Bipolar Love

Dave and Dianne live in the northwest corner of Montana, cuddled up under the Canadian border near the Rooseville Crossing. Have you been there? It's a fabulous area to enjoy as empty nesters and it's a wonderful thing when bipolar people get to be empty-nesters! When the children are growing up, there's a lot of tension in the home between parents, so we're very glad to develop our Bipolar Love Story aside from the children. We love to visit, we love to go on adventures with our family, but we enjoy the warmth and comfort and the cameraderie of being at home together.

Dave is sixty years old and he still works in the woods with his own two hands and also with heavy equipment. In our experience, bipolar people like Dave are often quite strong physically. His brain is also quite a piece of strong work, so all in all, we admire the potential of the bipolar brain and the mindset. Certain things, like the emotional mood swings just have to be controlled and managed and modified...that's all.

We take charge of our lives and modify the mood swings by manipulating our diet. You might be surprised to know this...

"I definitely approve of what Dianne writes in our Bipolar Love Story. I can remember clearly the steady pulsating pains and the stabbing knife pains from my organs malfunctioning and my brain feeling strange. The lethargy and brain fog was so bad, I often missed two or three weeks of work at a time. I wanted to sleep, but couldn't except when narcolepsy overtook me... My manic highs were always followed by weeks of deep depression.

Sports, one of the loves of my life, were out. When I danced, it was in great pain, which got much worse for two or three days afterwards. That was bearable for a while but then I'd fall into a long, terrible period of recovery. Life was up and then down, over and over again...

After Dianne and I were married, the physical and mental ailments became less and less until they became virtually non-existent. By the end of the first year, we could note very specific improvements. The only times I have trouble now are when I break her program and go on a short binge of sweets, white flour, caffeine and dairy (ice cream or cheese are the worst); or when I work or play too hard.

Our book, Bipolar Love Story tells how we learned to relate to one another and how Dianne helped me overcome the ups and downs associated with Bipolar Disorder."

After One Year

• mood swings less wide
• more stable mindset
• hormones better balanced
• less traffic in his brain
• healing of pre-diabetic symptoms
  
• less indigestion and bowel troubles
  
• better sleep (at first he could only sleep 2 hours at a time...in the wee hours of the morning)
  
• better concentration
• able to read and understand books (couldn't even read the comics before)
  
• less negative in his speech about himself

After 5 years

• no spending sprees whatever
• no more panic attacks, because he's able to control his thoughts
• rapid cycling moods a thing of the past (we first attributed this to a special antioxidant drink that brought him up and out of a downward mood spiral in just 15 minutes)
• concentrates very well, his attention span is fine
  
• reads one book right after the other (had read only ONE book in his whole life before learning the treatment plan)
• does not have trouble with a crowded mind (he used to have 15 different trains of thought whistling through at the same time)
• knows how to use self-talk to avoid depression or mania
• favorite mantra: "this too shall pass"
• can control feelings of rage
• is not filled with anxiety like he used to be
• can carry on a normal conversation without getting the flow disjointed
• can look people in the eye (used to be too agitated)
  
• can recognize danger symptoms in his brain
• can recognize when he's hurt his kidneys or liver, can recognize the specific pains
• can cope with pressure
• can cope with sudden frustration much better than ever before
• has not used antidepressant drugs or mood stabilizers for at least a decade
• fewer episodes of agitation or worry
• doesn't take offense to other people so easily (less of a chip on his shoulder)
• hasn't been hospitalized for being out of control well over five years
• insomnia is basically gone unless he binges too much on sugar and high carbs
• his psychotherapist says he's the only one of her patients ever to defeat bipolar disorder without using the bipolar drugs of choice
  
• he believes manic depression can be managed with alternative remedies like therapeutic quality essential oils (because he's experienced it)
• trusts himself better, thinks more highly of himself
• stereotypes of out-of-control bipolar patients no longer fit Dave!
  
• more stable in every way
• follows his treatment plan of his own volition