(Part 3) Top products from r/BipolarReddit

Just a few things that come to mind:

Self-Awareness> There are a lot of ways to work on this and most of them are worth trying. An effective goal might be to find some things that work for awhile, and prepare yourself to seek out other options when those don’t offer the same effectiveness. I’m pretty sure that when we dedicate the time to it, we provide ourselves with information that empowers us to make the decisions that bring about our idea of success.

Expectations> Most of us don’t want to fail. A lot of us feel like if we don’t meet the expectations that we’ve set for ourselves then we’re failures. This often causes some of us to avoid things that we feel we won’t “succeed” at. Hey, I’m not saying we shouldn’t set high goals for ourselves... but when we don't meet our expectations, maybe we could slowly get better at treating ourselves with the kind of love and encouragement that we would extend to our most loved of loved ones when they "fail."

Exercise> God damn it I hate exercise. I wore a button in fifth grade that said: I’m too out of shape to exercise. I’m thirty-nine now and I’ve still never had a consistent workout regimen. For a lot of us, this shit is probably harder than everything else we’ll consider in this thread. But there’s plenty of evidence to show that when the rest of our body is functioning at a more optimal level that we have more tools to work with, and that our tools are more effective. I hate exercise.

Group Discussion> Last year I attended an intensive outpatient group therapy program. This was my first experience with group therapy and I freaking love that shit. I learned that the gems to mine from this experience have very little to do with whoever is leading the group or which organization is providing the facility... as long as you feel like everyone is given the opportunity to share without reproach. Empathy is what it’s all about. The more courageous you are about sharing your struggles, the more empowered your fellow group members will be to do the same. When empathy is flowing freely most people are able to recognize some of their own cognitive distortions, AND help others find their own. Not every group is going to function well, but I think it’s well worth the effort to find on that does. You might start with looking into a DBSA group near you. My advice would be to look for one with 10-15 attendees. If you've got insurance that will cover it, you might check into an Intensive Outpatient Group Therapy program offered by a local hospital.

Books> These are just a few that have offered me some help—and a few that I just acquired but haven’t read yet.

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy



Also, this is me patting you on the back lovingly and then turning it into a hug:



Did you feel it?



Disclaimer: I’m currently doing pretty poorly at all of these things.

I've been having problems with depression for the past few months as well. Leaving the bed for the first time in 4-5 days today! Im so sick and tired of being sick and tired. It pisses me off so much to have this bullshit steal more than half of my life away. I'm sorry that you're feeling stuck in depression as well.

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throughout the years of being a psychiatric patient and a patient of a psychologist, I've realized that at least in myself, medication isn't usually a cure-all and can only serve for me as a really useful crutch. If I compare myself to a broken vehicle, medication is a critical replacement part added to the dysfunctional engine, but I am still the pilot of the vehicle. It wont drive unless I sit in the pilot seat and try to do something, which has become easier thanks to an engine replacement.

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I'm not trying to say that medication is unreliable, thats not true. Or that you can cure this illness with non-medical practices. That's not true at all. But something that helps improve my daily mood aside from medication is by self-influencing my brain and mood through experience dependent neuroplasticity. It's a true science that shows that things like exercise and meditation can train your brain to more easily be more happy on average. Force yourself to smile for 30 seconds and see how it affects you. Things like at the end of your day, think of all the bad things that didnt happen that could have happened. Remember to smile at the birds and the good weather and the clouds, remember to be happy with the little things in life!

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This isn't discrediting your struggle, im not trying to imply that. Nor am i implying that the things that I am recommending cure any symptoms or replace any medication, they dont influence symptoms of bipolar disorder, they only slightly improve your mood. I'm just saying that if you can muster the strength to try and meditate, or go for a walk, these physical things can influence your mood which over time can make your psychiatric dysfunctions more easy to deal with from time to time.

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I'd be dead by now if it were not for exercise. I need to get back into meditation. When i exercise I get those feel good chemicals or whatever and It burns off energy which allows me to sleep at night.

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Here's some books about mindfulness that have helped me (an example of experience dependent neuroplasticity):

https://www.amazon.com/Hardwiring-Happiness-Science-Contentment-Confidence/dp/0385347332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538822946&sr=8-1&keywords=hardwiring+happiness%2C+rick+hanson

https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Eight-Week-Finding-Peace-Frantic/dp/1609618955/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1538822965&sr=8-3&keywords=mindfulness

https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Mindfulness-Practical-Tessa-Watt/dp/1848312555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538823015&sr=8-1&keywords=mindfulness+a+practical+guide+tessa+watt

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hope this helped man. good luck

I'm learning the very basics of DBT at the moment. It's very useful! Actually,

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath
Permalink: http://amzn.com/0385528752

Is a pretty good look at DBT applied to professional and business and gov't situations. I actually learned enough about DBT reading it to leap ahead of my therapist a bit. I immediately knew when she was introducing 'finding bright spots', and that was cool, because we could jump into implementing it instead of guiding to accepting it. I knew they worked because of my reading, it just took a little guidance to find some in my own life.

I would get a second opinion ASAP just for peace of mind for your parents if nothing else. If you do go off meds, consistent therapy and exercise, a healthy diet, and good sleep hygiene will be key (easier said than done, I know).

Depending on your diet and how much sunlight you get, you may want to look into supplementing with Vitamin D & K, Magnesium, Zinc, and high EPA fish oil.

Modafinil wouldn't be an everyday, long-term solution but I find that it does help reduce depressive symptoms and make me at least slightly more functional. It may be worth mentioning to your pdoc, assuming you haven't already tried it and the side effects are bearable.

These two books have both helped me quite a bit and I highly recommend them.

