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I am a borderline bipolar/manic-depressive in a genetic line, with a parent, sibling and child profoundly affected.

Going off caffeine in any form, especially chocolate, has had a very helpful effect to stabilize me.

It took longer than just the few days it takes to initially titrate off caffeine.

It took about 4 months to realize the complete effect.

Other things on the list are:
* Exercise, regular
* Light, circadian rhythms
* Behavioral therapy
* Family support group

Distinguish between baseline, drug-free +/- mood movement (sine wave?), non-psychotic hypomania, and mania with psychotic features.

Study the effect of adolescent hormones on the young person, were there any signs of the condition’s latency in childhood, what parent markers were there, what was the adult prognosis?

My adult child has a hormonal condition, polycystic ovarian syndrome that profoundly affects her condition.

Overuse of caffeine at a challenging job she could have acclimated to, actually resulted in her losing a promising career, because she slipped out of normal borderline +/- moodswings, into actual hypomania, with fast talking, delusions of grandeur and, one other thing.

Heightened creativity, unique point of view, stream of consciousness, other perceptual-cognitive features of hypomania, are issues that the patient may actually like, favor, crave.

This was discovered when the inventor of Gatoraide, Dr. Robert Cade, developed schizophrenic therapeutic kidney dialysis, initially reported to have 40% treatment success.

Numbers of positively affected schizophrenics declined to continue the therapy. They liked being the way they were. Like deaf or blind people who have children, because they enjoy the company of other, similarly disabled people.

“The camel eats thorns because it likes the taste of its own blood.” - Arabic proverb

Look at the Mary Ellen Copeland: Wellness Recovery Action Plan, a kind of “living will” that’s useful all through life. One of the books targets Mania with Psychotic Features.

Continuation of my comments from above: My review of Negotiating the IEP Maze (Individualize Educational Placement, a school staff meeting for the SED/Severely Emotionally Disturbed student):

My review: 3 of 5 stars / 10 people found this helpful.

This book gives a neutral overview of the IEP process and supplies you with a minimum of information necessary to participate in meetings. But it may not supply sufficient information to equip a student’s advocates with the leverage to get mandated services. The IEP process can be quite adversarial, depending on the jurisdiction, with very substantial funds at stake in providing services. Teachers & other school district personnel may be under instructions NOT to give out information that will unlock services to parents; it can take knowing how to request services using the proper jargon, citing statutory provisions such as “AB3632” and “26.5” for mental health services in California, for instance. School District personnel may evince fear when hearing these requests posed with the proper jargon, in the IEP. Consult with student advocates, such as those searchable in California under the term “Developmental Disabilities Area Board”. Professional advocates may accompany you to IEP meetings.

(We beat the School District and County Mental Health double-team, we got our daughter 2.5 years of residential placement worth $200k. When a volunteer advocate mentioned California 26.5 in an IEP, one of the school professionals blanched, lost her normal facial color, “the blood drained from her face”.)