Bipolar Rule: You can’t outthink bipolar disorder.

Please note: This is a sneak peek of Bipolar Rules — that means it’s just a draft. This is not the final version.

I thought for a very long time that I could outthink bipolar disorder. I thought, if bipolar disorder was in my mind, then my mind could defeat it. I figured that if I just read the right book, learned the right coping skill, or understood the right philosophy, I could outthink the bipolar disorder. I assumed I was “smarter” than any mere illness.

This is not an uncommon idea. It makes sense people would think this. There’s so much pop psychology that tells you that you can simply “turn that frown upside down.” There are so many lifestyle “cures” for mental illness (especially depression) out there. There are so many loved ones who tell us all we need to do is “pull up our socks,” and everything will get better.

And it doesn’t help that some people claim they have done just that. It’s not helpful that there are people out there who claim to have “cured” their own mental illness just by using a certain philosophy, religion, or thought process. It’s extremely unfortunate that there are people out there who capitalize on the very real desire to do so and tell you that they can teach you how to do it, too – for a “very reasonable” price, of course.

Not to mention the fact that mental illness causes severe pain, and people are looking for any way to ease that pain. The idea that a New Age guru can do it with kale and positive thinking sounds very seductive compared to a life on psychotropic medications. It’s understandable that people are wedded to the idea that they can outthink bipolar disorder because they want it so badly, and people around them affirm it’s possible.

I also tend to think that this is another example of bipolar disorder lying to us. It tells us that all we need is our own minds on purpose. Bipolar disorder is like a self-propagating organism – it wants to survive, thrive, and even multiply. If you only ever use your mind to fight bipolar disorder, it will, indeed, propagate.

All of this is part of the reason people refuse medications or go off their medications – whether they express it in those words or not. People think – mistakenly – that bipolar disorder is all in their head, and so their head can fix it.

But there’s a major error in this thinking that people, my previous self included, fail to recognize – yes, bipolar disorder is in your head, but the part of your head it’s in is your brain. It’s living in the neurons that make up an organ that keeps you alive. You cannot think your brain into healthy thought any more than you can think your pancreas into healthy insulin production. The psychology that we can influence plays a part in bipolar disorder; it’s critical, in fact, but I’ve found the biological aspects of bipolar disorder must be dealt with first before psychology even has a chance.

The thing that everything from bad psychology to a New Age charlatan isn’t telling you is that bipolar disorder is (partly, and importantly) biological in nature. The brains of people with bipolar disorder simply aren’t the same as the average person’s brain.^1,2 Asking a sick brain to fix its own sickness isn’t logical. It’s like using a broken-down car to drive to a mechanic or asking a surgeon with broken hands to operate (and on himself, at that). Outthinking bipolar disorder only makes sense when you don’t understand the neurological nature of the illness. Unfortunately, this idea can also tenaciously take root in a sick brain. (Remember that anosognosia [a clinical lack of insight] – common in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia – keeps people from even recognizing they are sick.)

In the end, it turns out to be quite simple – until you start to address the biological issues behind bipolar disorder, you can’t hope to deal with it effectively psychologically. Yes, this almost always means taking medication. If you’re in an acute bipolar disorder episode, there are few other options, and you need to understand and internalize that.

But take heart: while you can’t outthink bipolar disorder, you can think against bipolar disorder, think around bipolar disorder, and think under bipolar disorder once your biology is addressed. That means things like therapy are, indeed, very important. Learning about different coping skills that incorporate how you think and act really do matter.

If you’ve had the idea that you should be able to outthink bipolar disorder, just know that you aren’t the only one. I know the pressure I put on myself to make that work, and I know how much I beat myself up for not being able to do it. If you’re in that state right now, I get it. But please stop beating yourself up for not being able to do the impossible. I’m relieving you of that burden right now. I’m telling you, you need to work with your biology with the help of your psychology. Your brain needs help on a biological level, just like any other sick organ would.

So, while you can’t outthink bipolar disorder, you can fight it, and you can even, from time to time, win.

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Sources

1. Technology Networks. (2017, May 2). MRI study of bipolar sufferers reveals structural differences. Neuroscience From Technology Networks. https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/mri-study-of-bipolar-sufferers-reveals-structural-differences-288248
2. University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. (2017, January 24). Area of brain linked to bipolar disorder pinpointed. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170124144000.htm