Bipolar, Not So Much and The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder

Abusers are so good at this. Whatever you do, I hope it works out and you can be happy. And if you ever need no-contact support I am happy to lend an ear/help however I can.

I also highly recommend this book. Used copies start at $0.37 on Amazon

Xyrem I found GHB (Sodium Oxybate: prescription name Xyrem) to be a brilliant drug for inducing sleep. Sadly without a prescription it is now illegal in most countries but you used to be able to buy it as an OTC nootropic.

There is a good book about GHB written before it became controversial. GHB The Natural Mood Enhancer I really wish this substance was still available. If you have a sympathetic doctor, Xyrem is worth a mention. It is still used in Italy to treat alcoholism

Edit: Emphasis placed on "now illegal in most countries."

Stay away from the family stuff. It's awful.

This book is so, so, good. This is the author's organization- more resources, a helpline, etc. I saw her speak in person, and it was incredible.

As for workbooks, there is an official one that's used, but DBT is generally done in a format with both group and individual therapy. Pretty intense stuff.

You can find all the materials on dbtselfhelp.com, but DBT really has to be done in a structured format if you want the full effect. I would still say start now, though, because anything is better than nothing.

I'm going to put my "radical" hat on for a second: almost every illegal drug was used responsibly by the majority of users for a long time before it became illegal, and, additionally, was not made illegal due to genuine safety concerns. Everything from marijuana to opiates was once used legally and more safely than in the current prohibition climate. This book covers it in depth. If this is a topic that interests you I highly recommend obtaining an older edition and reading up. Lots of information is also available online. It's been argued that the very existance of prohibition encourages people to use more potent, less safe forms of their drug of choice.

We both know that alcohol, just regular plain old OTC alcohol, is the most common date rape drug. But I've been drugged with... something... and it's not an experience I want to repeat. There are so many alcohol & drug involved rapes during the first weekend back at college that the administration secretly calls it "rape weekend." So I am very concerned with what can be done to make people safer. When I first commented to you, I was thinking that making the drugs Rx only was a good call. But hey, you got me thinking! Whatever I was dosed with probably was an Rx only drug, and obviously that didn't keep me safe. What did keep me safe was the fact that I was drinking slowly and recognized the effects of the drug as it hit me. I was able to get someone to walk me home where I could sleep it off safely. I feel bad though, because I am sure I am not the only person who was drugged that night, and I am sure at least one woman didn't make it home safe. We have to change the party culture.

There are a lot of days when I think that all drug use should be decriminalized. Our current model is so very broken.

The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson is the book recommended to me by my therapist. It's not a cure all by any means but having 15-30 minutes of peace every day makes a difference.

Get a light therapy lamp! I have this one and call it my happy lamp! I’ve noticed a pretty big change in my mood and just got it a couple weeks ago! Obviously any type should work but just adding a link to the one that works for me...

get out of your own way

>That's why pretty much everyone has to try a handful of drugs before finding the ones that work long-term.

Interestingly there was a study done with patients with chronic pain who were prescribed a number of pain killer medications. If the first one didn't work, they were given the second and so on. By the sixth drug all the patients had recovered, but the reality is that all of the drugs were placebos. The placebo effect can explain why it can sometimes takes several different psychiatric medications before the patient finds one that "works" for them.

You seem to have a strong belief that antidepressants do more good than harm. I do not agree but I doubt that arguing with you will do much good. Instead I will link to some resources you may be interesting in checking out for yourself. I hope that you can at least have an open mind and try and become informed of the other side of the argument especially if you are taking any of these drugs.

Here are some books I urge you to check out:

Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good

Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients

Anatomy of an Epidemic

The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth

The Myth of the Chemical Cure

Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare


You can also check out talks by most of the authors on youtube and various other places. Ben Goldacre has a couple of good TED talks. Also cepuk.org has some good info and videos as well.

You may find a book called "Staying Sane" by Raj Persaud interesting. In it he argues that therapy is either useless or harmful. He's a consultant psychiatrist and qualified psychologist.

My onset was over 50 years ago so god knows what happened. I do have a TB scar. I guess no one noticed because I had severe asthma anyway. It's interesting that now infectious agents are being used to treat cancer.

My uncle had prostate cancer and they used a deactivated TB virus to induce a massive immunological response. It helped for a while ...

Also, I am reading a book about this new direction. There used to be a common condition form of dementia called paresis. Eventually a doctor noticed that a high proportion of those patients had syphilis. That was first time a 'mental' illness was linked to an infectious agent. Then another doctor began infecting these patients with malaria to induce a high fever, hoping to kill off the spirochete. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

I do have a kick ass immune system which would seem to go along with an inflammatory response. I now take 300 mgs of ibuprofen a day. I started that to ward off Parkinson's - my Mom died of something in that spectrum - but now I keep taking it because of the inflammation thing.

Alles Gut. Deutsch war mein zweites Hauptfach im Uni. Vielleicht sollen Sie "Creating Mental Illness" lesen. (http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Mental-Illness-Allan-Horwitz/dp/0226353826/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416004425&sr=8-1&keywords=creating+mental+illness)

...oder die Schriften von "The Sociology of Mental Illness" http://www.amazon.com/Sociology-Mental-Illness-Comprehensive-Reader/dp/0195381718/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416005111&sr=1-1&keywords=the+sociology+of+mental+illness. Ich verrate dass Sie das Buch nicht kaufen, anstatt die teilen von Bibliothek zu unterladen. Ein paar von meine Klassen hat die Schriften von dieses Buch übersprachen, und die hatten uns immer darüber gedachtet.

In case my German is as rusty as I fear it is: Creating Mental Illness provides a great history of treatment in the US, and The Sociology of Mental Illness has a ton of good journal articles for studying all brought together into one book. Rather than buying the whole book, I recommend using a library to gain access to the individual articles and saving those instead.