Getting Started - Diet Changes

People do recover from illnesses affecting cognition and mood which get labelled bipolar, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. Many people have had great success with "micronutrient supplementation" such as TrueHope's supplement EMPowerPlus or Hardy Nutritionals' Daily Essential Nutrients (DEN) alone, but many others have found that more was needed.

Oft times, the "more" includes addressing gut issues, systemic yeast, genetic issues around methylation or vitamin D utilization, hormonal issues, inflammation, allergies, dealing with sleep issues, dealing emotionally with stress and past traumas, changing the diet and personal environment, and more. (See book for more on these topics.)

In our own family's case, without EMPowerPlus/DEN, my kids' cognition would not have been adequate to even be able to take the next steps necessary on their journey to wellness. But let's talk about that major step - dietary changes. Everyone is different.

Recovered - No Longer on Psychiatric Medications

In No Longer Bipolar / No longer Schizophrenic - Recovered, In Remission, or Misdiagnosed ??? we discussed  how to wrap our minds around the fact that many individuals, with alternative, complementary, functional, and/or biomedical  therapies no longer have severe, persistent, and supposedly life-long symptoms of Bipolar, Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective, Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety--and they are NOT on psychiatric medications.

"Recovered" is not a part of the usual paradigm of those involved in severe mental illness. Only "in recovery" is.

So what exactly IS "recovered"? And what is a real-life example of this?

No Longer Bipolar / No longer Schizophrenic - Recovered, In Remission, or Misdiagnosed ???

Do people who have recovered from these “lifelong” illnesses of schizophrenia, schizoaffective and bipolar disorder still have these illnesses? Are they now in “remission” while no longer being symptomatic (albeit possibly with effective non-psychiatric biomedical care appropriate to their specific cause of symptoms?) Or, did they have misdiagnoses to begin with?  (Read here for real life stories of remission/recovery from schizoaffective and bipolar -- no longer needing psychiatric medications.)

When Hearing Things Is Not Schizophrenia

I received an E-mail (below) from a mother, Arna Mathiesen in Norway, who went that extra mile for her son who was hearing things, withdrawn, panicky, and dizzy for no apparent reason.  She sent me a link to an article about him.

“When he was still in a room, he would be staring and not answering.” He was having panic attacks. The doctors initially could not find anything wrong with him and repeatedly suggested that his issues were mental.

Hmmm…. Sound familiar?  A lot like (see It's Not Mental) what happened to my younger daughter?

Let’s see, hearing things that no one else hears…Staring out into nothingness. Disengaged from life around him...Claiming symptoms the doctors couldn't believe in because they saw no medical cause.  Schizophrenia perhaps? Severe Depression with psychosis? Bipolar Disorder? Schizoaffective?

Is It ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)?

It may start out with a teacher suggesting your child be tested for ADHD or that he/she may benefit from stimulant medication. You become anxious and concerned.... or recognize that the teacher is affirming something you already suspected.

Before you rush your child to a psychiatrist with a list of symptoms, take a deep breath, and think this through.

Abnormal Sleep as a Cause of Mental Symptoms

Sleep disorders can be a CAUSE of the brain symptoms being diagnosed as "mental illness."

That seems so logical, except that for years doctors insisted that our children's sleep problems are being caused by the "mental illness." This is true even when we tell them... THE SLEEP ISSUES CAME FIRST.  (See book)

Managing Symptoms Vs Treating Illness

Ever hear doctors claim labels for severe mental illnesses--like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc.-- are "wastebasket diagnoses"? Have you ever stopped to think why some say this and what that means about our treatment of patients with these diagnoses?

Listening to some Continuing Medical Education (CME) about mental illness can be quite thought-provoking… revealing the huge gap between research and practice, and between medical and “mental.”

In this psychiatric medical discussion about schizoaffective versus schizophrenia[1] they boldly used the term "wastebasket diagnosis" for the DSM diagnosis of schizoaffective when talking about its diagnosis and treatment. But let's take this conclusion about this one diagnosis (and treatment) a step further.

The Stress Connection: Meeting Hormonal, Nutritional, and Metabolic Needs

Many chronic illnesses are affected by stress (see Stress, Immune Response, and Illness). There have been many links between psychiatric symptoms, stress, mitochondrial function, and the endocrine system. A common thread connecting them all is nutrition.

