Therapy for a severe bipolar I person?

Question

I've gone to seven general therapists and they all either told me they couldn't help me or jsut simply let me talk the whole time and noted how insightful I am. This is insulting. What is some good therapy for a bipolar I person who already has dealt with daddy issues and just wants to learn how to deal with the illness? Cognitive behavioral therapy?

Answer 1

I'd say cognitive behavioral is best, although that's what most therapists are doing. Therapy will not help the condition - only meds will. What therapy for bipolar folks does, is provide support for the fallout of the illness. Like you deal with disability issues, how are you ever going to apologize to your friends again after you went off the deep end again? Etc. etc. Therapy can also help you identify triggers for stress that may set off the bipolar cycle. If you're bipolar, you have to let stress slide off of you, better than other people, because you can go unstable so easily.

I've done therapy till I'm blue in the face - many years with many counselors. That was all that I had because none of the pills worked, and the counseling didn't do much for me at all. Then, after 15 years of agony, I tried lamictal, and that has helped quite a bit! I think the reason people think that therapy should work for bipolar is that the emotional problems are the most bothersome symptoms of the illness, but bipolar is a lot more than emotional problems. There are massive portions of your brain shutting down because the chemicals are messed up or aren't being seen in your brain or whatever. So you get thinking and sleeping and aggression problems too, which are seperate from the happy/sad stuff.

If that's not your issue, if you are taking pills and you just want therapy support for your condition, then maybe you need a phd person, or you should ask your psychiatrist who is good for that.

PS someone on here mentioned nutrition - that didn't work for me. I live on a hobby farm and I cook all my food from scratch, pretty much. I grow most of my veggies/fruit, shoot my own deer, catch my own fish - and my bipolar isn't any better for all that. So maybe for some people, they are having a weird reaction to food additives, but I have to tell you, there were bipolar people back in Plato's time. Never hurts to try stuff, tho.
Good luck!

Answer 2

I would do some research in to food colorings, food additives and nutrition. My EX is Bi-polar and has had a lot of success with just altering what she eats. It may should strange but we discovered that foods with food dyes like Red 40 and yellow 5 found most often in pop and junk food would almost always make her go in to one of her freak outs. There’s a lot of study’s out there that are starting to link certain mental disorders with diet. She also started taking some good nutritional supplements and that’s when thing’s really turned around for her. Now for the most part she’s almost Normal and the best part is “NO DRUGS”! She still has good days and bad days but nothing like she use to. So check it out and keep an open mind. You’ve got nothing to lose and mabey something to gain. Good luck.

Answer 3

CBT is a good way to go, although they rarely prescribe medication.
If you use this as a supplemental therapy along side your meds, it could help.
They typically focus on your current behavior and how you react to the behavior of others. They may have you track your behavior, feelings, and cycles of mania and depression. This way, you gain more control and are more aware.

Answer 4

Psychotherapy for severe Bipolar 1 hasn't shown very high success rates without some form of pharmacotherapy. I assume you have some medication for it? If not, you may need that first. Mood and psychotic disorders are often that way. If you are on medications to control the mania and/or depressive symptoms (and they're working to some extent), CBT can be very useful.

Answer 5

im the same way but mine is much worse u got it good i have thoughts about suicide n i hit n cut myself to make myself feel better but i havent tried to even get help yet not suggesting that u do what i do just try to talk to someone thats the first step

Answer 6

Bebe, bi-polar is a bs diagnosis so that the psychs can collect insurance money off of you. go to www.cchr.org and they will show you videos of this as proof.