Having suffered from bipolar disorder since I have been 18 years old, I know a thing or two about the illness. Like most bipolars, I don’t much like the side effects of medication, and most of these medications are not fully tested, resulting in potentially dangerous long-term side effects .
I started my journey a few years ago because I wanted to understand to what extent environment affects bipolar disorder. This included looking at such factors as exercise, diet, and lifestyle. Understanding these factors was a very complicated process, because many mood swings developed gradually. For example, eating a certain food manufacturer mood several days later, without you attributing the correct food to the mood.
Without going through the whole process, I will simply describe the results that I found in my experience. Remember that none of these are cure alls and you will still have problems, but the symptoms of bipolar disorder and your mood swings will be greatly reduced as a result of following these steps. Unsurprisingly, these adjustments will benefit just about everyone. I have found that diet was by far the most important part of fixing bipolar disorder by a mile.
Bipolar diet
Diet was the most extensive part of helping to fix my bipolar disorder. I found that the biggest culprit in causing mood swings was corn syrup. It would not be an exaggeration to say that corn sugar is the cause of much of the sickness in American society, contributing to record rates of obesity. In bipolar disorder, high fructose corn syrup causes rapid cycling, resulting in manic highs and low depressions.
White flower and white sugar are also major culprits, and I found that both contributed to mania. Monosodium glutamate is also a manic trigger, and it is found in more products than you think, which include soups, meats, and snacks. It goes by many names, so can be hard to track down.
Artificial dyes and preservatives also had an impact on my moods but it was difficult to tell which ones where having the worst impact, as usually they are packaged together in various products, making it difficult to isolate individual ingredients.
I also found that besides cutting out processed foods, the way in which you eat foods, also has an impact on your mood. Going long periods without eating or eating predominantly carbs will cause you to go to manic highs, whereas if you have a slower metabolism and you eat excessively, you can suffer from depression.
My method of resolving this problem was to cut down on the variety of foods that I ate so that I could more accurately isolate which foods allowed me a stable blood sugar level throughout the day.
Typically this would involve eating a couple meals a day that consisted of a more complex carbohydrate coupled with a protein source. For example, potatoes and eggs, beans and chicken, or rice and beef.
Remember that most carbs are not slow release, so it helps to look up the hypoglycemic index.
By simply cutting out processed foods and carefully regulating the diet that I ate, I experienced a reduction in symptoms of about 90%, which is quite remarkable without any medication. I also don’t suffer from the numbing effect of medications, which is definitely a benefit.
I still have more highs and lows, but they are shorter in duration and are much less severe than they were a few years ago, and you should talk to your doctor about combining a proper diet as a potential treatment option for your bipolar disorder.
