Living without meds...

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Living without meds...
3
Tue, 02-20-2007 - 7:43am
Okay, not trying to start a fight like that time I wandered onto this board, but I'm wondering if there's anyone else here who works to control your moods with diet, exercise, etc... without meds. Sometimes I just feel so alone here, watching all the threads about different medications, since I can't comment on any of them.

Love and Light, Joelle

Homeschooling mom to an

Love and Light, Joelle

Homeschooling mom to a 11yr old hydrogen molecule.




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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-27-2006
Tue, 02-20-2007 - 8:45pm

It is a scientific fact that exercise and diet change does improve your mood. Everyone would benefit from doing that, but that doesn't mean everyone with bipolar or mental illness will totally improve with just these changes. Some meds at some level are ususally needed. Some people have benefited from diet and exercise and than only need low dosages of meds and some can come off meds...not many come off meds successfully. Than there is a group of people that still need the same level of med therapy even with diet and exercise. The main thing to stay away from with mood disorders is sugar, cakes, cookies, anything that is simple sugars. These cause mood swings because of blood sugar levels dropping and hiking up when we eat sweets.


The problem that stems from this is a lot of depressed people want to eat high sugar foods to get the fix of that rush and comfort from those foods. Also, when people are depressed it is hard to

     ~ Tina ~

Avatar for finian
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Wed, 02-21-2007 - 6:18am
thanks for the wishes, good luck with your path

Love and Light, Joelle

Homeschooling mom to an

Love and Light, Joelle

Homeschooling mom to a 11yr old hydrogen molecule.




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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-08-2003
Wed, 02-21-2007 - 12:48pm

I have posted here many, many times that I fight the battle against depression and BP on all fronts: diet, exercise, meditation, prayer, psychotherapy, a 12-step program...and meds. I have a chemical balance and everytime I've tried to live without the meds,that fact is proven to me over and over. I create chaos and insanity in my life, I'm dizzy, I can't think straight, I have anxiety, etc.

Once I go off the meds, I also stop thinking rationally. I can continue monitoring my diet, not drinking alcohol, exercising every day, praying every day ALL DAY, meditating, seeing my therapist and working the steps in my life - but without the meds the chemical imbalance in my brain slowly but surely screws up my thinking. Soon I can't see the rationale for continuing to take good care of myself, so I stop working out and start eating cake. Then I stop meditating, cancel my therapy appointments, don't bother going to 12-step meetings. Eventually, I'll even stop praying. By that point, I'm an absolute mess.

This has been shown to me on several occasions. Just recently when my DH was traveling I stopped taking the med that controls my hypomania so that I could take care of my kids (one of my children is handicapped and gets up frequently during the night) and run my business. By the time my DH returned home on Friday night he could tell that I hadn't taken my meds - I was rambling, switching from one topic to the next very quickly, not finishing my sentences, etc. For my own self-preservation - because people pay me to represent them in court - I CANNOT walk around acting like this!!!!! I tell inappropriate stories, talk continuously, flirt - the poster child for mania. And this will happen despite all my best efforts to keep everything else in check; i.e. diet, exercise, prayer, meditation, therapy and 12-step meetings.

Sorry I have to disagree with you, although I clearly do not believe that meds in and of themselves will give you any significant relief from BP and depression...

mo 7-18-10