Bipolar 1 Survivor – Information to Help You Thrive

Advice and Tips for Psychiatric Medication Withdrawal

10.21.2019 by Molly McHugh // Leave a Comment

I recently received a note from a mother desperate to help her daughter who was diagnosed bipolar and has only been made worse by psychiatric care.

She has been prescribed multiple psychotropic medications and is slowly becoming more and more disabled.

Advice and Tips for Psychiatric Medication Withdrawal — Psychiatric Medications Worsen Bipolar Disorder and Lead to Disability, More Health Problems, and Death.

That is what happens to most patients who go to a psychiatrist or doctor these days, and my fight is to make it stop, make doctors act like doctors and give valid medical treatments to those suffering with severe mood symptoms.

The concerned mother wrote:

“My 24 year old daughter has been on various medications, Abilify, Lamictal, Lithium, Latuda, Vraylar for bipolar 2 in the last fifteen months. None of them have stopped the cycling.”

“She goes low for two weeks and then hypomanic for two weeks. We do not know what to do anymore. She can’t keep going to grad. school or work because of it. I want to take her off of everything and see what happens.”

“Any suggestions? We are desperate!!”

My Advice and Tips For Psychiatric Medication Withdrawal

Here is what I wrote in reply. This information may help you or a loved one:

“I have a ton of suggestions, it is excellent you are reaching out – she can (and will) get better.”

“Just be prepared to…”

1. Slowly Withdraw from the Medications

Do you have any support from a physician? I can help you find one. You need a physician to advise what should be stopped first, etc.

She needs to slowly withdraw while supporting her system i.e. a healthy whole foods diet, lots of water, limit caffeine and alcohol, etc. – that’s so individual, and there is a ton of info online.

Withdrawing can create the original issues that sent her to a doctor in the first place. Not everyone will experience this but if she does that’s normal.

You’ve been suppressing whatever was at the root of her illness with the bipolar diagnosis and psychotropic medications – now the focus will be on long-term healing.

Having some medical support can help with the withdrawal period by not only lessening the frustration and anxiety that may come with the experience, but a doctor can prescribe meds if necessary to help with the process.

Some physicians use a compounding pharmacy to be able to give very low doses as the person comes off the medications. Standard pills may be in too high of a dose, a patient may need to titrate down slowly.

2. Support Sleep

I’m guessing they’ve given her meds to help her sleep too – that’s complete crap and is only ‘toxifiying’ the system at night. It’s criminal what these doctors prescribe, such as antipsychotics to help with sleep.

WTF? Show me one study that proves antipsychotics are a safe and effective way – without harmful side effects – to promote sleep. Is insane.

Their excuse when they kill and disable folks is that ‘it is how they were trained’ or the person is ‘treatment resistant’.

Total crap.

Sleep is a big part of what you do (and eat/drink) during the day – so start thinking of it like that. If she has food sensitivities, eats lots of carbs and processed sugar, it will cause mood swings and disrupt sleep.

That’s primary.

Is she able to exercise at all? Walk? Nature huge for healing a stressed out over-toxic system. And exercise during the day will help stress/fatigue her system some so she is tired at night, more relaxed.

Personally, I have to exercise or get worse, feel worse, etc. It is not an ‘option’ but a necessity for fighting bipolar symptoms.

Have you read my posts on melatonin? I’ve got a bunch but… be careful, as if she’s on other sleep meds it may be counter-productive.

I’d suggest getting off of any prescribed sleep medication first, then start with .5 mg of melatonin, inching up to 3 mg or so… it’s very individual.

3. Have Support

Have support and simply focus day to day on moving towards wellness. She will be able to do grad school, once is more stable, or maybe will feel like pursuing other goals, keep an open mind.

Think of this time and struggle as simply a very difficult ‘bump in the road’. Bipolar is simply a label for symptoms, that can be successfully managed – often cured – with a lot of effort and trial and error.

You did what most do and received inadequate (I would say unethical, unnecessary, and abusive) medical help.

