I need daily meds for suicidal depression. Without them, life is very hard. I function and get on with my life, but I suffer. My suicidal depression is separate from my general bipolar depression.

I need lithium orotate for mania that I can’t control on my own.

I can’t tolerate antipsychotic medication, but would take it if I could. I manage my psychosis through the plan in my books.

Medications work. People who are anti medications usually have a personal agenda or have confused medication efficacy with side effects.

The real problem with medications is how they affect the physical body. This is where we need to focus.

My plan is as follows:

1. Reduce my symptoms using the ideas in my books through intense lifestyle changes that then become a norm in my life.

2. Use meds for symptoms I can’t manage on my own. In terms of suicidal thoughts, mine are consistently manufactured by my brain, so I need the meds. The mania is greatly affected by lifestyle. If I keep things as calm as possible, I rarely need lithium.

3.  I need sleep meds every night.

Your medication regime will look different from mine. If we know that medication side effects are the biggest problem with psych meds, doesn’t it make sense to manage symptoms ourselves and then take as few meds as possible!?

We can prevent episodes and reduce side effects using this model.

At the same time, we need to encourage medication manufacturers to focus on side effects. I can tell you from experience that this is not their biggest concern.

Life with bipolar is usually too hard to live without some medical help. Medications are dynamic. What you need now may be different in the future.

Julie