufficiency is avery, very, very common,
probably the most common sourceof symptoms for people.
(28:13):
Our food sources are so depletedin nutrition.
Our brains are not getting whatthey need to function in a
healthy way.
And when your brain is notgetting what it needs, it starts
to get sick and manifest withsymptoms.
So the fire is literally in yourbrain.
Your brain and your body aren'tgetting what they need to
function in a healthy way, andthey're getting sick.
(28:35):
And so instead of trying to shutup the symptom, we need to treat
the source.
We need to give the brain whatit needs to function in a
healthy way.
Some people end up with thesesymptoms as a result of using
drugs.
Marijuana, cocaine, evendrinking can lead to these types
of symptoms.
(28:56):
And sometimes those are thatkind of use is actually sparked
by trying to numb out because ofunhealed trauma.
There's lots of sources ofsymptoms, and we need to
identify what are your sources.
And then I help you understandhow to develop these tools,
habits, and resources that aregoing to help you treat the
(29:17):
underlying sources of yoursymptoms.
And one of the things that Ilove about the way that this
program has evolved is that itis designed to give you three
things.
Number one, the guidance anddirection that you need to
develop these habits and toolsfor yourself, one-on-one
assistance from me and helpingyou to know what where you are
(29:40):
in your journey and what youneed to be focusing on right
now.
And number three is support.
And this is probably the biggestis we've got an incredibly
supportive group of people goingthrough the recovery process
that support each other, thatgive each other encouragement
and guidance because they've,you know, some of them are have
worked through parts of theprogram already and have learned
(30:02):
things.
And so they're able to sharewhat they've learned and give
encouragement and reassurancethat it is going to get better,
that you are going to be able tocontinue down this path to
healing and recovery.
And there's zero judgment.
There's lots of these, a lot ofthe problem that we have with
these symptoms is that it feelsembarrassing and humiliating.
These symptoms make us feel likewe're broken or there's
(30:25):
something wrong with us.
And I love the group that Icoach because they're so
supportive of each other.
Nobody judges the things thatpeople are struggling with
because we understand that muchof this, if not all of it, is a
result of trying to cope withsomething we didn't understand.
So people encourage each otherand support each other and cheer
(30:46):
for each other and continue tohelp people keep moving with
hope towards recovery andhealing.
That's what a bipolar recoverycoach is somebody who will help
you identify what's actuallycausing your symptoms, learn how
to treat the source so that youcan resolve the symptoms and
(31:06):
actually heal.
That's what I do.
And if that's something that youthink would be helpful to you, I
would love to help you on yourjourney to recovery.
This is what I wish somebodycould have done for me.
It shouldn't have taken me 15years to recover from my
bipolar.
It shouldn't have taken me 25years to recover from my bipolar
because what should havehappened in the first place is
(31:27):
somebody should have helped melook with curiosity for the
sources of my symptoms and thenapply the tools and the research
that were available even at thattime to help me treat the
sources so that I could havehealed.
That's what I want to do foryou.
I want to help you recover sothat you can lead a happy,
productive, healthy life andfulfill your life and your life
(31:51):
mission and your purpose on thisearth.
If that would be helpful to you,please reach out.
There is a link to my emailaddress is in the show notes.
And I would love to hear fromyou.
Let's set up a discovery sessionand see if maybe the Upsiders
tribe would be helpful for youin helping you move down your
(32:12):
path to recovery.
Until next time, Upsiders.
Thanks for joining me on theUpside of Bipolar.
Your journey to recoverymatters, and I'm grateful you're
here.
For more resources, visitwww.theupsideofbipolar.com.
(32:32):
If you're ready to dive deeper,grab my book, The Upside of
Bipolar (32:35):
Seven Steps to Heal Your Disorder.
If you're ready to heal yoursymptoms, join my monthly
membership, The Upsiders Tribe,to transform chaos into hope.
Until next time, Upsiders.
It leads people to believe they've been get given
an explanation for why they'reexperiencing these symptoms,
when in fact, all it has done istell you that you have them.
Some of the analogies that havebeen really helpful for me in
explaining this to people are ifsomebody had a fire alarm going
off in their home and you wentto somebody who is supposed to
be an expert on fire alarms, andthey came over and said, Oh, you
(00:22):
have fire alarm disorder.
And they gave you something tomuffle the alarm.
That is what we're doing withthis.
