We have been at the beach and it has been really nice!  Rye had a friend come for the Easter weekend and minus a few bumps in the road here or there with Rye’s impatience and irritabiliy, they got along well.  We had fun swimming in the ocean and playing board games, etc.  As it turns out, we did need to up the Seroquel a tiny bit.  He has just been revving too high lately and got to where he could not sleep, etc. and was starting to be a bit Charlie Sheen-esque which always make me want to strangle him.  And, this time last year was when he ended up in the hospital so maybe we have a pattern here of mania this time of year.  This seems to be the case.  Hopefully we are dealing with it better now than we knew how to do before and we can avoid the hospital this time.  Baby steps.  Or, as our pdoc says, “you know, the only thing they are going to do at the hospital is up his meds and we can just as easily do that at home”.  Amen.

Live and learn.

As for the acupuncture. it went well.   The doctor told Rye that he was very brave to come there and discuss his symptoms and seek help.  Also, he was impressed that he was not afraid of the needles (note to self:  let’s hope in all that’s holy that he is just brave and not that he lacks the inherent self-protective needle aversion and is therefore prone to becoming a heroin addict in the future.  But I digress…I worry like this, you know).

Anyway, the symptoms we are trying to correct:  anxiety, poor quality of sleep, constipation, slow metabolism, weight gain, craving for sweets (the last 3 are side effects of the Seroquel).    The first treatment Rye said was very relaxing and then said a few days later that he had gone number two like 10 times in the days since the treatment.  So, success there.   I didn’t see any decrease in anxiety or increase in sleep quality until we upped the Seroquel.  But again, we are just starting.  He goes again Friday.  And. I’m not sure how long we will be able to afford to have him go but we will do what we can.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter.

Rye has his first acupuncture appointment tomorrow.

He has been revving at a pretty high rate lately so we thought we would try this before upping his Seroquel and/or before I jab him with a bunch of sharp objects myself.  Best to leave it to the professionals.  And, who knows, maybe it will work.  And maybe they can give him some natural herbs so he can relax a bit.

He’s excited to try it.

Wish us luck.

As for the bipolar issue, I have been reading a lot about natural helps and nutrition and I’m putting together a plan.   So far I know it will include getting rid of all refined sugar and simple carbs in the house to help with, among other things, candida and histamine imbalances [and this will be really hard for me because I love sugar], getting Rye on a regular exercise plan in addition to what he does now, getting him on a regular massage schedule (you can’t believe how tense his muscles become – they get like rocks and that can’t be good), and adding a few vitamin/mineral supplements of which I have not completely figured out and will ask for professional help with (but no herbs because they scare me a little).  Oh, and acupuncture to balance his energy.

Anyway, will this work?  I have no idea.  But it’s worth a try.  It can’t hurt.

If anyone has any experience with trying these things I’d love to hear about it. I found this about going from meds to natural approaches.  And I have found many others too to which I’ll post links later.

During our trip I spoke with a friend of ours that works high up in pharma (they make generics) and she was saying how yes, with all of the meds there are side effects as they all take something away from one part of your body to give another part what it needs (putting it very simplistically).  This is why one often gets on a spiraling loop of additions in meds.  One med has to fix the imblanace and therefore problem the other created and so on.  So this fuels me all the more to try and balance this naturally.

It’s definitely worth a try.

Western Medicine theorizes that bipolar disorder is a chemical imbalance in the brain.  Or, at least that’s what the treatment protocol is based on – using pharmaceutical medicines to alter neurotransmitters in the brain.  But if it’s a chemical imbalance in the brain, why are the brain chemicals in balance sometimes and not others?

No one seems to know.

According to the Mayo Clinic Staff, they don’t know what causes bipolar disorder.

It’s not known what causes bipolar disorder. But a variety of biochemical, genetic and environmental factors seem to be involved in causing and triggering bipolar episodes:

• Biochemical. Some evidence from high-tech imaging studies indicates that people with bipolar disorder have physical changes in their brains. The significance of these changes is still uncertain but may eventually help pinpoint causes. The naturally occurring brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which are tied to mood, also may play a role. Hormonal imbalances also are thought to be a culprit.
• Genes. Some studies show that bipolar disorder is more common in people whose biological family members also have the condition. Researchers are trying to find genes that may be involved in causing bipolar disorder. Some studies also show links between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, pointing to a shared genetic cause.
• Environment. Environment also is thought to play a causal role in some way. Some studies of identical twins show that one twin has the condition while the other doesn’t — which means genes alone aren’t responsible for bipolar disorder. Environmental causes may include problems with self-esteem, significant loss or high stress.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bipolar-disorder/DS00356/DSECTION=causes

Well, ok.

Looking for more answers I decided to look into a more holistic approach – Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).  TCM has been around for thousands of years.  Western Medicine is the baby of medicines compared to Chinese Medicine so the Chinese Medicine Praticioners must know something, right?

I have just begun my search but so far I am intrigued with what I have read.  I mean, after all, the brain is not an isolated organ. Your brain cannot live without your other body systems working.  So if the brain is suffering an imbalance it seems logical that other body systems must be as well.  Or, maybe it’s another part of the body that is suffering an imbalance and this is causing the imbalance in the brain.

And then I found this:

Because of the belief by Western Science Practitioners that all emotions come from the brain, when patients suffer from disturbances in their emotions, Chemicals that mimic Brain Neurotransmitters are given to correct these mental disturbances.    TCM practitioners believe that emotions are associated with the Five Elements. We believe that balancing the Organ associated with the emotion will balance the emotion. Sometimes the Organ is out of balance and produces the emotional imbalance. But sometimes the emotion imbalance can produce an Organ imbalance. The difference to the practitioner is important only in preventing a reoccurrence of the problem.

http://www.hantang.com/english/en_Articles/EMOTION.htm

Now I’m really intrigued.

This is starting to seem logical.  The body works as a whole.  The individual parts are interdependent and so what effects one system can effect another system.

And then I found this:

Acupuncture was applied in the treatment of depression and psychosis in aged patients at the Institute of Mental Hygiene in Beijing (14). The patients were aged 50-74 and suffered from conditions such as manic-depressive psychosis, reactive psychosis, and neurosis. The treatment focused on baihui (GV-20) and yintang (M-HN-3), using electroacupuncture stimulation. Of 30 patients treated, it was claimed that marked effects were observed in 19 (about 2/3). The claimed improvements were in depressed mood, suicidal intention, anxiety, insomnia, and irritability, as well as alleviation of some accompanying physical symptoms.

http://www.itmonline.org/articles/acubrain.htm

More than interesting.

I’m going to look into getting an appointment for Rye with an experienced TCM Practicioner.

If anyone out there reading this has any experience with using TCM with Bipolar Disorder, please let me know how it worked for you.