The Mood Disorder Tides are Changing
Blanket diagnoses concerning mood disorders can not only follow you throughout your life but can limit your mindset to the power you have to live beyond it.
“He’ll most likely need to be on antipsychotics until 18, and then lithium into adulthood.” Our psychiatrist was resolute in that statement. This conversation would lead to years of medication triumphs, errors, and what felt like a battle for his God-given individuality.
I get it. My child seemed to have had a screw loose before he could talk. The hourly, unprovoked fits of rage, the delay in speech, and the darkness that would take over his eyes; he was a carbon copy of his biological father. However, considering he hadn’t seen him since he was four, I was still ignorant of the facts of genetics and mood disorders like Bipolar (more about this in another article).
When my son turned 11, he had been on the antipsychotic, Risperidone for two years. He was unpleasantly numb and irritable. It didn’t make him pleasant to be around, but it also didn’t make him unpleasant. The random ticks were a side effect we got used to - he didn’t. Then his blood work returned with elevated lipid levels, a side effect of the medication.
We moved from antipsychotics and their awful side effects to mood stabilizers and attention enhancers. They seemed to be less harsh on his system, at least in the beginning. His mood did stabilize, and he seemed a little more at ease. Things looked like they were turning around for us. It lasted three months.
The weekly phone calls from the principal and teachers with his outbursts and panic attacks reemerged like the horrible rash they were. I resigned myself to inpatient treatment, and I started making arrangements. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to repair one more hole in the wall, intervene in another physical outburst, or risk my son jumping out of a moving vehicle - again. I’d heard mixed opinions on inpatient treatment, but I had to decide for my son's safety and the rest of the family. I got the info, and it wasn’t cheap.
Something in my soul wouldn’t stop nagging at me. I didn’t feel like I was genuinely advocating for my son. The “professionals” offered little advice outside of medication and talk therapy. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there had to be something more I could do for my child.
Committing my child to inpatient seemed easier, aside from the heartbreak. Having professionals monitor him 24/7, administer his meds and work their magic seemed like a dream vacation. The ugly truth was that even a week without the living hell that is a “rapid-cycling” child was something I longed for every day. I felt like I had to make one last meaningful effort and seek out alternatives, researching on the fringes of society’s traditional methods.
I wasn’t looking for gimmicks or quacks that prey on desperate people like me. I wanted to understand why my son seemed to live in a perpetual nightmare trapped in his own brain. I grew tired of the “chemical imbalance” excuse. As parents, we all have a sixth sense regarding our children. I could sense his body’s unease with the medications we were pumping into him daily and nightly to keep him from going off the deep end. The twitching, muscle spasms, nervous ticks, and overall numbness he displayed told me that this was not what his body and mind required to function with Bipolar disorder. I had to get his brain healthy, not shut it off.
Once I got past the first 3 to 5 pages of my google searches, most of which were the mainstream sources pushing their tired science, so officially and confidently, did the subsequent pages produce some fascinating ideas and logic behind the mind-body connection. Highlights how a damaged gut, inflammation in the body and brain, and low levels of vital minerals can all trigger symptoms in the brain already predisposed to Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Depression, Anxiety, and the like.
As mentioned in a previous article, during this challenging time, I received advice from a dear friend who is also bipolar, along with their child, who is now grown. They shared the power of salt, potassium, magnesium, and calcium minerals to regulate drastic mood shifts, and CBD to address brain inflammation. These findings coincided with the bit of information I had stumbled across, and while the research here is sparse, it was enough to try it out; something just felt right.
My gut feeling served us on this journey. We slowly weaned our son off of pharmaceuticals (under doctor supervision) over two months and began administering daily electrolyte tablets, and CBD drops. Two weeks into the new regimen, my son genuinely said I love you for the first time. The torment that had lived behind those beautiful brown eyes subsided, replaced by curiosity and ease.
We became more conscious of food, and specifically, food additives and their impact on his behavior. We documented positive and negative outcomes to understand what his brain needed and what triggered drastic mood shifts. It was a lot of work upfront, and I doubted my decisions every step of the way. Regardless, the nightmare we had all been living in dissolved, transforming into more laughter and joyful moments, predictability and calm.
We can all agree that most doctors and experts believe they are genuinely doing good and have no malicious intent. However, it’s a fact that they are beholden to the establishment and don’t have a lot of wiggle room or funding to look outside that bubble. The tide is slowly changing, and some incredible doctors are rising to the top of influence, echoing the logic to address the body as a whole and not use medication as the starting point. I encourage you to follow a few noteworthy doctors: Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Zwig, Ellen Vora, MD, and Uma Naidoo, MD. These folks have provided so much invaluable information and continue to fight the good fight.
I cannot emphasize the importance of learning as much as possible to empower your health journey, either for you or your children. I’m sure I speak for a lot of us when I say we are spoon fed information from the experts because it’s easier, and you know, they’re experts. Why would they lead us astray? If you want my tin foil hat answer, healthy people are bad for business.
In Good Health,
Hayley
Sources for your journey concerning this article:
Inflammation and Mood Disorders