We are not identifying thesource.
Welcome to the Upside ofBipolar, where we uncover the
true sources of bipolar symptomsand share proven tools for
(00:42):
recovery.
I'm your host, MichelleReitinger, number one
international best-sellingauthor of the Upside of Bipolar
Seven Steps to Heal YourDisorder.
In this podcast, I bring yousolo insights from my journey
and guest interviews withleading researchers and experts.
Join us to transform chaos intohope and reclaim your life.
Let's heal together.
(01:17):
And that is what is a bipolarrecovery coach?
It's a question that I'm beingasked with increasing frequency.
So I thought I would take anepisode and explain what it is
that I do and how I help peoplerecover from their bipolar
disorder.
In order to start thisdiscussion, it's really
important to go back to thebeginning for me, which was
leading up to my diagnosis.
(01:39):
In college, the three yearsleading up to my diagnosis, I
had been experiencingincreasingly erratic mood
swings.
I would go for periods of timewhere I would have really
elevated mood, my mind wouldrace, I would have lots of big
thoughts and big ideas, and thenI would crash and I would get
depressed and start to strugglewanting to even go out.
(02:03):
I would watch television forexcessive periods of time.
And these shifts in mood, thesewere becoming more and more
pronounced and more and moredistressing to the people that
loved me and to myself.
I was losing confidence inmyself.
I'd spent a lot of time duringthose years reading self-help
books and trying to establishschedules for myself and trying
(02:27):
to exercise moreself-discipline, thinking that I
could just fix it because Ithought it was a moral failing
on my part if I just triedharder.
And as my family observed me,especially my aunt and uncle who
lived near me, and my parentswho lived in another state, but
were observing this through mycommunication with them, through
phone calls or the lack of phonecalls, they were observing these
(02:51):
increasingly erratic mood swingswith deep concern.
These symptoms were verydistressing for me and for the
people who loved me.
And so when I was finallyconvinced to go see a
psychiatrist, I went to thepsychiatrist looking for an
explanation.
I wanted to understand why I wasexperiencing these symptoms and
what could be done about it.
(03:12):
When I went to the doctor, thefocus there was on the symptoms.
The symptoms were, I was givenpages and pages of questions
related directly to what typesof symptoms I was having, the
severity of the symptoms, andthe frequency or duration and
duration.
All of the focus was on thesymptoms.
(03:33):
And I was given what I believedwas an explanation for why I was
having these symptoms.
I was initially diagnosed withmajor depressive disorder and
anxiety disorders.
And then later the diagnosis waschanged to bipolar disorder.
And I was told that thedefinition of these the
definition or what thesesymptoms or what these diagnoses
(03:56):
actually meant was that I had achemical imbalance, that my
brain was chemically imbalanced.
And that was why I wasexperiencing these symptoms, and
that the treatment was to usepsychotropic medications,
chemicals, to balance out thechemicals of my brain.
And it was a story that madesense to me.
Like I had very limitedunderstanding of what was going
(04:18):
on inside my head.
And so going to an expert whohad been trained medically
helped me to feel like there wasa reason that I was experiencing
that was beyond my control.
And it felt good.
I had mixed feelings when I wentto the to this appointment and
had this diagnosis given to mebecause on the one hand, I felt
like I was being told that I wasbroken, that my there was
(04:40):
something wrong with my brainthat needed to be fixed by the
doctor.
But on the other hand, it mademe feel hope that maybe there
was something that could be doneabout it.
When I was told that bipolar waslike having diabetes and the
medication was like insulin,that made me feel more hopeful
because I had lots of friendswho were diabetics.
I had friends who werehigh-level athletes that were
(05:01):
diabetics.
And I thought, well, they canfunction really well.
Their physical issues aretreated and successfully using
insulin.
And so it gave me hope that Iwould be able to treat my
bipolar disorder using thesemedications that were supposed
to balance the chemicals in mybrain.
And then I would be able to livea productive life, live the life
(05:24):
that I had hoped I'd be able tolive.
And so I trusted what I wastold.
I trusted the explanation thatwas given to me for about why I
had these symptoms and thetreatment approach that was
given to me was going to help.
I believed it.
So for the next decade, Iproactively sought psychiatric
(05:44):
treatment.
I went to every every doctor'sappointment.
Anytime I moved, I wouldimmediately establish myself
with a new psychiatrist so thatI made sure I had continuity of
care and that I continued tohave treatment.