You now can make more informed decisions and seek out legitimate testing and treatments to help her heal those symptoms.

4. Learn How to Avoid Toxic Exposures

Learn about healthy home products and how to avoid exposures that can cause mood disturbance.in sensitive folks like she sounds to be. It lessens the ‘reactions’ you are forcing your body to deal with.

Right now, the priority is the toxic meds, but as you do that try to lessen other toxins in the environment. This includes food, cleaning and body products, etc.

5. Help the System Detox

There are many things she can take to help with detox and to help heal underlying health issues. A green food supplement I’d recommend. This one is cheap, she can start with one or two caps and take as many as she needs to feel better.

Amazing Grass Green Superfood capsules

This is what some docs give patients as treatment instead of psychiatric medications – the smart docs who understand the body, biology and health. 🙂

Here is a more expensive, similar product that is used by a holistic psychiatrist to treat children and adults: Hardy Nutritionals.

You can read an article about this physician – and this micronutrient approach to treatment here Micronutrient Therapies.

6. Use Me As Inspiration

I was very ill off and on in my twenties – have you read my book, if not, shame on you. Just kidding!

Is my life perfect? No, but read my book and you will get a better understanding of my experience as someone who has experienced severe Manic Depression.

Bipolar 1 Disorder – How to Survive and Thrive.

Bipolar 2 Disorder is not Manic Depression. That’s not a ‘better or worse’ issue, just fact. And depression is getting labeled “bipolar” simply to drug more folks, and cover up side effects from antidepressants.

Another reality that needs to stop. And patients suffering with depression or other symptoms stop being lied to and made worse by unethical, greedy, lazy doctors.

I got helped to heal after ending psychiatric care and got better. She will too. Many, many others have and she is young, very fortunate to be doing this now and have her healthy life ahead of her.

7. Be Excited You Have a Ton of Incredible Options

You have a ton of incredible options – based on legitimate science – at your disposal. Be grateful.

Has she had extensive thyroid testing? Psychiatrist Hyla Cass, M.D. thinks up to 80% of women given a bipolar label and put on meds are suffering from Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

8. Don’t Forget Salmon Oil and a Quality Probiotic

I have articles on both for more info related to bipolar and current research, both will help her heal. Do a search, top right of website.

“Hugs, Molly”

Neuroprotective Properties of Lithium

09.20.2019 by Molly McHugh // Leave a Comment

Neuroprotective properties of lithium refers to ways the mood stabilizer lithium chloride may affect the nervous system in positive ways i.e. protect or help regenerate damaged neurons or glial cells. The drug is known to be very toxic, so how could that be a good thing?

A Neuron - Specialized Cells of the Nervous System. — A Neuron – Specialized Cells of the Nervous System.

The below is quoted from a Journal of Clinical Neuroscience article:

“By definition, neuroprotection is an effect that may result in salvage, recovery or regeneration of the nervous system, its cells, structure and function. It is thought that there are many neurochemical modulators of nervous system damage.”

Source: Neuroprotection and Neurogenerative Disease.

Lithium Used for Bipolar Disorder is Neurotoxic, Not Neuroprotective. Click To Tweet

Lithium Chloride Increases Thickness of Myelin Sheath

One study used mice and created a facial nerve injury in half their face. Thy then treated half the mice with lithium chloride and the other half – the control group – received saline solution (placebo).

The mice who received the drug recovered more quickly than the placebo group. They had a thicker myelin sheath after recovery and “… the percentage of myelinated axons doubled after LiCl treatment.”

They created the injury in the mice. With humans it’s a little more complicated. There are many ways someone can be affected by a peripheral nerve injury.

Quoted from the study:

“Acquired neuropathies may be caused by aberrant immune responses, local injury, ischemia, metabolic disorders, toxic agents, or viral infections. To date, few therapeutic treatments are available. They are mostly based on anti-inflammatory agents.”

They also damaged the sciatic nerve of mice, gave half LiCL, half placebo for one week then killed the mice and performed tests.

