Bipolar 101: The Latest Research, Causes, and More
- Recent identification of several key genes
- Circadian clocks: some bipolar brains drift toward a weaker 24-hour rhythm
- Brian fuels
- Reward sensitivity
- The gut microbiome and inflammation
Getting the Right Diagnosis: Beyond the DSM™, Mixed States, and Diagnostic Overlap
- Mania, hypomania, and subtle hypomania
- Are we pathologizing “normal” variations in experience?
- How fast is rapid cycling? Where is the boundary with “borderlinity”?
- Bipolar mixed state – or PTSD with depression? Anxiety with depression? ADHD?
- Mixed mania is straightforward: irritable, agitated, dysphoric
- Mixed depression: unipolar yet bipolar? How does that make sense?
- The most common mixed state symptoms
- Diagnostic overlap
- Compare treatment options when there is no clear path
Treatment Fundamentals
- Stop the cycling
- Start with non-medication approaches
- Destabilizers to target
- Street stimulants
- Irregular sleep patterns
- Stabilizers to offer clients
- Circadian tools: controlling light and darkness
- Behavioral approaches to sleep
- Light boxes: under your bipolar-specific guidance
- Dark therapy
- Bipolar-tracking app’s and how to use them
Using the Top Bipolar Psychotherapies
- Psychoeducation
- Bipolar-specific CBT
- Social Rhythm therapy (SRT)
- Family-Focused Therapy (FFT)
- Bipolar adaptations of DBT, EMDR, ACT, Mindfulness
- Research, risks and limitations
How Medications and Therapists Fit Together
- Why basic understanding of psychiatric medications is important
- Mood stabilizers with antidepressant effects
- Anti-manics that aren’t antipsychotics
- Antipsychotics
- Lithium