I took every medication I wasprescribed, and it didn't get
better, it got worse.
Especially after I had mychildren.
(06:15):
I started struggling with moresymptoms.
Symptoms continued to get worse,and I ended up having additional
symptoms that I was starting tostruggle with.
And after the birth of my secondchild, my son, in 2006, I
spiraled downward.
I just kept getting worse andworse and worse.
(06:35):
And the explanation was was Istill believed it, but it was
making me hopeless at this pointbecause I was also told that the
prognosis of this diagnosis wasvery bleak, that it was lifelong
and incurable, and I would Iwould need medication for the
rest of my life to treat it, butthe medications were not fixing
(06:58):
the problem.
And then I ended up in thehospital several times.
I ended up hospitalized threetimes in two states where they
did electroconvulsive therapy onme.
I felt very, very hopeless.
And I could see the damage thatI was doing to my husband, my
children, to the people I lovedthe most.
(07:20):
And I didn't have any hope forthings getting better at that
point.
Because the experts that I'dgone to that gave me the
explanation for what I believedwas the explanation for why I
was experiencing these symptomsthat were causing so much
distress and damage, theexplanation was leading me to
feel hopeless because I didn'tbelieve that there was any other
(07:43):
way to treat this, thesesymptoms and this disorder.
But the experience that I sharedin my book, and I've shared over
and over again, watching mychildren play after my third
hospitalization and realizingthat if I ever successfully
ended my life, because I'd madeattempts on my life at that
point, that I would ruin mydaughter's life, made me look at
(08:03):
things differently.
And later on, after a fourthhospitalization, I really
started to look at thingsdifferently because I thought,
nobody's coming to save me.
I've got to find a way to savemyself.
And that shift in my brain, thatdetermination to find another
way, changed the way that Iapproached these symptoms.
(08:24):
It changed the way that Iapproached what I was
experiencing.
It wasn't a, I didn't realizewhat a significant difference it
was going to make initially.
I just was desperately trying tofind a way to be a better mom
for my children.
I didn't think my life had muchvalue, but I definitely knew
theirs did.
And I wanted them to have thebest, healthiest mom that they
(08:45):
could, and I wanted to find abetter way to manage what I
believed was a lifelong andcurable condition.
And that started with mebecoming a detective in my own
life.
I started looking first for whatI understood about what I was
dealing with.
I'd been living with thesesymptoms for over a decade at
(09:06):
that point.
And I started looking at them,thinking, what do I know about
what I'm dealing with and whatcan I do differently?
And that led to the developmentof the first tool that I share,
which is the mood cycle survivalguide.
I started thinking about, youknow, some of the damage that
this was doing.
It was doing a tremendous damageto relationships, first of all,
(09:28):
because I wouldn't ask for help.
I was so embarrassed by what Iwas dealing with that I wouldn't
ask for help until I was incrisis.
And that always damagedrelationships.
So I started thinking, well,okay, now I know that I
definitely know that I needhelp.
I can't do this on my own.
I need help.
So how do I ask for help in away that doesn't ruin my
(09:49):
relationships, that doesn't makeme feel humiliated every time I
have to ask for help?
I started thinking about whatkind of help I needed, who I
could ask for the help, and howI could respect the people I was
asking for help from by creatinghealthy boundaries around that
assistance.
I started thinking about how Ican recognize these symptoms
earlier?
(10:09):
Is there a way for me toanticipate them so that I can be
more proactive in managing them?
Is there a way for me to managemy emotional resources better so
that I don't use everything updoing things that don't matter
and then making myself and thepeople that are closest to me
suffer because there's nothingleft for them?
(10:30):
And how do I get back to ahealthy, balanced mental state?
How do I, how do I be proactiveand seeking to get balanced
again rather than just sittingaround feeling like a victim and
waiting for things to getbetter?
That was the beginning of atotal mind shift for me.
I shifted the way that I lookedat myself, I shifted the way
that I looked at my treatment,and I changed my approach.
(10:54):
And that itself was a total gamechanger for me because up to
that point, I had been lookingto the doctors to fix me.
I'd been feeling like they toldme what was wrong with me.
They're the experts, they knowwhat to do, they know what's
best.
And so I just kept doing whatthey were telling me.
And I was a good patient.
I did everything they told me todo, but it was not working.
