My story and personal treatment plan for treating my bipolar and anxiety disorders

I have created a personal treatment plan to manage my disorders without medication.

My personal diagnosis is bipolar type 2 with psychotic features, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and a few other anxiety disorders that have been classified together as generalized anxiety.

As I have said before,(you must be tired of reading this disclaimer by now....Sorry about that.) please keep in mind as you read this website, that I am not a medical professional of any kind.

I have designed this website to share my personal experience and treatment plan with you.

I am not endorsing the use of medications because they have not worked for me or anyone else I know, and they caused me to suffer with side effects that in my opinion, made matters much worse. But I DO NOT recommend quitting any medication you are currently taking either for bipolar or anxiety disorders without speaking to a Dr.

I was personally able to handle going off of my medications, while taking a sedative on an as needed basis. I do NOT recommend that anyone else should do that because the sedative I was prescribed, (Ativan) is highly addictive, and was very difficult for me to wean myself off of.

Quitting my meds “cold turkey” before I tried that method caused me to have acute panic attacks that I was hospitalized several times for.

Asking a Dr. to wean you off of your medication may be difficult, especially for people who suffer from bipolar disorder; because many doctors believe that not medicating a patient will leave them susceptible to a progression of the disorder.

If you choose to go off of your medication, you will most likely have to really work hard to convince your doctor to help you.

Do not give up.

Change doctors repeatedly if you have to. Chances are you will eventually find one that will work out a plan that suits YOUR needs. Keep a journal of your progress while managing your disorders, and bring it to your appointments. That may help them to realize you are serious.

I had to tell them point blank that I would discontinue my medication as soon as I was released from the mental hospital,before they would compromise with me.

I only recommend doing that if you have family that will back you up. If I had not had someone that was willing to do that, they could have kept me long term against my will. But I was fortunate enough to have a husband that agreed with me about the effects that the medications had on me.

To my knowledge, unless you have been hospitalized it is completely up to you whether or not you wish to begin medication therapy.

Really, the whole point of this website is to help people try to manage their disorders BEFORE they try using medications.

The information on this site will also help if it is used in addition to medications if you are already taking them, or choose to do so.

The links below go deeper into my personal story.