treating bipolar without medication?

Just a little info, often after ECT you still have to be on meds. I had someone in my group who had ECT courses over the years, but still had to take meds. And she was still very depressed. I never heard her laugh or saw her smile over five years.

I also wanted to add that bipolar is a progressive disorder. If not properly treated (in whatever way is appropriate), it will progress. I ignored my BP2 for a long time. Over time I got worse and worse and worse....now I'm BP1 and psychotic destructive manic phases and utterly debilitating (almost catatonic sometimes, suicidal at others) depression are my every day norm. I'm glad I sought proper treatment. I know I won't go back to being BP2 with just some nice hypomanias and some mild depression again, but with meds (and my other coping mechanisms), I can be very close to that or even to normal.

My point is, if you decide to go the no meds route you may just find that your BP spirals into something much worse over time. For me, it just took about 2-3 years.

(Edited to add that another reason my BP progressed so fast is that I insisted I was just depressed to docs even though I knew perfectly well what I had and got anti-deps only for those 2-3 years....which caused my progression from BP2 to BP1 to happen quickly and probably my ultra rapid cycling and even mixed states. The info it out there...in the end it's a personal decision, but for me, at least for now, and probably always, meds are an integral part of my treatment plan. Without them, I'd probably be dead by now.)

ECT has been mentioned several times here. I have had two rounds of ECT (17 treatments). Medication is still definitely necessary. ECT is excellent for severe depression (particularly if life-threatening). It has saved my life more than once. But, I'm not a big fan of it for treatment only because meds aren't working. ECT is a treatment. Thus temporary. It is not a cure.

It is VERY hard to manage bipolarity without meds. I wouldn't advise it, unless you had a really good therapist that you could call every time you got mad, upset, or otherwise... at any time of the day.

It also depends on how severe your bipolar is. You have to gauge that yourself. If you have good self control, then you may be able to go without meds, but being bipolar, I doubt that you do. I recommend Lamictal for bipolar. It's what I take. It calms me down without any weird side-effects.

Mine continues to get worse, sometimes to the point of me hitting people and really lashing out. I don't know how to stop it. My medicine isn't doing 100%.

hi blue, what are ETC treatments?

Dear Seventyeight, I have survived a "bipolar" complex brain chemistry disorder, and one of the things that helped me was a brain healing technology called Center Point. You can research it online, at Center Pointe Research Institute. It helps the two sides of the brain reconnect and rebalance each other, and it is safe to use with meds. It is recommended that you use it with meditation, which is helpful in it's own right. I have posted a link to one kind of meditation under the Self Help forum. I am always hopeful, because I could not tolerate meds so i had no choice but to learn how to manage without them, so I am always hope that others will find the strength to do the same. If you can afford it and are close to a good Doctor of Acupuncture, I was also astonished to find that it could remove OCD's and other side-issues. Wishing you all the success you can have,,, Gus

Sorry seventyeight below is from wikipedia. In a book I'm reading on BP they've noted that it's better for the treatment in depression rather than mania for person's with BP, but it has been used to treat both.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), previously known as electroshock, is a well-established, albeit controversial, psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Today, ECT is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also used in the treatment of mania (often in bipolar disorder), and catatonia.[1] It was first introduced in the 1930s[2] and gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 1950s; today, an estimated 1 million people worldwide receive ECT every year,[3] usually in a course of 6–12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week.

I am bipolar, and I have managed it all my life without medications. Two years ago when I was diagnosed with just depresion (and later bipolar) and despite all the drama happenig in my life right now I still have not been on any medication because before I was 18 my mom didn't want me to be on the meds then once I turned 18, I lost my insurance and all this other stuff. I personaly feel that I am in dire need of them, however, yoga, nmeditation, and relaxing music really help me to balance my mood.

Interesting thread. It seems that the consensus is that medication is generally necessary... and life can get pretty tough without it.

I'm currently experimenting with drastically reducing my medication regimen (against my psychiatrist's recommendations), and although it's only been about two weeks, I am feeling somewhat better (aside from the lexapro withdrawal symptoms).

My bipolar brother is currently going without medications, but he's still seeing a psychiatrist just in case. He seems to be doing okay, but we live 2250 miles apart and don't talk often.

I'm curious about those of you who have progressed from BP II to BP I... I'm BP II, which is part of the motivation behind my noncompliance with all of the mood stabilizers I was taking. Having never been overtly manic or psychotic, I feel fairly confident that I can live safely without a mood stabilizer (but still taking wellbutrin). I took various antidepressants for about 10 years before I was diagnosed as bipolar and placed on a mood stabilizer, and I never had an impressive manic switch. Hypomanic, yes... but not manic.

I wish I had a crystal ball that could tell me what is going to happen since I've stopped the mood stabilizers. My hope is that nothing will happen. It's only been about two weeks though. I guess we'll find out...

I started out with diagnosis of depression and went on the anti depressants no mood stabilizers. I just got hypomanic every so often, over ten years. They finally diagnosed me as BP 1 when I had a delusional maina full blown, after ten twelve years with no manias. From what I understand, the more hypomanic episodes you get the worse they can become, and eventually can lead to full blown mania. The same with depressions, the more you have the worse each one gets. So simply being diagnosed as BP2 does not guarantee that you won't go manic at some time in the future. Especially if you are not on any mood stabilizers. It may just catch up with you. Please be careful.