Alternative Treatments Archives – Page 5 of 10

If I Can Get Off Psych Meds Anyone Can

02.12.2017 by Molly McHugh //

If I can get off of psych meds anyone can. I firmly believe that. There’s nothing special about me that is different from any other human being on the planet. Individual differences between all of us, of course, but we are all made of the same basic stuff, same biology, same genetic structure.

A Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. Isn't She Gorgeous? — A Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. Isn’t She Gorgeous?

In my next life I’m planning on morphing into a hybrid human-hummingbird… but that’s not the focus of this post. 🙂

I’m Similar to Anyone Who Is Manic Depressive

There is nothing special about me that somehow makes my Manic Depression different from anyone else’s. Bipolar 1 Disorder has a basic clinical presentation that most suffereres fit into to a certain extent.

I had the classic late teen onset (age 19), severe mania that appeared out of the blue (no previous mental illness issues) and was hospitalized. Many others have experiences that are very similar.

I do not think a psychiatrist would look at my becoming ill as somehow unique. I think they’d simply look at it as classic onset of one of the most severe mental illnesses they have on their books.

[bctt tweet=”We Need Better Treatments for Manic Depression from Time of Onset Throughout Someone’s Life.”]

How the illness will then play out in the person’s life is very unique, and like any illness dependent on a multitude of factors. A few primary ones are:

1. Access to Care i.e. financial status.

2. Support System i.e. being accepted and helped or rejected.

3. Available Treatments i.e. doctor that just writes prescriptions then hospitalizes when the medications worsen someone’s symptoms or physicians who search for underlying health issues and find ways to treat.

I got lucky with #3 above and is why I am alive today. That’s where I want you to get to. If possible. Or your child, relative, neighbor, coworker’s grandchild i.e. off of psych meds and searching for ways to be well.

We know what goes on in the body when we fart. What happens in the body during cardiac arrest. What a seizure presents as. When someone is or is not in a coma. And on and on.

Let’s get to the point where we have a better understanding of what is going on in the body when someone develops Manic Depression.

Or better yet – the field of psychiatry to start taking a more medical approach to treating Manic Depression from the time of onset and throughout the person’s life. To stop lying about a chemical imbalance they know does not exist.

Medical treatments meaning anything other than brain damaging psychotropic medications that are only useful short-term for crisis intervention (mania, psychosis, sucidical depression). Long-term they kill. Shorten lifespan, trigger suicide and worse – are implicated in many mass murders.

Lovely. Shouldn’t we be moving away from that madness?

So a person can go on to live a healthy, productive life. Not become permanently disabled by side effects from toxic meds, put in jail or dead.

Progression Of Illness Is Unique

The core features of how this illness presents clinically has been identified (or else there would be no real way to diagnose it) but where it goes from there is highly individual.

This is where all sufferers are very unique. And all are going to have different responses to treatment, different underlying causes of their mood issues (what triggered the onset of BP-1), different responses to medical and adjunctive care, etc.

Examples: Melatonin is a huge help to me in regulating moods by getting deeper, more restful sleep at night. Some people can’t tolerate it or it does not help them. Yoga isn’t my thing. For some it’s a lifesaver.

And on and on.

You Can Withdraw From Psych Meds. No, It Will Not Be Easy.

I can’t share the specifics of my tapering off of lithium (large doees for a year, plus trials of antidpressants) when I was around 23 years old or so. I have very little clear memory of that time.

I remember my life at that time (I don’t have memory issues, have never had ECT) but I had two incidences of trauma that has clouded my recollection of events. When I try to think of what I did exactly, and how, how long it took etc. I cannot remember the specifics.

I basically read a ton, started to receive medical care from qualified physicians for my primary complaints of fatigue and daytime drowsiness and made a ton (or attempted to make) of lifestyle changes: dexox, getting off suger, candida diet, trials of supplements, thyroid hormone medication.

A bunch of stuff. And that’s what withdrawl will most likely be for others i.e. a very complicated and drawn out process that is not going to be easy or quick.