They report the results as follows:

“Taken together, our observations demonstrate an increase of myelin sheath diameter around the axons of sciatic nerve in LiCl-treated mice vs. placebo-treated ones.”

Source: Lithium Enhances Remyelination of Peripheral Nerves.

Lithium Was Banned Due to Deaths From Toxicity – Now Health Promoting?

This is the problem. The science above may be sound and applicable for a short course of treatment for nerve damaged patients, but then using that as validation for long-term use for bipolar disorder is a huge leap.

The mice study was for 14 days. I initially improved with lithium treatment – maybe it should have then been discontinued after a few weeks or month. That’s as logical to think as not… based on the research.

As is the norm, I was kept on lithium though got sicker and sicker (increase in depression with suicidal ideation) and then prescribed trials of other meds (antidepressants) to treat the unwanted effects of the lithium.

After a year I’d had enough. I ended care, started reading and learning about the phony Chemical Imbalance Theory, lack of scientific credibility for psychotropic medications and how my experience getting worse was common.

What would have happened to the mice if they were kept on the lithium long-term? The mice used in the study were 8 weeks old. An 8 week old mouse is equivalent to a 20 year old human. Source: Mouse Age Calculator.

That’s young.

Mice live on average 2 years – equivalent to a 70 year old. I’d like to see a similar study that doubles the length of time of lithium treatment (say… 28 days or more) then reports effects seen.

Will the mice die? Was the amount of drug given to the mice equivalent to human dosages? Any adverse effects observed and noted?

Manic Depression is Not a Lithium Deficiency

This is a more applicable way to think about lithium related to bipolar disorder. As once a doctor gets you on it and sees initial improvement, they automatically think you ‘need the drug’ and should take it for life.

There’s no research supporting that. There is no ‘lack of lithium chloride’ identified in a bipolar disorder sufferer. Yes, it calms someone down during a manic episode but long-term adverse effects are many.

And it is not in any way a ‘miracle drug’. Here is what British psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, M.D. has to say.

“The sedative and slowing effects of lithium, although usually described as side effects, account for why lithium can help reduce arousal and activity levels in people with acute manic symptoms. So there is nothing magic or specific about lithium’s action in manic depression.”

“In theory, these effects might suppress the emergence of a manic episode, as well as reduce the severity of symptoms once an episode has started. The evidence that long-term lithium treatment reduces the occurrence of manic or depressive episodes is actually very weak, however.

Source: Reasons Not to Believe in Lithium.

Lithium is a Neurotoxin, Not Neuroprotective

After my year of high-dose lithium treatment were some of my nerve cells covered in a thicker myelin sheath? Do I really give a rat’s arse, or should anyone?

I wasn’t in treatment for nerve damage to tissues, I was in treatment for a mood disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a cyclic condition. Illness states may be severe but there are periods of normal functioning in-between episodes. It’s not a permanent impairment of nerve tissue of the brain that somehow needs regneneration.

Lithium actually causes tissue damage. Neurotoxicity is a well documented effect.

“Lithium salts have been used in treatment of depression and bipolar disorder for more than
50 years. Neurotoxic side-effects such as nystagmus, ataxia, tremor, fasciculation, clonus, seizure and even coma have been well described in the literature.”

Source: A Rare Neurological Complication Due to Lithium Poisoning.

It also leads to diabetes and causes kidney damage – which can become permanent.

“Lithium may cause problems with kidney health. Kidney damage due to lithium may include acute (sudden) or chronic (long-term) kidney disease and kidney cysts. The amount of kidney damage depends on how long you have been taking lithium. It is possible to reverse kidney damage caused by lithium early in treatment, but the damage may become permanent over time.”

Source: Lithium and Chronic Kidney Disease.

There is no way to predict the course of the illness, it varies from person to person. And psychotropic medications are a guessing game, a crapshoot style of treatment.

Why we need to have a better understanding of bipolar disorder and more effective treatment options that lead to better long-term outcomes.

Image of neuron from Clker.com.

