Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 4/29/2008

Question
Hi,
My name is Liz and I am a 29 year old married mother of a 5 month old baby girl.
My mother was diagnosed bipolar several years ago.  Looking back on my childhood with her, i can now see that what i thought was my mother being weird or over the top was most likely her being manic.  
 So the doctors say bipolar.  It was definatly reassuring to put a name with the face, but now i think it is more than Bipolar.  The episodes used to only come about once a year.  She takes herself off of her medications,(all of them, even non related meds like her thyroid.)and she stops eating and drinking because GOD tells her to.  Colors also guide her in decision making.  When i was trying to plan my wedding, she couldn't come help me pick out flowers because on her way to the shop, she saw a black car and to her that meant that GOD didn't want her to go to the flower shop. So although she was only 1 minute from being there, she turned around and drove 20 minutes all the way back to her house to pray.
 That was 4 years ago, these types of situations still happen when she is having an "episode", but now she scratches at her head to the point that she has an open sore and a bald spot. She is also very adamant about the fact that GOD talks to her.  Just today, she made a grocery list, and planned several errands that she was going to run while she was in town, but she only made it about a mile before she was told by GOD to turn around.  
 What confuses me now is that she is on all her medications, i know this because i make her take them in front of me everyday.  She has even changed to a new med because her doctor thinks that her body has gotten used to the other one.  Does it take time to get into her system, or is there a chance that she may be dealing with schizophrenia?

Answer
Daer Liz,

THis is indeed a worry for you and yes I agree that this could be signs of schizophrenia, i she hear voices. This should definitely be checked by a psychiatrist. IAs a nutritional psycholgists Im know that many patients with psychotic disorders tend to stay off drugs because of their side effects. These side effects can be reduced by nutritional means. Because anti-psychotic drugs often interfere with the absorption of essential nutrients. Please get hold of

Werbach,M.R.(1991), NUTRITIONAL INFLUENCES ON MENTAL ILLNESS, A Sourcebook of Clinical Research, Third Line Pres, Inc.Tarzana. Cal.
Reviewed at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961855010/qid=1137899472/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103...

Also read:

Nutritional Aspects of Schizophrenia at:
http://curezone.com/upload/Newsletter/Hypoglycemic_He/HYPONL2001_06.pdf
and go to page 7 of Newsletter.

I suggest that you ask the psychiatrist to refer your mother to a Nutritional Doctor or a Clinical Nutritionsist in addition  to psychiatric services.

I hope I have been of some help.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman BA (Psych) Post Grad Dip Clin Nutr
Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search
Skype: jurplesman