(11:15):
It was not helping.
I was still suffering.
And I was told that it wasnormal that I was suffering and
that everybody else just neededto suffer along with me,
basically.
But that wasn't good enough forme anymore because it was
hurting my children and I didn'twant to hurt my kids.
Along the way, I starteddiscovering additional tools and
resources.
I started looking for otherthings that could help me.
(11:37):
And I was really blessed becausea friend of mine introduced me
to True Hope, which is themicronutrient company that
helped me to safely titrate offmy medications and get on the
nutrients necessary for my brainto start to heal.
I started finding other toolsand resources that were going to
start helping resolve theunderlying sources of the
symptoms, even though I didn'treally understand that at the
(11:59):
time.
I thought I was just learninghow to manage them better.
And then things really shiftedfor me when I started to share
what I was learning.
In 2020, we had a terriblefamily tragedy that helped me to
recognize how far I'd comementally and emotionally,
(12:20):
because even though I wentthrough a natural grieving
process in this tragedy, I wasstill able to stay balanced.
I was still able to function andtake care of myself and take
care of my family.
In the past, I hadn't been ableto handle minor problems.
And here was a majorlife-changing, life-altering
(12:44):
tragedy that I was able tonavigate in a healthy way.
And when I started recognizingthat, I wanted to share what I'd
learned.
I thought, I need to share whatI've learning.
I had been learning for about adecade at that point, working on
tools and resources that hadhelped me to go longer and
longer periods of time withoutsymptoms.
(13:05):
The symptoms had become muchmore manageable and mild
comparatively.
And I wanted to share what I'dlearned.
I thought I found the way tomanage bipolar because I still
at the time believed what I hadbeen told about bipolar being
lifelong and incurable.
I still believed theexplanation.
I just thought maybe I'd foundalternative treatments that were
more effective in helping tomanage these, this quote-unquote
(13:29):
disorder.
So I started my blog in 2021.
And then shortly after that, Istarted my podcast.
And as I did that, I wanted toget better information for
people.
Now, up to that point, for thatfirst 10 years, I had been
learning these things for myselfand applying them on my own.
(13:50):
But now I wanted to teach otherpeople and I wanted to make sure
I was giving them moreinformation.
I didn't want them just to takemy word for it.
I wanted them to know the sourceof these tools and habits that I
had developed that had helpedme.
So I started doing moreresearch.
And that was when thingscompletely changed for me.
Because in reading books likeAnatomy of an Epidemic and
(14:11):
Madden America, which are bothby Robert Whittaker, reading the
books by Professor JoannaMoncrieff on the chemical
imbalance theory and how it wasfalse, reading books like The
Better Brain by Dr.
Bonnie Kaplan and JuliaRuckledge, and The Body Keeps
the Score by Dr.
Bessel Banderkolk.
(14:32):
All of those changed the waythat I viewed the symptoms that
I was experiencing.
As I said at the very beginning,this all started with symptoms.
I was having very distressingsymptoms I didn't understand.
And I was looking for anexplanation as to why I was
experiencing these symptoms andwhat I could do about them.
And what I had been told wasthat they were a medical
(14:54):
condition, that it was outsideof my control, that it was a
chemical imbalance in my brain,and that I had to use medication
to treat it.
And as I read through thesebooks and started understanding
the sources of the symptoms, Istarted questioning everything
I'd been told.
I started to understand thatthese diagnoses were not
(15:17):
identifying an underlyingmedical condition.
They weren't identifying anetiology, they weren't
identifying a source.
They were simply giving adescription to the symptoms.
It was describing the symptoms,not identifying or explaining
them.
And over time, I've started tocome up with analogies to help
(15:38):
people understand this becausewe are so thoroughly
indoctrinated, for lack of abetter word, into this idea that
these disorders are medicalconditions, that it's really
hard to change the way that weview this.
I've had people come to me tojoin my program and say, well, I
haven't received a bipolardiagnosis, so I don't know if
(15:59):
you can help me.
And I really have to work hardto help people understand a
bipolar diagnosis is not anexplanation.
It doesn't help you.
And actually, I think causes alot of harm because it leads
people to believe they've beengiven an explanation for why
they're experiencing thesesymptoms, when in fact, all it
has done is tell you that youhave them.
