Raising Awareness: Non-Pharmocological Treatment

October 7-13 is Mental Illness Awareness Week. What do you think is one thing people need to be more aware of concerning mental illness?

I have so many things I would want people to be aware of. Of course one of the main things I would like people to actually accept is that mental illness is real. But the other thing I think we do not speak about nearly enough are all the non-pharmacological treatments for mental illness. I am eternally frustrated when I see people (adults and children) heavily medicated, on medicines that risk their life due to serious side effects, and no one tells them the other things they could try to do for treatment. Many non-pharmacological things work in treatment to either decrease the amount of drugs you need to take or some people don't even need prescription medications anymore.

Why do we make people go through this? Why do we not inform people of all the options they have? Why don't we give them the best chance at a stable life?

There is too much stigma around non-prescription treatments- assuming that if you can treat an illness through anything other than a pill then the illness is not real. But that is just not true. Heart disease is real and it can be treated with diet and lifestyle changes. Some forms of diabetes can be treated with diet and people can decrease or stop needing insulin injections. Diet is used in the treatment of epilepsy when medications are not working. Celiac disease is treated with a gluten free diet as are all other food allergies. There is no reason to think that because mental illness can be treated with things like diet, exercise, sleep schedule, meditation, supplements, etc... that it is not a real illness.

From NAMI's Facebook Page

Mental illnesses are chemical imbalances or damage in the brain and things like diet and exercise can change the balance of those chemicals or help repair the brain. For instance serotonin is often one of the chemicals that is out of balance, too low in people with depression. Sugar increases serotonin, but then it also produces a crash and creates mood fluctuations and that can create the chemical imbalance of bipolar. Not eating sugar and other simple carbohydrates can help balance serotonin so it does not have extreme highs and lows. Exercise helps in the treatment of ADD, depression, bipolar and more because it effects neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine and dopamine. Exercise also helps regulate the amygdala which is one of the parts of our brain affected in PTSD. Also, as Sharon Begley describes in her book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, meditation helps change our brain due to neuroplasticity (the ability for our brains to change, rewire itself.) Meditation has been successful in treatment of mental illness as well because it changes the pathways in your brain, this is especially helpful in PTSD and brain injury.

Nothing showed me just how easy it is to change our brain with things like food than an experience with my son.

We noticed my son was having emotional breakdowns. Crying over small things that, while annoying, were not things you would just fall apart for hours over. He is normally a totally happy and smiling kid who listens and is really easy to take care of. We knew something was wrong and we had already been researching diet and it's affect on mental illness for me and my husband has a gluten intolerance. We noticed when we cut out gluten we all felt better, but my son still had these breakdowns so we we started paying more attention to exactly what he was eating. We noticed that when he ate corn, a few hours later, he was a wreck! So, we cut out corn (even corn syrup), and he rarely has these episodes except when we eat out or he is at a friends house. No matter how hard we try to avoid it, corn is snuck into everything especially in the form of corn syrup. Even pre-made hamburger patties have corn in them sometimes so you may think you are just eating meat but you are not. We even noticed during school testing week that on the days our son had a breakfast of protein and carbs he was able to sit and focus longer for the test. On the one day I just gave him fruit and gluten-free pancakes, he had a hard time concentrating and sitting during the test so much so that his teacher asked me if he was feeling ok. I know that if he goes to a party or spends the day at the amusement park and we did not pack food for him, he will be sad, cry easily, and even withdraw to his room for hours. All because of the food he ate.

I recommend that all of this be supervised by your doctor and if you do not have a doctor willing to look at things outside of the medicine cabinet, then find a new one. It can be hard. For at least ten years doctors have been telling me "the research shows these things work" but they don't have enough experience to use it in treatment, telling me to experiment on my own. Not helpful! I finally found doctors this year who have enough experience and education on these treatments that they do use them.

If we as patients insist that we want to know ALL of our treatment options, we can make a difference. So I want to raise awareness to my fellow friends with mental illness and let you know that you have many options in your treatment plan. You have the right to insist that you are informed about them and are treated with them. We can demand more testing so that more doctors recognize these treatments as successful. Our lives are worth this fight.

Blessings,

Rev. Katie

Seeing Bipolar Disorder From The Inside

The change in my nutrition in the past three weeks has given me a totally different look at my bipolar disorder. The new lifestyle has made me better without medication, but at the same time it has not gotten rid of my illness. It is weird because now it's like I can see my illness in my own mind. I will try to explain this as best I can, but it is a bit hard to describe.

Whereas before my illness could just take over quickly, in a flash, now I am better able to see it coming. It's like the new diet has slowed down the mood changes enough for me to see them as they are happening. It is weird to be able to fight against the bipolar disorder as it is happening in my mind. I can hear the thought patterns - such as life being pointless and there being complete despair - but at the same time I know that it is not real. Before, I could not see that it wasn't real.

When medications worked (before the side effects got too bad), they just stopped the illness at times, and often I felt nothing or was in a daze. Now I still feel everything but I am better able to see the reality of the situation. I can differentiate what is bipolar disorder and what is not. It is interesting to think I can actually live with this illness in my life every day, yet still function well. It is like the diet change has taken the edge off my illness and I can actually use all the mindfulness techniques I have learned. The ability to see thoughts in your mind and just let them go. Be in the moment rather than get trapped in circular thinking, depression, or mania. I could never figure out how to use mindfulness before because the illness would take over so quickly. Now it's like the bipolar is slowed down a bit and I have the chance to be mindful and process what is going on.