The below is from a nice, simple article on the basics of what to expect, written by psychologist John M. Grohol:

“Although this will not come as news to anyone who’s been on any one of the most common psychiatric medications prescribed — such as Celexa, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Prozac, Xanax, Paxil, Effexor, etc. — getting off of a psychiatric medication can be hard. Really hard.”

“Much harder than most physicians and many psychiatrists are willing to admit.”

Source: Withdrawl from Psychiatric Meds Can Be Painful, Lengthy.

And you need help from a physician. I did not have specific, direct care for withdrawing, but I was receiving medical care and they knew my history and that I was off of psych meds.

Today There is An Abundance of Information To Help With Drug Withdrawl

An abundance of information and many qualified physicians (and therapists working with a physician) who can help you.

Many have shared their personal stories online. Here are links to a few of those plus other excellent resources: Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Resources.

The bottom line is it is simply up to you. No one can force you. You need to decide to take control of your body and mind. It’s in your control. The choice is yours.

Whether your Big Pharma doctor has training to help, or will support your decision is another matter.

The below is from a Mad in America article by psychiatrist Vivek Datta, M.D.:

“One of the most damaging aspects of current psychiatric practice is that we convince people that they somehow themselves are damaged, whether this due to broken brains, crooked molecules, intrapsychical conflicts, damaged cognitive sets, abusive childhoods, traumatic lives, and so on.”

“In doing so we erode a sense of personal agency, a narrative of resilience and autonomy, and instead create a dependency and helplessness. I think one of the keys to coming off psychiatric drugs is for the individual to have their own coherent narrative of their experiences, and to see these experiences as within their control.”

Source: Withdrawing From Psychiatric Drugs: What Psychiatrists Don’t Learn.

Holistic Psychiatrists in the U.S.

Check out this free list of Holistic Psychiatrists in the U.S. for some names in or near where you live: Holistic Psychiatrists in the United States.

I’ll be continually updating it – if you know of a great doc to add, send me the info!

Cheers, Molly

What to Do if Autoimmune Disease Caused Your Bipolar Disorder

11.25.2016 by Molly McHugh // 5 Comments

What to do if autoimmune disease caused your bipolar disorder. What should you do if you think that many of the symptoms you experienced at the start of your illness are from generalized unwellness i.e. you’ve been feeling like shit for a while and it finally reseached a melting point. And you want to know why. What caused it?

Good for you. You’re brilliant.

Autoimmune Disease and Autoimmune Reactions in the Body Can Mimic Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder

Onset of symptoms that occurs over the course of a few months or years, or that was even triggered by a traumatic event you experienced such as assault, divorce, death of loved one or even childbirth. And became serious enough you needed to seek medical care or were forced to.

[bctt tweet=”Don’t Accept a Prescription for an Antidepressant as Valid Treatment. Seek Medical Care For Symptoms. Identify and Treat Underlying Causes”]

These are the things we are thinking about here. We are not thinking about your diagnosis, about all the meds you’ve been put on or the one antidepressant that they gave you that had you climbing off the walls and thinking you truly were crazy.

You’re not. It’s the med.

Then they maybe gave you a mood stabilizer or benzodiazepine ‘this will help calm your agitated nerves’ type med. You don’t really know what it was. You didn’t look it up online and only know how to pronounce the generic name.

And if you are lucky, your physician advised you to stop taking the medication after it made you worse by tapering slowly while being monitored closely. As opposed to writing a prescription for a new one to give you yet more distressing side effects.

Today, patients are being drugged to death, literally. Children are dying after being put on these meds.

What Was Happening at the Start of Your Illness

If you did try to get medical care and were just talked to and handed a prescription for an antidepressant or anxiety med and then got worse, you are not alone. And your symptoms have not been adequately addressed.

You could have underlying inflammation, unidentified mineral-vitamin imbalances, hormone deficiencies or related disease, etc. Maybe your job is overly-demanding and the office building a ‘sick building’ full of toxic chemicals and molds.