Some of the analogies that havebeen really helpful for me in
(16:22):
explaining this to people are ifsomebody had a fire alarm going
off in their home and they theydidn't know what it was, if you
had a really loud alarm goingoff and it was really annoying
and really distressing andcausing problems, and you went
to somebody who was supposed tobe an expert on fire alarms and
asked them what was going on,and they came over and said, Oh,
(16:43):
you have fire alarm disorder.
And they gave you something tomuffle the alarm.
That is what we're doing withthis diagnosis.
We're not, we are notidentifying the source.
We know logically that a firealarm goes off when a fire or
smoke is detected.
(17:03):
The fire alarm is there todetect something and to give you
a warning that there issomething that is unsafe.
Smoke or a fire is occurring andyou need to find the fire or the
smoke.
Don't shut the alarm off.
Don't take the batteries out.
The alarm is there to help you.
The alarm will go off when thesymptom or the source is
(17:24):
resolved, right?
Another analogy that was hasbeen helpful is if you had a car
that started emitting blacksmoke from your tailpipe and you
went to a mechanic and theysaid, Oh, you've got smoke
disorder in your car.
Here, let's put something overthe tailpipe to stop the smoke
from coming out.
That's not going to help thecar, and it's actually going to
(17:45):
cause a tremendous amount ofharm because you're not
identifying the source of thesmoke.
You're not identifying why thecar is smoking.
You're just trying to stop thesmoke.
And you're you're calling itsmoke disorder, which doesn't
tell you why there's smokecoming out of the car, it just
tells you that there's smokecoming out of the car.
And the final explanation thatI've used that is most relatable
(18:10):
because it talks about somethingthat we actually experience
ourselves as human beings, whichis fever disorder.
If you started runningpersistent fevers and they were
getting worse and worse andworse, and you went to the
doctor and they told you you hadfever disorder, and then they
just started giving youibuprofen and said you're just
going to need to take this forthe rest of your life, that is
(18:32):
not telling you why you'rehaving a fever.
It is identifying that you'rehaving a fever, which you
already know, and then givingyou something that is going to
do more damage to your body andnot actually resolve the source
of the symptoms.
It might be resolving thesymptom mechanism, but it's not
actually resolving the sourcebecause you don't know what's
causing your fever.
You haven't identified thesource of the fever.
(18:53):
You've just identified that youhave a fever and you're trying
to stop the fever.
The fever is the body's alarmmechanism.
There's something wrong.
We need to figure out what itis.
And that's what's going on whenyou have a bipolar disorder, a
bipolar disorder diagnosis, oran anxiety disorder diagnosis,
or a major depressive disorderdiagnosis.
(19:14):
You have an alarm going off, ormultiple alarms going off, and
you need to learn how to becomea detective in your life and
look for the sources of thesymptoms.
As I was developing theseresources for people to try and
guide them, help them learn whatI had learned and sharing the
research that I had learned, Istarted recognizing that I was
(19:39):
very blessed that I was able tofind these, all of these tools,
learn how to apply them.
Took a long time.
It took me probably 15 years,really, to go through the whole
process of recovery, partlybecause I didn't know that I was
recovering and I didn't reallyunderstand what I was doing.
I was just desperately trying, Iwas a mom who was desperately
(20:00):
trying to live better for mykids so that they could have a
healthy mom and hopefully have achance at a healthy life.
But I wanted to provide ashorter route for people.
I didn't want them to have tostumble around finding these
things for themselves.
I was actually quite frustratedat one point, several points
probably, that I'd had to findthese things for myself.
(20:20):
All the research is there.
I was frustrated that when Iwent looking for help, that I
was given a false explanationand false understanding of what
was going on.
When there's all this researchout there that's actually
helping us identify the actualsources of people's symptoms and
how to treat them effectively.
(20:43):
And so that's why I started myprogram, The Upsiders Tribe.
And that's why I wrote my book.
The more I was learning, themore information I had, the
harder it was to teach peoplewhat I had learned.
Because it was a bit like tryingto drink through a fire hose.
Whenever I would have somebodyask me to tell them how I had
(21:03):
recovered, I would try to shareeverything I had learned in the
previous decade, all theresearch that I'd done, all the
tools that I developed, all ofthe meaning behind it.
(21:33):
That taught it tells my story sothat you understand my story and
how I ended up with thisdiagnosis and how the treatment
affected me, the psychiatrictreatment affected me.