The United States' government organization, NIMH, is currently running studies using nutritional substances to augment treatment of some neurobiological brain disorders such as autism, bipolar and schizophrenia.

Stress, Immune Response, and Illness

We often hear about the dangers of stress in our lives. We hear about stress contributing to a host of illnesses and also exacerbating existing illnesses.

But what exactly is “stress”?

Specific Genes Inherited from Both Parents May Lead to Type of "Schizophrenia"

Some families have noticed a form of schizophrenia that runs in their particular family which seems to "skip" a generation. What that indicates is that there may be recessive genes involved in one parent's "schizophrenia". (That's what happened in my own family, but at least in the younger generation, we were able to beat that "genetic curse").

Viral Infections and Schizophrenia

Even as far back as 100 years ago, scientists perceived a connection between viral infections and "non-affective" psychosis. One of the leading schizophrenia researchers of the time, Kraepelin, proposed that such an infection may be a cause of "dementia praecox" (now called "schizophrenia"). An epidemic of "schizophrenic-syndrome" occurred following the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic.

Autism Is Not a “Mental Illness”

Remember that the term "mental illness" is not a diagnosis.

It is jargon -- a term society uses to refer to some, usually severe and persistent biologically-based, disorders of the brain such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder which are in the psychiatric manual of symptoms and labels for sets of symptoms arising from some malfunction of the brain, regardless of cause. This psychiatric manual is called the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). In the DSM, there are hundreds of labels for sets of symptoms we do not consider "mental illness" including symptoms arising from traumatic brain injury, hyperthyroidism, vitamin deficiency, enteritis (intestinal inflammation), and more.  Some people include psychopathology under the umbrella term "mental" illness.  Some think of personality disorders and emotional issues as "mental illness" but others do not. So it is a social term.

The parents of children with autism worked very hard to change public and medical perception of the diagnosis of "autism." It is listed in the DSM-IV, but that does not make it a “mental illness,” at least not in the socially used jargon. It is considered a developmental disorder, but then, some doctors advocate that is what "schizophrenia" is as well.[1]

Some dictionaries may define autism, and anything else in the DSM, as "mental illness" (here), which would include head trauma, mitochondrial disease, Parkinson's, mental retardation, brain effects from Celiac, etc., but enlightened society generally does not refer to these as "mental" illnesses anymore, knowing they are medical issues.  

Mitochondrial Dysfunction & Psychiatric Symptoms

Nerves and muscles require a lot of energy and are quite vulnerable to disruptions in their metabolic needs.

Most people who have heard about genetic defects causing mitochondrial dysfunction are probably most familiar with MELAS.

What IS a “Psychotic Disorder", Anyway?

Following up on the question Is Schizophrenia a “Psychotic Disorder”, if neurodevelopmental, genetic and medical problems resulting in psychosis are not "psychotic disorders"... then what really IS a "psychotic disorder?"

Is It still called "Schizophrenia" After the Medical Cause is Found?

In research literature, when scientists find a specific cause for a person's or family's "schizophrenia," the illness is still referred to as "schizophrenia" rather than by a new diagnosis. But here is a better question--Should it still be called "Schizophrenia"? (See:  No Longer Bipolar / No longer Schizophrenic - Recovered, In Remission, or Misdiagnosed ???)

What other MEDICAL Causes get called “Schizophrenia”?

This continues our discussion of the topics "Some Known Medical Causes of 'Mental' Symptoms" and "What are some genetic causes of psychosis?" It goes beyond the urinary tract infections (UTIs), tumors, auto-immune disorders, heart problems, etc. that get so easily diagnosed as "mental illnesses" ranging from depression and anxiety to bipolar and schizophrenia.

As modern research techniques start revealing the medical causes behind some categories of illnesses we have been calling “schizophrenia”, we would expect these now known causes to be removed from the label “schizophrenia.”  After all, the DSM IV specifically EXCLUDES cases from that diagnosis which are caused by a “general medical condition”.

But that is not the case.

Here are some more medical causes of symptoms still diagnosed as “schizophrenia” in addition to chromosomal deletion, 22q11 (velocardiofacial syndrome)[1] and X-chromosome gene polymorphism--HOPA12pb[2] which have already been discussed.