The Upside of Bipolar: Conversations on the Road to Wellness

Send us a message! I talk with Brandy Vega, founder of Promise2Live, about turning a family suicide crisis into a practical, global approach to hope and connection. We share specific ways to interrupt suicidal thoughts, find help fast, and build a safety net that holds even when life still feels hard.  • Brandy’s story of her daughter’s suicide attempts and the shame that kept the first one hidden...

Send us a message! I sit down with marijuana harm advocate Aubrey Adams to trace how modern high-potency THC products can fuel psychosis, suicide risk, and life-altering psychiatric symptoms for users and their families. We also talk about what helps people stabilize, set boundaries, find support, and rebuild hope after cannabis-related harm.  • Aubrey’s story from Pueblo, Colorado and what mariju...

Send us a message! I unpack what a bipolar recovery coach is and why a diagnosis can describe symptoms without explaining what causes them. I share my path from trusting the chemical imbalance story, through worsening outcomes and hospitalizations, to learning how to identify and treat the real sources behind my mood symptoms.  • My early mood swings, the search for answers, and why the diagnosis...

Send us a message! We talk with Lisa Sitze (#1 international bestselling author) about growing up with a mother later diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and how gaslighting teaches a child to distrust their own mind. We break down what actually helps you heal: naming the pattern, setting real boundaries, and choosing responsibility without slipping into shame or victimhood.  •...

Send us a message! A bipolar diagnosis can feel like an explanation, but we argue it often labels symptoms without identifying a root cause. We challenge the chemical imbalance narrative, question medication-first assumptions, and point toward curiosity-driven healing based on underlying sources of distress.  • bipolar as a symptom cluster rather than an etiology  • how the DSM is built and why th...

Send us a message! We talk with trauma therapist Janey Nelson about why symptoms are not proof you’re broken and how healing can happen when we stop judging emotions and start getting curious about their roots. We dig into Accelerated Resolution Therapy and Critical Memory Integration as practical tools to reduce triggers, resolve trauma responses, and rebuild safety in the body and in relationshi...

Send us a message! I explore why real recovery from bipolar symptoms takes two kinds of work: treating the underlying causes and changing the coping patterns built to survive them. I share practical ways to rebuild emotional health so you can feel deeply, respond wisely, and create relationships with clearer boundaries. • pathologising human suffering and how labels can end curiosity • treating sy...

Send us a message! We talk with therapist Eddie Shin, LMFT about dissociation, trauma, and why a “cope forever” approach can leave people exhausted and stuck. We explore neurofeedback and Accelerated Resolution Therapy as practical tools that build safety in the brain so deeper healing can happen.  • Eddie’s path into marriage and family therapy through residential treatment work  • Why coping ski...

Send us a message! We trace Angie Peacock’s (MSW, CPC) journey from combat trauma and antibiotic injury to a maze of labels and polypharmacy, and how trusting her inner voice led her out of withdrawal and into advocacy. We unpack iatrogenic harm, challenge the illness lens, and offer grounded steps toward safe tapering and real recovery. • combat stress, gut injury, and hypervigilance as clear cau...

Send us a message! I explore the gap between bondage and freedom, and how agency survives even when diagnosis and treatment narrow your choices. Through poems, personal turning points, and practical tools, I map a path from helplessness to daily actions that restore control. • defining agency versus freedom with clear examples • reframing bipolar from victimhood to informed choice • choosing life,...

Send us a message! I trace the path from blind trust in a chemical imbalance story to a research-based, integrated approach for resolving bipolar symptoms. I share the books, experts, tools, and daily practices that rebuilt stability through nutrition, trauma therapy, and mindfulness. • conditioning to trust credentials over outcomes • harms from long-term medication, hospitalization and ECT • tur...

Send us a message! I challenge the idea that a bipolar label defines a life and show how reframing symptoms creates room for choice, tools, and repair. I share a practical survival guide, language shifts, and boundary skills that turn chaos into traction. • labels built on symptom clusters create helplessness • medication roulette, side effects, and why talk therapy often stalls • rage and dissoci...