And then how I discovered theactual sources of my symptoms
and how to treat themeffectively so that you could
resolve the sources of thesymptoms.
(21:54):
This is identifying where thefire is in your house and
putting the fire out.
It's identifying what's causingthe smoke to occur in your car
and fixing the source of theproblem.
It's identifying what's causingthe fever to rage in your body
and treating the source of thefever.
(22:14):
You don't need to treat thesymptoms long term.
You might initially, because,you know, for somebody who's
running a fever of 105, that'sdangerous.
It can cause brain damage.
And so you might need somethinginitially to bring yourself back
into a safe place, but then youdon't stop there.
You don't spend the rest of yourlife taking ibuprofen for
fevers.
(22:34):
If you took ibuprofen every dayfor the rest of your life for
fevers, you'll destroy yourstomach.
You'll do tremendous damage toyour body because that drug is
not safe long term in your body.
And it's not resolving thesource.
If you can identify the sourceof the fever and treat the
source, then you can resolve thesymptom.
The symptoms are a secondaryissue and they are the alarm
(22:58):
system.
We don't want to shut off thealarm system.
We want to figure out why thealarm's going off in the first
place.
So when I wrote the upside ofbipolar, I wrote it as a
self-help book.
I wanted people to be able totake the book and apply what
they were learning in the bookand resolve their sources of
(23:19):
symptoms.
And I included all of theresearch that I'd done up to
that point.
I've done more since then, but Iup to that point, I incorporated
all of the research that I'ddone, provided all the sources
so that they could do thatresearch for themselves if they
wanted to.
I didn't want people just tofeel like they could take, they
just had to take my word for it.
I wanted them to be able to seethe research for themselves.
(23:40):
But one of the things that Ihave learned is that this is a
really hard road to walk on yourown.
And it can be really scary.
(24:19):
And so when I went through allthe different challenges that
are part of cross-titration and,you know, the over-medication
and the med releases and thewithdrawals, I just kept hanging
on because it wasn't any worsethan what I had already been
experiencing.
But what I learned through thatexperience is that there is a
better way to navigate that.
(24:40):
And that if you have somebodywho's been through it before who
can guide you through theprocess, who can help you know
how to do it effectively, thatit can help it be much more
smooth.
It's been really fantastic towatch the people in my program
who go through cross-titrationbecause I they benefit from what
I've learned.
(25:01):
They benefit from all of mymistakes.
I teach them how to go throughthis process in the smoothest
way possible.
And True Hope is a phenomenalresource for this.
I teach them how to use TrueHope's customer support
effectively, how to go to themwhen you need their help, and
(25:22):
how to navigate this process ina safe and effective way.
And so it's so thrilling whenpeople finally get off of their
medications, their brains arefeeling better and they're
starting to really heal andreally feel the effects of
healing.
And then they're actually ableto start working on the other
sources of their symptoms.
What should have been done inthe first place?
(25:46):
In this program that I created,the Upsiders Tribe, I coach
people through recovery.
I help people learn how to applywhat is in my book, The Upside
of Bipolar, Seven Steps to HealYour Disorder.
I teach them how to take thesetools.
And number one, look withcuriosity for the sources of
your symptoms.
(26:07):
So this all started withsymptoms.
And this the reason people goand get diagnosed, diagnosed is
because of their symptoms.
They are, like I was, lookingfor an explanation.
And we were, they're looking tosomebody who they believe is an
expert who's going to tell themwhy they're experiencing these
symptoms and how to fix it.
(26:28):
And unfortunately, that's notthe case when you go in for a
psychiatric diagnosis.
They're not telling you whyyou're experiencing these
symptoms.
They're just telling you thatyou have the symptoms.
It is an observation, not anexplanation.
So, what we do in bipolarrecovery is number one, we teach
(26:49):
you how to become a detective inyour own life, how to look for
the sources of your symptoms.
And then I teach you how toidentify, once you've identified
the sources of your symptoms,what the tools are and the
resources that are going to helpyou treat the source.
(27:09):
We're not looking for the alarm.
We've already found the alarm.
The alarm's going off.
We're looking for the fire.
Maybe there are multiple firesgoing.
A lot of people have more thanone source of symptoms.
And so we use the researchthat's helped us to learn what
the most common sources ofsymptoms are.
And then we look for thosesources.
(27:29):
Do you have these sources inyour life?
Is there unhealed trauma in yourlife?
