Okay, Trippin, I didn't say "misfiring"; I said "rapid-firing".

Again, I'm guessing, but I think she's probably a psychiatrist who keeps up with the latest data on discoveries regarding biplar illness; otherwise, she couldn't be a very effective lecturer on the subject.

Your guess is as good as mine regarding this. She has even suggested to me that I didn't have to take any psychotropic medications, that aspirin would be effective for me. She knows more than I do, that's for sure. (Now, that isn't appropriate for everyone, definitely. Medications are often required in this illness.)

Do you want a guess as to why other psychiatrists don't mention this? Part of it is long-time practice in psychiatry and knowledge of to what extent a patient needs psychotropic medications. Another guess might be that some doctors don't keep up with latest advances. They rely on the pharmaceutical companies' new products as possibly being of help (though I expect that's a leap of faith to suppose that!), or that some psychiatrists just don't discuss those things with patients or don't know it.

There are really three facts known about the illness: (that I have been made aware of)

1. It is a chemical imbalance.
2. It can be genetically inherited.
3. It's an inflammation of the brain in which a portion of the brain fires too rapidly in bipolar illness, but scientists don't know why yet.

And there's probably a heck-of-a-lot more known that we patients will never know.

Keep asking questions; we're putting information out there, lady, for everyone to evaluate related to his/her own concepts. This is how we learn to take care of ourselves.

For example, I've learned from her statement that there are certain things I can do that slow down the rapid-firing: one is the use of lemon juice and ice cold water; another is the use of unrefined sea salt to help in the removal of acidity from around brain cells, and avoiding inflammatory foods like cheese, white flour products, beef, pork, the artificial sweeteners, including Aspartame (which is poisonous), saccharine, etc. Only Stevia (to date) has been shown not to be detrimental.

For me, it was learning that caffeine (because I am sensitive to it) was devastating to stability for me.
Removing it has made all the difference--just like taking the road less traveled (as in Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken").

There's so much to learn if we can keep an open mind and experiment with what works for us. We're likely to all be different in what will work for each of us, but I've always appreciated any help that would enable me to avoid having to take high dosages of psychotropic medications.

I keep myself aware particularly of Dr. Kay Jamison Redfield's title to her book "Touched With Fire". That about sums up what I know and that's not enough at this point.

Thanks for your input and take care.

Genetic