The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder: New Revised Edition

Brilliant! I have been hospitalized 4 times for mania. I have spent years researching cures for my mania, depression and mood disorder. I am vibrant, healthy, balanced and well now and totally pharmaceutical-free. This book is a great summary of cures. Bipolar is epigenetic and caused by many underlying issues at the same time - that can all be corrected and healed. You can heal all your vitamin, mineral and nutrient deficiencies, remove all the toxins from your body, and learn relaxation breathing (meditative) habits to calm your nervous system. Hormones and neurotransmitters balance and levels are critical to wellness and mental health. Go to a Functional or Integrative medicine Doctor. Get all your hormone levels and nutrient levels tested and supplement DAILY what you are deficient in. Zinc, vitamin D3, a complete active Vitamin B complex (make sure it does NOT include folic acid but instead has methylFolate) are all critical along with Essential Fatty acids. Eliminate all sugar, gluten, artificial sweeteners, fried foods (toxic trans fats), fast foods, and possibly dairy. Neurotransmitters are made from amino acids like tryptophan (serotonin) and tyrosine (dopamine) and you also need Vitamin C, zinc, and vitamin B6 to synthesize them. Dr William Walsh has discovered that too much copper compared to zinc in blood converts dopamine to norepinephrine too quickly and causes MANIA. (If you have copper pipes in your home, be sure to supplement with zinc) Harmony and balance in your mind/emotions/body is possible to everyone. You must learn to love and cultivate your inner body and health as you would a beloved garden. Learning to first open and then grow your heart/self-compassion/inner-acceptance is critical to creating a radiant, vibrant core. Your heart is much stronger - both magnetically and electrically - than your brain, AND your heart is the Source and core of any wellness. Cultivating and growing your own kindness/acceptance heart energy FIRST will give you the incentive to heal and care for the rest of your body and mind. Create a daily practice - as soon as you wake up every morning - of filling your heart with total acceptance and warm light and kindness FIRST - first grow and heal your heart and then you will have the desire and motivation to heal your body and mind, and do the WORK of daily healthy living. This book is great in that it lists 5 LEVELS of HEALING - a brilliant model to understand your challenges and a road map on how to fix each level as well. This will work for all types of depression and addiction issues as well. Leave no stone unturned but realize your journey to wellness will take some time and effort, so being kind and patient with yourself, rigorously honest and do your own work - it is work and it is enjoyable and rewarding work to turn your inner self from a “wasteland” or “garbage dump” into a beautiful, cultivated garden.

Everyone who has a label of bipolar disorder or has a loved one who does should read this!!!!

Some good information. Some of which you can get off of the Internet. Some of which you can't. I waited a while before writing this review, because people were praising the book so highly I thought I had missed something during my initial reading. So I went back and read it again. I didn't miss anything. It's nice to know that there are alternative therapies, because I have been on every med out there that's use to treat mania, and I've had major problems with all of them. They either don't work at all (the anti-convulsants) or send me to the emergency room with outrageous blood sugar problems (the atypical antipsychotics) that only clear up when I go off of the meds. My doctor talked about trying natural remedies, but he was unfamiliar with them. So after deciding that I was not going to take insulin just so that I could take psych meds, I started researching natural remedies for myself. I also decided that since one med that I know of does cut my mania within hours of taking it, I do not need to be on meds 24/7/365. I think this 24/7/365 med taking is marketing hype by the pharmaceutical companies. Plus, my doctor told me that, outside of lithium, no other drug is actually known to forestall manic episodes. So unless a drug takes weeks to build up in your system before it'll work, there is no scientific reason to take the drug 24/7/365.What I really need from this book is a clear and organized list of the names of the alternative meds and a description of each; for instance, a description of what each is supposed to treat, as well as comprehensive state by state lists of the clinics that practice natural medicine. My health insurance would never pay for me to go out of state for treatment. So the book is not helpful, unless I can use it to self-medicate. All I learned from it is that there are alternatives. However, for most of us, who have limited resources, the alternative resources are out of reach.

It only took me 2 1/2 days to read this book. I only read that fast when I am completely and totally absorbed in something. Each chapter was like a new gift to unwrap from the author. But by far the most interesting was her chapter on Shamanism and Shamanistic views on Mental Illness. As a patient with bipolar for over 20 years this book gave me some new found treatment approaches that may work in combination with traditional approaches, which has thus far really left room for improvement.It was a quick and very informative read. I enjoyed it very much and look forward to re-reading many of the chapter for future clarification. Unfortunately, this book fills a huge void in the reign of books available for treating bipolar disorder.Most of the ones available all stick to pharmacy psychotropic drug therapies and little in the room of "self-help." This book is different because it provides a wide range of alternative options that people can learn more about and approach their doctors more informed then previously before reading this book. It is a gem.I really appreciate all the authors research and efforts to understand alternative approaches.

If you have been diagnosed with bipolar you MUST get this book. It gives you perspective and opens a world of treatment options beyond what you've ever imagined. The new challenge is trying to sort out these new possibilities and which to prioritize taking action on. So this prompted me to start seeing a Doctor of Naturopathy, who is guiding me through an alternative form of treatment. I would never recommend making changes in your prescriptions without talking with your doctor, but this book will give you some alternative treatment options that may be more effective than your prescriptions. The greatest thing about this book is that it gives you hope - there are many explanations for bipolar symptoms; the theory traditional psychiatrists use is not the only one.

Great Read.

Great Book, excellent topic

Bipolar nicht mehr als Krankheit ablehnen sondern als Chance annehmen. Hilfreiche Tipps für die natürliche Therapie mit Nahrungsergänzungen auf der physischen Ebene und auch auf den anderen, wichtigen Ebenen. Hat mir Hoffnung und umsetzbare Tools geschenkt.

As the book says-The natural medicine guide to Bipolar disorder-it does provide real good information on the condition backed by studies by professionals in the field- BUT-IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR A DOCTOR/MENTAL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL--- FOR SOMEONE SUFFERING FROM SUCH A CONDITION. Please do keep this fact in mind. OTHERWISE a good buy.

Whilst a minority of approaches in here may be helpful (e.g. taking Omega 3 oils), most sound ridiculous. Cherry-picked anecdotes are used in place of real evidence, and some very dodgy-sounding 'professionals' are consulted. The book is also extremely repetitive - each doctor's set of beliefs are described in detail, despite huge amounts of overlap - why not cover each 'cure' once??If you want my advice - eat well, sleep well, exercise, and seek the advice of REAL professionals.