Have you found alternative approaches to bipolar/depression or other m

[Randol938]

I have been living with the bipolar label for 8 years now. on and off meds. finally found an open minded doctor that is supportive of alternatives to meds. I have found a lot of alternative ideas about mental health. please share with me any other things you have found and your experiences. please no leactures from the "you must take meds people."

[Thinkandreceive]

I have been living with the bipolar label for 8 years now. on and off meds. finally found an open minded doctor that is supportive of alternatives to meds. I have found a lot of alternative ideas about mental health. please share with me any other things you have found and your experiences. please no leactures from the "you must take meds people."

 

Ive read a lot lately about histamine brain levels. I would find a Dr. who runs IGG sub classes. they can tell about histamine levels form that but they need to know what to look for...This is a good article on the roles histamine levels can do...

 

http://www.joanmathewslarson.com/HRC_2006/Depression_06/D_roller_coaster.htm

[WorriedDADNMOM]

My dd is on st johns wort, lithium orotate and magnesium as well as a host of other supps to combat pandas and pyrrole disorder. Hope this helps as much as I have seen it help in my kids. Ever been a checked for chronic infection? ??? Good luck !!!!

Mix

[MomWithOCDSon]

I have been living with the bipolar label for 8 years now. on and off meds. finally found an open minded doctor that is supportive of alternatives to meds. I have found a lot of alternative ideas about mental health. please share with me any other things you have found and your experiences. please no leactures from the "you must take meds people."

 

Just curious as to why you posted on the Autism/Aspberger's forum here? Have you been diagnosed with either of those conditions along with your bipolar label?

 

I will tell you from our experience, with a teenage son diagnosed with OCD at age 6 but later demonstrated to be suffering from an autoimmune reaction to strep at age 12 (PANDAS), the medical and psychiatric community here in the States has a lot of learning to do and should be eating humble pie for all the misdiagnoses going on. These labels, as I think you've rightfully called them, are nothing more than a description of behavior sets, reactions, typically mental and emotional. But instead of seeking out the underlying culprit(s), there is a rush to medicate, to back down the symptomology rather than look for and treat what potentially underlies the symptomology.

 

There's quite a bit of recent evidence regarding the efficacy of antibiotics regarding so many "mental" conditions, including schizophrenia, OCD and autism. Why? Could it be because there's actually an underlying medical illness that is brought about the mental symptoms? And the antibiotics are finally getting to the root of the issue? Or could it be that antibiotics and various other supplements that target brain glutamate and histamine are actually treating an underlying condition rather than just "smoothing" it over?!

 

I don't necessarily think you need to take meds, but I do think you need a good doctor who will walk this road with you in an open-minded way. Can you get to an integrative physician or a naturopath? I would focus especially on modulating levels of histamine and glutamate, since those seem to play a major role in the brains of folks who's behavior seems to stray from "normal." For instance, by working at modulating those two substances in our DS15, we've been able to significantly reduce his OCD, improve his focus, his temperament, his sociability, etc. We use n-acetylceisteine, Omegas, magnesium, zinc, Pepcid and B6; we also, however, still use two prescription meds in low doses (Zoloft and Lamictal), though I hope we're not too far away from being able to wean those.

 

And finally, given our very latent discovery of underlying strep infection in our son's life, I would encourage you to ask those questions, to get a full immune panel run to see if something may be amiss there.

 

Good luck!