Send us a message! We explore how yoga shifts healing from labels and behavior control to embodied awareness, and how grounding builds real emotional regulation for bipolar symptoms and trauma. Dr. Ghada Osman shares her three-prong model so listeners can ground first, then safely energize or calm. • mental health labels versus emotional health signals • witness consciousness and bottom-up healing...

Send us a message! I share a practical plan to turn New Year hope into steady recovery by choosing one habit, building agency, and treating sources of symptoms rather than endlessly managing them. I outline seven habits for healing, from mood tracking and nutrition to therapy, mindfulness, yoga, exercise, and mindful living. • healing as a long-term process built on one change  • shifting from vic...

Send us a message! I share how faith and action led from despair and repeated hospital stays to a practical path for recovery. The story moves from early experiences of God’s love to a step-by-step survival guide, therapy, micronutrients, and an open invitation to choose agency today. • the role of faith as a source of hope and direction • the moment a clear thought interrupted suicidal despair •...

Send us a message! I challenge the idea that a bipolar diagnosis explains your life and show how labels can block curiosity, fuel victimhood, and fuse to identity. I explore the layered tools that helped me heal: micronutrients, trauma work, mindfulness, and a Mood Cycle Survival Guide. • diagnosis as observation, not explanation • relief and fear at first diagnosis • victimhood mindset and its co...

Send us a message! In this engaging third conversation with David Stephan, we unpack why symptom spikes during micronutrient use often signal overmedication, not relapse, and how to time reductions for smoother tapers. We share stories, protocols, and tools that make withdrawal safer while building real, durable stability. • intake essentials and complete disclosure of meds and supplements • medic...

Send us a message! What if the brain isn’t broken—but under-supplied? This episode continues the conversation with David Stephan, VP of Truehope, as we dive into the specifics of how vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and omegas provided in bioavailable, balanced forms, help the brain recover. In this conversation we talk about: The difference between the function of drugs and micronutrients on the...

Send us a message! Join me as I speak with Truehope Vice President David Stephan as we trace how a family’s tragedy led to a nutrient-based approach for mental health, why absorption and balance matter more than labels, and how research and real lives converged. The science behind serotonin and dopamine pathways shows why broad-spectrum micronutrients can restore function where drugs often fall sh...

Send us a message! We challenge the reflex to medicate and the vacuum around de-prescribing by tracing Jen’s 25-year story with SSRIs, from teenage labels and muted emotions to neonatal withdrawal, metabolic fallout, and a hard-won hyperbolic taper. We share tools for safer tapering, building a support tribe, and reclaiming informed consent and agency. • prescribers trained to start meds, not de-p...

Send us a message! We challenge the “gold standard” of therapy plus meds and show how nutrition, sleep, and curiosity reveal root causes that the psychiatric labels miss. Dr. Teralyn Sell shares her journey from traditional psychotherapy to functional brain health, and why feeding the brain changes everything. • how siloed systems block simple solutions like omega‑3s • the cost of medication‑first...

Send us a message! Understanding the true source of bipolar symptoms requires becoming a detective in your own life rather than accepting diagnosis as the final answer. Approaching symptoms with curiosity instead of judgment allows us to identify what's really happening beneath the surface and find effective paths to healing. • Diagnoses are observations of symptom clusters, not explanations...

Send us a message! Michelle shares her transformative realization that bipolar disorder isn't a disease but a cluster of symptoms, and how this understanding freed her from decades of believing she had an incurable condition. • The bipolar diagnosis ends curiosity about why symptoms occur because people believe they've been given a complete answer • Being told bipolar disorder is lifelon...

Send us a message! Michelle shares why she took a hiatus from her podcast to fully experience planning her daughter's wedding and supporting her son through his senior year of high school. • Decided to pause her podcast, blog, and social media when life became overwhelming with a job change, moves, planning a wedding, and senior year activities. • Realized the purpose of healing from bipolar...

Send us a message! In her new book "Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth" Professor Joanna Moncrieff exposes how millions have been misled to believe they have brain chemical imbalances requiring drug treatments when no evidence supports this view. • Depression is a normal human emotional response to life difficulties, not a brain disease • The "drug-...