Julie’s Soap Box: There is No Natural Treatment for Bipolar Disorder

There is no natural treatment for bipolar disorder at this time. If you are working with a natural health care practitioner and they tell you that there are supplements or diet changes that will prevent mania or psychosis, this is simply incorrect information. Anyone who tells you that cannabis is a treatment for bipolar disorder is not reading the research.

I am consistently dismayed at the lack of information there is for natural health providers about the nature of the very serious, physical illness that is bipolar disorder.

My goal is to educate health care practitioners on the basics of bipolar management so that a working plan can be followed. I believe in natural medicine as it works in many areas of our lives, but for bipolar disorder? It is not enough.

Mania and psychosis are relentless symptoms that are very different from depression. Also, depression and bipolar depression are two very different illnesses.

My coaching practice is filled with clients who have loved ones who want to treat bipolar naturally who then live in continual mood swings.

Yes, there will be some people who find natural medicine helpful, but for people with bipolar one or people like myself who have intense, rapid cycling bipolar that is easily affected by incorrect supplements, natural medicine alone is a difficult path.

If you are able to find a natural health care practitioner who is also willing to use medications judicially when the symptoms are too intense, then this is a path to follow. I work with Julie Foster, a natural medicine based nurse practitioner from Pohala Clinic – A Place of Healing here in Portland. She is a good example of a natural practician to knows when a touch of western medicine is needed.

Stability is the marker for a working management plan. If you are stable, then what you are doing is working. Stable means little to no mood swings. If there is mania of any kind, then the current system you are using is not enough. I am rarely stable. This means that I have to use natural treatments along with some western style medications. Do I want to do this? Of course not! I would much rather approach bipolar naturally, but the reality is that this illness is a rough one to manage. We need a range of treatments and a daily management plan.

Supplements and a diet change are not enough.