A very good article. Importance of diet is just starting to be stressed with North American PDocs.....all of the pamphlets that you get at the Pdocs office usually say stuff about eating a good diet, but they don't really elaborate. I think a mix of low dose meds, along with homeopathy, vitamins, diet & especially exercise! is a good way to go, but that is only my opinion & experience.
I have to say that the part about BP2 being worse than BP1 is a grey area.....the suicide rate for BP1's is very high, the psychosis is very dangerous, suicide statistically higher than for BP2. [BP2's usually cut more, attempting] There are many papers that have been written about this subject, but what I think is that both types of Bipolar are equally debilitating and dangerous as far as suicide goes. In my opinion one is not worse than the other, they are equally bad! Bipolar is a severe mental condition,no matter what type you have.
Pills can only do so much, it is up to us to figure out ways to cope and live with this illness. Meds are just a band-aid, very useful, but not the total answer. Even Pdocs agree with that, as hard as that is to believe. That is why Talk Therapy and coping skills & exercise are things that Pdocs recommend for Bipolars to live normal lives. [Hey, it says it in one of the drug leaflets[geodon] that I got from the Pdoc, along with a shitload of samples [a whole month's supply! Maybe they are trying to tell me something?
I only take atypical antipsychotics when I have a real freakout, and only for a short time, which is described in the drug leaflet from the Big Pharma company]
