(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Mar. 30 is National Bipolar Day or Bipolar Awareness Day. In honor of the day, and those who suffer from bipolar disorder, FOX21 interviewed local psychiatrist, founder, and Chief Medical Officer of the Family Care Center in Colorado Springs, Dr. Chuck Weber.
For the last 8 years, Dr. Weber has been using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to treat bipolar disorder in his patients—and he is seeing excellent results. “The magnetic current creates electric charge,” he says. “So instead of a chemical that maybe works for a day or a few hours, we’re actually changing an electrical activity [in the brain].”
BOSTON, MA—MARCH 15: Research assistant Gabrielle Block simulates a TMS therapy session on John Elder Robison as he sits in the room where he took part in brain therapy known as TMS (Transcranial magnetic stimulation) at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Mass., March 15, 2016. (Photo by Keith Bedford/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Dr. Weber and his team treat people who suffer from Bipolar I and Bipolar II, two distinct disorders. Both involve mood swings that range from mania to depression. The main difference between the two disorders is seen in the level of mania. Bipolar I is characterized by extreme mania that interferes with daily function and may lead to hospitalization while the manic episodes in Bipolar II are much less severe (this is called hypomania).
Both Bipolar I and II respond well to TMS when used alongside other traditional treatments. TMS, Dr. Weber says, is not a standalone solution, but it can be a great way to control symptoms enough to increase the effectiveness of other treatments, like talk therapy.
“If somebody is drowning,” said Dr. Weber, “you don’t talk to them about their feelings or their mother, right? You hold out a life-preserver.”
Courtesy: HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Describing the mania associated with bipolar disorder, Dr. Weber said, “It is to have excessive energy acquired for your brain, and your emotional center to be fired up without social inhibitions. It’s like your limbic system, your emotional center, is on fire.”
The behaviors often produced by Bipolar mania are “not congruent with society and preserving oneself,” Dr. Weber said, which is why finding helpful treatments for those struggling with bipolar disorder is so important for their lives and well-being.
A person with bipolar disorder struggles with perception, Dr. Weber pointed out. They may fail to see risk, or (if depressed) become unable to see positive, hopeful things, or solutions. He described the effect as a filter placed over your perception that changes how you experience the world, only letting in that which confirms the things you already believe to be true.
“You’ve heard the vernacular colloquialism of rose-colored glasses,” he says. “If you’re manic or if you’re depressed, it is very difficult to receive good information.”
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“This is what leads down to self-destruction,” he continued, “substance use, impulsive and risky behaviors. It’s almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy, because of that perception, and how they’re viewing themselves. There’s a psychodynamic phrase I like to use: ‘Sometimes we create the world we think we deserve.’ So, if people are manic, they think they deserve in a grandiose sense, or if they’re severely depressed, they tend to do things that reinforce those ideas or reinforce those perceptions.”
Managing triggers is important, Dr. Weber said, and loved ones can help with this. He suggests writing down what begins a mood swing and keeping track of those routines, to develop mindfulness and understanding. “There is usually some kind of—maybe not a causation—but there is a correlation.”
Sleep is another important treatment factor for those suffering from Bipolar I and II.
“If there is anything I can get people to do,” Dr. Weber says, “it’s good sleep hygiene. And getting all screentime out of the bedroom. No TVs, things like that. And of course, diet and exercise are important, and trying to abstain from alcohol or drugs, legal or illegal.”
Dr. Weber is encouraged by the results his patients have been seeing using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). “I’ve never seen anybody react as quickly,” he says. “I can get you feeling better and less anxious, less depressed, less chance for mania in six weeks.”