I won't say that it's perfect. For instance yesterday was a hard day and I strayed a bit from the diet. I couldn't seem to get myself to control the bipolar yesterday, but it was not as big of a problem as usual. I ate some stuff I shouldn't have, sat around and watched TV, but there was no big blow up. No huge problems, and today I have eaten well again. The one difficult episode did not spiral out of control like it usually does. I do notice I am more depressed today and my anxiety is much worse but it is so much easier for me to see that this is not going to last. As long as I get back with my program, this will pass.

Clearly we will have to see how this goes over the long haul. You can never tell with this illness if you are actually getting better or you just have a reprieve in the symptoms for a bit. I still have a lot of work to do such as increasing mindfulness practice so it becomes easier to do. And I will have to figure out how to handle days, like yesterday, when I can not see the illness as clearly. I won't discount that things look promising right now, but I know there is still a long journey ahead.

Blessings,

Rev. Katie

I Did The Dishes

I did the dishes. I helped make breakfast and pack lunch for our son. I have kept up with going to the gym. I got work done early. I have been able to make good food choices. I panic less when I have a new task fall into my life.

None of these things may seem like a big deal to most people, but to me it is. Usually I can't really do most of those things. My husband takes care of my son in the mornings and doing the dishes seems like such a big task I start to panic. By the middle of this week though I have been able to do all of those things. It could be that I am manic (I do have an urge to stay up all night), but also I think the Paleo diet is helping.

While I can feel the start of mania, I actually know I will go to bed in a few minutes and not stay up all night. While I desperately wanted to go to McDonald's and get a chocolate shake to self medicate, I ate salmon and strawberries instead. While I struggled with a lot of irritability this evening, I came out of it pretty quickly and had a fun evening with my son and husband. It seems that I am a bit better at seeing reality and fighting off the bipolar symptoms that come at me. Even my son was impressed with how quickly I was able to get back to living life with them today.

Clearly, I don't think I can say the diet is a sure thing until I have been on it at least a year, (we all know from previous posts that I have had times where things are looking up only to fall apart again) but this week is promising. More promising than my first week on a new medication that can leave me so out of it I can't think, stops my creativity, ends my emotions, or makes me an anxious wreck. And I don't feel fake like I do on medication. I don't know how to describe it, but on most of my medications I got this feeling either that I was numb or that I was overly optimistic and oblivious.

We will see how this goes. Thankfully my husband and son have been working with me on all these dietary chages. I also have great support from my sister and brother-in-law so I have a really good support system in place to make this a success. As we all know, we can't do this alone.

Blessings.

Rev. Katie

Paleo / Whole30 Diet for Bipolar II

These past few weeks have been pretty bad with my husband traveling so much. So of course, I rarely slept, ate badly, and did not exercise enough. My medications don't really work anymore as I was getting very bad side effects from them, so we are back to the drawing board of how to take care of me. As you can assume, all of the emotional ups and downs and bad self care led to illness; I now have shingles (for those of us who had chicken pox, we all have shingles in our system and it can become active when your immune system is low), and some issue with my wrist that is pretty painful.

With the medications not working and my health getting worse, we have decided to take more action around my diet. We have known for a long time that a sugar-free, gluten-free diet has helped me, but I always have such a hard time sticking to it and I found ways around eating healthy. I would just eat tons of gluten-free substitutes and artificial sweetener and I still didn't feel well. Also, I get wrapped up into the whole "one piece of cake won't hurt you" mentality and it is all down hill from there.

Photo by Jeff Norris

In looking for a better diet for me we found that quite a few people with mood disorders have had success with a Paleo diet, and my doctor has mentioned trying it as well. In short a Paleo diet means you eat lean meats, vegetables, and some fruits and nuts. You also make an big effort to buy "happy meat" (grass-fed, pastured meat) and local as often as possible. We have decided to kick off the Paleo diet with a Whole30, which is an even more strict version of Paleo for 30 days that makes sure you cut out sugars, dairy, and soy even in things like the sauce on your meat. This way your body can really reset itself and be free of all the things that could be bothering your system. Then if you want you can add in some things like gluten-free substitutes or a bit more fruit and see how you react so you can create the perfect diet for your body.

I will be writing a few posts over the next week with more information about the research behind the link between sugar and bipolar disorder and other effects our diet can have on our mood. As one article in Everyday Health says "For people with bipolar disorder sugar and other simple carbohydrates may harm more than help. Carbohydrate cravings in bipolar patients are legendary, so much so that increased intake of sugary treats is considered a clue to bipolar disorder during diagnosis."

This may seem like a drastic step to some, or even ridiculous that food can affect your mood, but, the medicines don't work and I have to make the choice to either let my bipolar control my life or choose that I deserve a good life instead. Michael Ellsberg did the same thing with his decision to use a sugar, coffee, and alcohol free diet to treat his bipolar II. There is a 20% suicide rate for bipolar II disorder and I am choosing to save my life even if it means a strict diet that doesn't fit in with societal norms.

Blessings,

Rev. Katie