Don’t Accept a Diagnosis of Depression – Seek Medical Care

And you also may have an autoimmune condition that did not get identified. Of course it didn’t, the doctor just thought you were ‘depressed’ and did not do any testing. If this sounds like what’s happened to you… you need to:

1. Find a new doctor.

2. Focus on your symptoms and search for underlying root causes.

3. Ignore any label you’ve been given.

Not ignore as in ‘you aren’t depressed’, ‘you are not experiencing periods of emotional distress or hypomania’. Ignore in that it is only just that i.e. a term or terms used to categorize what you are experiencing and relaying to the physician.

You are describing ‘symptoms’. What you want to ask is “symptoms of what?”

What has created the illness state of depression in my brain-body? What has affected my sleep patterns to the point I am becoming more irritable, anxious and over-reactive? That’s not the normal me, you say.

I’ve never been crazy, I’m not crazy… so why am I feeling so ill – like a raving lunatic or lobotomized zombie? That’s how you want to think.

There Are 80 Types of Autoimmune Disease

The below is quoted from Medline Plus.com:

“An autoimmune disorder occurs when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys healthy body tissue by mistake. There are more than 80 types of autoimmune disorders.”

From the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA): “Autoimmune disease affects up to 50 million Americans” Source: Autoimmune Statistics.

One autoimmune illness with symptoms that mimic depression (and also bipolar disorder) is Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Have you been tested thorougly? Even if you’ve been tested, you could still have an underlying similar condition such as subclinical hypothyroidism.

Things That Trigger Autoimmune Disease Can Also Trigger Bipolar Disorder

All organs in the body and bodily tissues can be affected by autoimmune illness – including your brain.

That’s right. Autoimmune disease can affect your brain. Affect your brain causing changes in mood and behavior. And an autoimmune disease, therefore, can trigger the onset of symptoms that led to you getting a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder.

Interesting stuff, yes? And very hopeful in potential future diagnosing, treating and long-term care and outcomes for anyone who gets a bipolar diagnosis, of whatever flavor.

What if the autoimmune illness or reactions are taking place in the gut? In your gut and affecting the production of neurotransmitters that then – again – are affecting your mood states and leading to mental distress?

See how this thinking plays out? You can do it too. Eighty different types? That makes my head spin. You may not fit into any clear category but just recognizing that there are things going on that can be treated is a good start. You want to recover and be well. Not end up permanently disabled by psychotropic medications.

Inflammation is now thought to be a primary underlying cause of depression. And no – psych meds do not treat inflammation. If anything, they would make it worse, especially with long-term use.

Stay hopeful, seek medical care including help tapering from psychotropic medications if that is your goal and you want to focus on actual medical conditions and treatments for the symptoms you have that led to the ‘bipolar label’ you were given.

I’m not saying Manic Depression, depression or psychosis, etc. doesn’t exist. What I’m saying is that if you are told it is a ‘chemical imbalance in your brain’ and you have to take meds for the rest of your life you are being lied to.

That’s what I’m saying. And it is true.

And I am not telling anyone to stop medications without medical supervision. That’s a recipe for disaster and potentially severe consequences including hospitalization. But you can find qualified doctors to help.

Need a referral? Email me and I will find one for you near where you live.

That’s what I did. Can read my book for the down and dirty details but I’m alive, I have lived with severe Manic Depression for more than 30 years, and been off psych meds for around 24 years.

You can get better too, and feel better. Cheers.

Testing for Bipolar Disorder – What Your Doctor May Not Know

09.29.2016 by Molly McHugh // Leave a Comment

Bipolar Disorder is a category of mood disorders covering a very wide range of possible symptoms.

Bipolar disorder does not refer to a specific illness – though that has become the mainstream usage of the term from much overdiagnosing and much misunderstanding by the general public.