How Much Melatonin to Take For Bipolar Disorder

06.27.2019 by Molly McHugh // 2 Comments

How much melatonin to take for bipolar disorder? Is there a recommended nightly dosage for those who have been diagnosed bipolar? If so, what is it?

Melatonin Studied in Bipolar 1 Disorder as Adjunctive Treatment

Here is a study of Manic Depressive patients who were taking antimania medications and given 3 mg of melatonin to help with sleep. It worked.

The below is quoted from a Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry study abstract:

“Eleven patients, eight males and three females, aged 22-43, meeting DSM IV diagnostic criteria for Bipolar Disorder, Manic Type, were selected for the presence of insomnia not responding to usual hypnotic therapies (benzodiazepine).”

“All the patients were on antimanic treatment. MLT 3 mg per os was administrated at 22.30 h for 1 month, without changing the previous antimanic and hypnotic treatments. All patients showed a significantly longer duration of sleep following MLT add-on. The severity of mania showed a parallel significant decrease.”

Source: Melatonin Add-on in Manic Patients with Treatment Resistent Insomina.

If Taking Large Doses of Psych Meds Melatonin May Not Help

I am not on any ‘antimanic treatment’ and have not been for more than 24 years. If I was, I honestly do not think melatonin would work as well as it does for me.

I share my story of withdrawing from high doses of lithium here: If I Can Get Off Psych Meds Anyone Can.

A psych med is like using a wrecking ball on your system, and disrupts many body functionings.

Taking a low to moderate does of the natural sleep aid melatonin is more like giving your circadium rhythms a gently but persuasive nudge to get going and do their stuff.

If you’ve got a chemical wrecking ball in there already, swaying back and forth, knocking around whoever dares to step in its path and all that is on both sides… that gentle nudge may not be felt.

Melatonin Has Been Studied in Bipolar 1 Disorder Patients and Found to Be Effective. Click To Tweet

Your pea-sized pineal gland may start to release nightly doses of melatonin like it is supposed to, but you’ve got so much other chemical crap in there doing God knows what it doesn’t give the result nature intended.

It’s overriden by bully, psych med-saturated molecules that are trying to bully other brain chemicals and molecules in the effort to get you to sleep. That wrecking ball-style solution may help for short-term relief if manic, but is not a smart long-term solution.

Some Bipolar Patients Say Melatonin Does Not Work

Many who are bipolar, try melatonin and then say ‘it doesn’t work’ are most likely on large doses of other medications that are interferring with its ability to help.

I still have many restless nights – but I almost always get a few hours of deep sleep, which then helps me function normally during the day. That’s the goal.

I’ve taken various amounts of melatonin off and on over the years and have been taking 3 mg regularily for about the past three years.

No, I’ve never read that study quoted above until this morning. That amount – same used in the study for Manic Depressive patients – is just what I have found works best for me. And I’d up the dose if I felt I wasn’t getting enough rest to function during the day, be able to work and get some enjoyment out of my life.

The results of the above study – considering the fact the test subjects were on other medications – are incredibly hopeful.

Here are 10 more medical studies: 10 Medical Studies About Circadian Rhythm and Bipolar Disorder.

Many who are not bipolar use melatonin for sleep and take larger amounts than 3 mg. I know one very successful woman who takes 10 mg at night. Yikes. I’ve never even considered that amount.

And she swears by a sublingual (dissolves under your tongue) brand you can buy at Costco. I personally have taken many different brands and all have given positive effects.

Why Doesn’t My Psychiatrist Tell Me To Try Melatonin?

Because they are not in the business of alternative medicine. They are in the business of psychotropic medication-selling.

Melatonin is a natural supplement, not a Big Pharma-produced product. The above study would not be of interest to a Big Pharma psychiatrist – they only want to promote and write prescriptions for psychotropic medications.

These kinds of docs love to prescribe antipsychotics to take at night. They are wrecking ball, russian roulette game supporters.

You decide whether that is the best approach for your health and healing – especially for the long term.

Cheers, Molly