Help with BP Partner??

[Raynebow]

Hi there,

I have never posted here b4 so hi to all. I have a few questions and i think maybe my last try at posting was too long so i may have to post a couple of posts to achieve what i am trying to do.
I have a partner who is BP, does anyone know what happens within the body when a BP is having an episode. I would like to try to change his med to one that is compatable with natural rememdies but i need to know what the body is over producing to trigger off the episodes.
He is currently on effexor but it doesn't seem to be working. I have discovered that if i really push him in an argument when he is having an episode he burns out a lot quicker (a couple of hours instead of a couple of days).
If anyone could help me with this information it would be much appreciated, also suggestions for natural remedies that would help control or reduce the severity of the episodes would be appreciated.

regards
Raynebow:[/COLOR]

[defectgrrrl]

As someone who has suffered with BP and been friends with others in the same boat I can tell you natural remedies are a bad idea. For one they rarely work very well and for two someone with BP is a HIGH suicide risk. Even if your partner isn't showing it they are most likely suicidal when depressed. The best thing to do is see a psychiatrist for a mood stabilizer.

[Raynebow]

Thank you for your reply but his psychiatrist has prescribed Effexor which is not a mood stabiliser but an anti depressant. The result is that it is not working as far as the episodes go. The only result he has achieved from taking effexor is that he does not wake up depressed in the morning.
My idea is to adjust the AD meds so that they can work along side a mood stabilising natural remedy rather than have him taking even more meds that will increase the already high toxin levels in his body (on top of whatever his body is overproducing to trigger off the episodes in the first place).
Really what I was after with my post is for someone to tell me what chemicals get overproduced in BP people to trigger an episode. I do not want to have to push my partner every time he has one so he burns it up quicker, the other choice is to let him go on for a week or more which is draining on me also.

Regards
Raynebow

[MotheringMe]

Is he on mood stabilizers? It is highly unusual (and often counter-effective) to just be on anti-depressants. I agree with PP regarding natural remedies. The suicide risk is too high to play with that (although I understand why you are interested in it). How does he feel about this?

[BellinghamCrunchie]

I don't have any answers to your original question but just wanted to say that in my experience with many people with bipolar disorder Effexor is a really bad choice. It is activating (rather than sedating) and seems to contribute to manic episodes. It is not a mood stabilizer and will make bipolar symptoms worse.

It also doesn't seem to work in figuring out how to treat most psychiatric disorders by reducing it to there is too much of this or there is not enough of that. Current psychiatric thinking is that its much more complex than that. Some parts of the brain might have too little serotonin while another part has too much, for example, and simply adding more, or blocking reuptake to increase the amount available might work, might not, or might make things worse. Even among medications that do the same exact thing (such as block serotonin reuptake) some work for the person, some don't, and some make things worse. Psychiatrists don't usually prescribe along the lines of, "Oh, he needs more norephinephrine; let's add some;" they think more along the lines of, "oh this person's symptoms remind me of some others that were successfully treated with Depakote. So we'll try that first. If that doesn't work, we'll try lithium. If that doesn't work, we'll try Tegretol." And so on. It seems more a matter of trial and error than anything else. They don't really understand the exact mechanism that is taking place (in spite of what the PDR states) - no one does.

[Shantimama]

A psychiatric nurse told me recently that anti-depressants alone for someone who is bipolar can make things much worse, not better. My mom, who is BP, was taking just Effexor at the time and things wre really, really hard until we got the meds sorted out.

[Raynebow]

So from what I can gather effexor is somewhat of a trigger then??? He is keen to try and find a natural remedy to his mood problems and considering they only have him on effexor I thought that changing his AD meds to something that is compatable with those remedies would help (keeping in mind that he is not on mood stabilisers now).
I did realise that the balances were either too low with some episodes and too high with others. At the moment I am charting his moods to work out exactly what is happening and when. I had kept in mind that I would be having to constantly monitor his moods to know what remedy to give to him for what type of episode he was having at the time. Seratonin was mentioned (I think this is when he starts to get depressed) and I believe he produces too much adrenalin whilst having some episodes as well (I think that is when he gets uncontrollably angry).
I am doing my best to understand what is happening to him, however I don't believe that the Doctor's understand enough themselves to help. If it's trial and error with meds, then trial and error with remedies should eventually find a happy medium (keeping in mind that he is not on stabilisers now).
I also found out that the glands that produce most of the chemicals that send the brain messages are in and around the stomach so that must be the area to concentrate on b4 the chemicals reach the brain.

Regards
Raynebow