Testing for Bipolar Disorder - What Your Doctor May Not Know — The Misuse of the Term Bipolar and Overdiagnosing by Physicans to Make More Money from Psychotropic Medications is Criminal. Many Children Have Died After Being Given Psychotropic Medication.

When someone says they are “bipolar” they most likely have one of the following conditions:

Bipolar 1 Disorder – classic Manic Depression with episodes of mania and depression.
Bipolar 2 Disorder – depression with some periods of elevated mood.
Cyclothymic Disorder – less severe depression and hypomania for shorter periods.
Rapid Cycling Bipolar – four or more episodes of mania or depression in one year.
Not Otherwise Specified (NOS) – symptoms of hypomania or depression or mixed do not fit into other categories.

The symptoms of depression, mania and hypomania (severity, frequency, length in duration) and how they are classified to form a ‘bipolar diagnosis’ changes from one version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to the other.

The above is a very simplified overview. And additional vague terms used by health professionals left out such as “soft bipolar” and “subthreshold bipolar”.

For more detailed information read: Brief History of Bioplar Disorder Diagnoses – From Rare to Common.

Answer Some Questions and Get a Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis

There is no medical test for bipolar disorder of any type. A psychiatrist or other health professional may diagnose you with a form of bipolar by asking questions and taking a detailed medical history. You may be asked to fill out a questionnaire.

[bctt tweet=”Bipolar Disorder Testing Should Include Lab Tests to Identify Underlying Root Causes.”]

That’s it.

But you don’t want to let that be it, you want to ignore the bipolar label and seek out alternative care to treat potential underlying causes of your mood issues.

And keep reading this blog as that is what I write about and will continue to write about. So that more people can be helped and not subjected to a very damaging ‘lifetime of meds’ approach which leads to permanent disability.

Be in Treatment for Depression, Then Get Diagnosed Bipolar

Depression is the most common mental illness. Many who get a bipolar diagnosis first enter treatment for depression, are put on psychotropic medications and then their condition worsens from side effects from the meds.

Rather than be tapered off the offending toxic chemicals they advised you to pay a bunch of cash for and subject your body to that have caused more medical problems – they prescribe more meds and eventually many are given a ‘Bipolar 2 Disorder’ diagnosis.

But they are not in many cases actually bipolar – the condition is iatrogenic i.e. the medications prescribed created the hypomania, irratibility, insomnia and worsening of moods.

Classic Manic Depression – now called Bipolar 1 Disorder – is a medical condtion with a proven genetic pre-disposition. Depression has been proven to NOT be a genetic disorder.

“Bipolar disorder (also known as manic depressive illness) is a complex genetic disorder in which the core feature is pathological disturbance in mood (affect) ranging from extreme elation or mania to severe depression usually accompanied by disturbances in thinking and behaviour, which may include psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations.”

Source: Genetics of Bipolar Disorder.

Note the error above – the researchers use the term bipolar disorder and manic depression synonomously.

Absolutely not accurate. Why there is so much confusion surrounding the illness of BP-1 and the other classifications of bipolar. The study is about actual Manic Depression i.e. BP-1. Not BP-1 & BP-2 & BP ONS, etc.

Bipolar disorder does NOT equate to the illness Manic Depression – it is a category, not a specific illness.

A Psychiatrist Referral Does Not Mean You Are Crazy – Or Necessarily Mentally Ill

Possibly you have been referred to a psychiatrist because your regular physician cannot find anything wrong with you, but you are still complaining about being depressed, overly-anxious, not sleeping well, etc.

The psychiatrist then will most likely follow the above steps, talk with you, listen to symptoms and make a diagnosis.

Here is where the situation ends in a dead end. You are a working, capable adult, maybe even a parent. You are not a drug dealer, thief, child abuser, rapist. You are just not feeling well and want help feeling better.

You want to feel normal.

You want to feel good. Feel the way you used to feel or feel better than you have been feeling in years and have someone help you as opposed to feeling like a hypochondriac when you go a regular physician and they tell you nothing is wrong with you.

