Every student learns the definition of what is termed, “Bipolar Disorder,” as the next disorder after depression and manic moods in a typical curriculum course. It seems logical that one mood disorder would simply relate to another mutant disorder with similar behaviors, similar to the way we classify animals. If you go through a traditional clinical psychology program, it is usually conventional wisdom that there has been no consistent research showing that psychotherapy is particularly beneficial for bipolar due to the extreme irrational emotions and there is a significant risk of suicide. The novice is recommended to leave these people to the drug jockeys and Lithium.
But we are in a new science now with mental health where we don’t have to rely on some theory about how brain chemistry supposed to work. We don’t even have much of a theory anyway about why bipolar disorder exists anyway, but new evidence with brain scans have shown us that we have been far from the mark of similarity to any known mental diagnosis, even the traditional definition of common depression.
The findings with SPECT scans show a significant signature for bipolar disorders. The SPECT Scan (Single Photon Emission Computered Tomography) is a type of nuclear imaging test that can show how blood flows through arteries and veins in the brain, as well as where blockages or reduced blood flow is occurring. This is particularly helpful because we know that highly active regions usually produce more blood flow and less active areas receive less blood flow.
What you will see for someone who has bipolar problems will probably not be regions of the brain that are stressed or have excessively low levels of activity, which is true for depression and anxiety. Rather the signature shows major inflammatory activity throughout the brain, especially around the temporal and frontal lobes. These are where we have so much emotional and executive functioning.
A team led by Hemmo Drexhage, a clinical immunologist at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, found extraordinarily high levels of monocytes in people with bipolar disorder (published in Archives of general Psychiatry). He learned that people with bipolar disorder have a three times greater than chance of developing autoimmune thyroid disorder. Interestingly children of bipolar patients also bore the disorder’s signature of gene structures.
What does this mean?
Instead of talking psychodynamics and ego structures, we are talking basic immunity factors within the brain, which should be addressed with immunity measures. Interestingly, Lithium has been the mainstay for treating bipolar and is actually a main trace element required for physical functioning serving as an immunity element in our bodies.
The interpretation for mental states is based on assumptions about how an inflamed brain acts, but it appears to me that if your brain is over-heated from toxicity you would be over-reactive in many of your emotions. The bipolar stress pattern suggests the deepest onset of stress I could imagine with the temporal lobes (which are responsive to emotional stability). The brain appears inflamed with excitement in multiple directions. Depressive events may shift to the outer limit of pain. And frankly, any emotional situation could trigger a perilous challenge. Even jubilation could be turned into a frenzied state and manic states, which could explain the pull towards risky behaviors.
If this pattern is correlated to bipolar disorder or an isolated psychopathic syndrome, it stands to reason from a neurological viewpoint, how a person could be in a constant storm all the time – whereby any emotion, whether positive or negative, would burgeon beyond control. This isn’t a high or low syndrome where you have a breather or some form of restoration between the extremes. Rather, this is state of constant alarm that causes fatigue and exhaustion.
It is my belief that the pattern of the bipolar brain storm is consistent with the behaviors of all extreme emotions. If we approach the problems that exist with inflammatory brain functions, and the brain pattern changes for the better, it seems reasonable that the stress of the brain storm would cease and allow the person to make rational choices in his or her best interest.
What else can you do?
If the question was what to do if you had an inflamed elbow or pancreas, you wouldn’t try and treat them with anti-depressives and mood stabilizers. The more direct approach might be to use anti-inflamatory medications, like aspirin, and try to calm down the raging immunity battle. I might even use cold packs to relieve the high fever that might be present deep.
Acupuncture, homeopathic remedies and supplements known to quieten the inflammatory processes would be my consideration. Supplements, such as Vitamin C and B-6 (P-5-P is a form of B-6 that passes the brain barrier) may be instrumental in reducing inflammation. Natural detoxification methods would be an obvious approach that could eliminate some agents that knowlingly cause inflammation, such as saunas or lemon-water. Environmental change might be important for heavy metal exposure, pesticides and many foods that people have an allergic response.
I would try to use any type of relaxation strategy, such as deep sleep, comforting music and de-stressing methods to take the stress off the brain. Psychological methods for training different brain responses also can alleviate high responses to substances and at least slow down inflammation process, such as:
Imagery
One of the best researched methods of connecting with the immune system is through assigning new meaningfulness to those matters that trigger immune responses. Creating a relaxed response to a substance with allergic-type responses has been a feat of hypnosis in which specific images are introduced counter to anxiety-laden responses. The same underlying concept is consistent with desensitization techniques. By changing the automatic immune responses as if to threat, the body accepts the substances or environments as neutral.
Chanting or rhythmic repetitions
You may have seen people chanting in religious settings and wondered what they were doing. I cannot speak to their personal intentions, but they were using one of the most ancient of techniques to change their brain to follow a central pattern. The process of repeating a single phrase in one’s mind does shift a person into a more relaxed state. This form of chanting for brain training has been studied in a multitude of settings and has been consistently associated with achieving a sense of peace and tranquility.
Entrainment by Listening to Relaxation CDs
Similar to the chanting shifts, listening to CD relaxation instructions (such as those from Mindbodyseries.com), can develop shifts while listening, but also have the added benefit of becoming associated with the instructions automatically. I suggest listening to a CD that has been subjectively effective at least 150 times, creating a brain network of its own.
You might imagine how the brain starts to formulate the instructions for relaxation repeatedly – with the words becoming memorized and integrated as the neurons begin to make new connections and positive association to the words. You’ll likely find that you begin to become particularly relaxed when listening to certain sections of the music, so you can even just listen to that portion, if that works for you. As the networks get broader and habit-strength gets built, your brain may eventually starts the relaxation process simply by your touching the start button on your CD player. Pretty soon, all you have to do is imagine touching the machine and the relaxing process will become engaged. Once you have gone through these steps to the point where your brain thoroughly integrates this association (neurons that fire together, wire together), you will have learned how to relax your brain thorough association – which is the easiest method I know.