Do you have a history of trauma?
Unhealthy thought and behaviorpatterns?
Do you have a history ofpsychiatric diagnosis?
A lot of people's symptoms arecaused by psychiatric meds,
which sounds counterintuitive,but it's true.
If you've started off with adiagnosis of anxiety or ADHD or
(27:53):
depression, and that evolvedinto a bipolar diagnosis, it
didn't reveal it, it caused it.
The source of the symptom is themedication.
Micronutrient insufficiency is avery, very, very common,
probably the most common sourceof symptoms for people.
(28:13):
Our food sources are so depletedin nutrition.
Our brains are not getting whatthey need to function in a
healthy way.
And when your brain is notgetting what it needs, it starts
to get sick and manifest withsymptoms.
So the fire is literally in yourbrain.
Your brain and your body aren'tgetting what they need to
function in a healthy way, andthey're getting sick.
(28:35):
And so instead of trying to shutup the symptom, we need to treat
the source.
We need to give the brain whatit needs to function in a
healthy way.
Some people end up with thesesymptoms as a result of using
drugs.
Marijuana, cocaine, evendrinking can lead to these types
of symptoms.
(28:56):
And sometimes those are thatkind of use is actually sparked
by trying to numb out because ofunhealed trauma.
There's lots of sources ofsymptoms, and we need to
identify what are your sources.
And then I help you understandhow to develop these tools,
habits, and resources that aregoing to help you treat the
(29:17):
underlying sources of yoursymptoms.
And one of the things that Ilove about the way that this
program has evolved is that itis designed to give you three
things.
Number one, the guidance anddirection that you need to
develop these habits and toolsfor yourself, one-on-one
assistance from me and helpingyou to know what where you are
(29:40):
in your journey and what youneed to be focusing on right
now.
And number three is support.
And this is probably the biggestis we've got an incredibly
supportive group of people goingthrough the recovery process
that support each other, thatgive each other encouragement
and guidance because they've,you know, some of them are have
worked through parts of theprogram already and have learned
(30:02):
things.
And so they're able to sharewhat they've learned and give
encouragement and reassurancethat it is going to get better,
that you are going to be able tocontinue down this path to
healing and recovery.
And there's zero judgment.
There's lots of these, a lot ofthe problem that we have with
these symptoms is that it feelsembarrassing and humiliating.
These symptoms make us feel likewe're broken or there's
(30:25):
something wrong with us.
And I love the group that Icoach because they're so
supportive of each other.
Nobody judges the things thatpeople are struggling with
because we understand that muchof this, if not all of it, is a
result of trying to cope withsomething we didn't understand.
So people encourage each otherand support each other and cheer
(30:46):
for each other and continue tohelp people keep moving with
hope towards recovery andhealing.
That's what a bipolar recoverycoach is somebody who will help
you identify what's actuallycausing your symptoms, learn how
to treat the source so that youcan resolve the symptoms and
(31:06):
actually heal.
That's what I do.
And if that's something that youthink would be helpful to you, I
would love to help you on yourjourney to recovery.
This is what I wish somebodycould have done for me.
It shouldn't have taken me 15years to recover from my
bipolar.
It shouldn't have taken me 25years to recover from my bipolar
because what should havehappened in the first place is
(31:27):
somebody should have helped melook with curiosity for the
sources of my symptoms and thenapply the tools and the research
that were available even at thattime to help me treat the
sources so that I could havehealed.
That's what I want to do foryou.
I want to help you recover sothat you can lead a happy,
productive, healthy life andfulfill your life and your life
(31:51):
mission and your purpose on thisearth.
If that would be helpful to you,please reach out.
There is a link to my emailaddress is in the show notes.
And I would love to hear fromyou.
Let's set up a discovery sessionand see if maybe the Upsiders
tribe would be helpful for youin helping you move down your
(32:12):
path to recovery.
Until next time, Upsiders.
Thanks for joining me on theUpside of Bipolar.
Your journey to recoverymatters, and I'm grateful you're
here.
For more resources, visitwww.theupsideofbipolar.com.
(32:32):
If you're ready to dive deeper,grab my book, The Upside of
Bipolar (32:35):
Seven Steps to Heal Your Disorder.
If you're ready to heal yoursymptoms, join my monthly
membership, The Upsiders Tribe,to transform chaos into hope.
Until next time, Upsiders.
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