It’s not all in your head.

Mood issues are a symptom of physical-mental unwellness. Even though you have been told you are fine, you most likely have physical, envrionmental, genetic, situational or other factors that have affected your health.

You need to figure out what those are and how to treat or moderate.

What Tests Should You Make Sure to Get?

Psychiatrist Dr. Kelly Brogan – one of our amazing Ninja Docs – wrote an excellent article (March, 2016), “Do 5 Million Americans Really Have Bipolar Disorder? ”

The below is quoted from the article about bipolar disorder testing:

“Basic labwork can reveal reversible imbalances. At a minimum, check a thyroid panel including TSH, free T3, free T4, reverse T3, thyroid stimulating antibodies, thyroid peroxidase antibodies, and thyroglobulin antibodies.”

“Check sugar balance through a fasting glucose, insulin, and HgA1C. Check for inflammation through a hsCRP and homocysteine.”

Source: Kelly Brogan, M.D.

Why you need to make sure at the very least you get your blood drawn and some diagnostic tests run. If you have a treatable condition that is causing your mood issues you want to know and get proper treatment.

Then throw the antidepressant or antipsychotic med prescription in the trash along with the name and number of the physician who prescribed them.

Even If Already Diagnosed, Seek Out Alternative Care for Symptoms

Even after I was diagnosed – and I have the severe genetic form Manic Depression – I still sought out medical care for the primary symptoms I suffered from (fatigue, depression). These are physical symptoms that originate from a physical cause.

Maybe your neurotransmitters are out of whack, low or not being produced adequately but you want to find out why. Maybe you have an abundance of Candida in your gut and it is interferring with the production of serotonin in your gut.

“Although serotonin is well known as a brain neurotransmitter, it is estimated that 90 percent of the body’s serotonin is made in the digestive tract.”

Source: Microbes Help Produce Serotonin in Gut.

Or you have a thyroid condition, or are iron-deficient or reacting to a mold infestation in your home or office environment you are not even aware is there. Many pysical illnesses and types of environmental exposures can create depressive and other (anxious, irritable, over-energized) states in the body.

And even if you’ve had psychological trauma (sexual assault, abusive partner, etc.) that is a prime factor in your mood issues, when it beccomes expressed as a ‘physical symptom’ it is a medical issue in addition to psychological. Both need care, concern and non-abusive treatment options i.e. therapy and medical care.

Overdiagnosing Helps No One and Harms Many

They haven’t added my fart once in the morning and burp at least twice a week in the afternoon form of bipolar to the diagnostic category but I’ve heard it is being taken under consideration. Drug companies are working hard to come up with effective anti-fart medicine… don’t despair.

The point to the sarcasm? The term ‘bipolar’ is being ridiculously overused and so many are being misdiagnosed – or diagnosed after being put on a medication for depression and suffering side effects which lead to a ‘bipolar’ diagnosis.

And when it leads to death the action is criminal.

Children never had bipolar before the introduction of the ‘diagnosis’ in 1980. And many have been murdered by psychotropic medications. When they simply needed better nutrition, parental care, removal from an abusive household or school system, access to sports and after school activities etc. It’s criminal.

Psychiatrists and physicians need to stop being spared from having to take responsibility for their actions. Stop being spared from the responsibility of prescribing medications that lead to death and disability.

There is no excuse when even one of there most holy leaders and a primary instigator of the whole bipolar spectrum nonsense claims that ‘no reputable psychiatrist has ever believed in the chemical imbalance theory, that it is urban legend…’.

Is that what you’ve been told? I doubt it. Protect yourself, protect your family and seek out alternative care from qualified, honest and ethical health care providers such as the amazing Dr. Brogan and many others.

Here is a free list of holistic psychiatrists in the U.S. Some even provide testing and consultation over the phone. Check it out, and learn about many treatments other than brain damaging psychotropic medications that can help you heal your mood disorder: Holistic Psychiatrists in the United States.

Cheers, Molly

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