Yesterday I attended the IBPF (International Bipolar Foundation) Annual West Coast Meeting – Consumer Track. The one-day consumer track meeting covered quite a bit which I outline here, providing links to more information.

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David J. Miklowitz, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, UCLA Semel Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University

• Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders Program: http://www.semel.ucla.edu/champ
• Downloads for clinicians: http://www.semel.ucla.edu/champ/downloads-clinicians

Coping with Bipolar Disorder: Eight Practical Strategies for Enhancing Wellness

The 8 Self-Care Principles

1. Monitor your moods daily/know your early warning signs
2. Recognize and manage stress triggers
3. Stabilize your sleep/wake rhythms
4. Know your position on medications
5. Develop a mania prevention plan
6. Work on communication with your family/partner
7. Obtain reasonable accommodations at work or school
8. Get regular therapy or join a support group

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Eric Arauz, MLER

Adjunct Faculty Instructor, Rutgers/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Psychiatry.

• Arauz Inspirational Enterprises: EricArauz.com
• Author, An American’s Resurrection: My Pilgrimage from Child Abuse and Mental Illness to Salvation
• IBPF webinar: Eric Arauz How Written and Oral Storytelling Saved MY Life 2-12-14 8.58 AM
• Eric Arauz PsychCongress blog: http://www.psychcongress.com/blog/579585

Conscious Storytelling: Integrating somatic, cognitive, and emotional lucidity in oral storytelling as a recovery tool for serious mental illness, trauma, addiction, and suicidality.

• Trauma-Informed Recovery
  1. Trauma-Informed Storytelling
     • Written: An American’s Resurrection
     • Oral: Conscious Storytelling
  2. Relational Reconstruction
• Fluencies of Self: Physiological, Cognitive, Spiritual, Social, and Emotional
• Narrative Identity Processing: “…well-being is associated with the capacity to construct a coherently structured story about a difficult experience.” (Pals, J. L. (2006), Narrative Identity Processing of Difficult Life Experiences: Pathways of Personality Development and Positive Self-Transformation in Adulthood. Journal of Personality, 74: 1079–1110. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00403.x)
• Read, Write, Speak
• Polyvagal Theory: TherapeuticDyad
  • Autonomic Nervous System
  • Social Engagement System
  • Neuroception: Pro-social, Fight or Flight, Freezing/Imminent Death
  • Interventions: Heart to Face, Heart to Voice, Heart to Eyes
  • (Porges, SW, The polyvagal theory: phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 2001 Oct; 42(2):123-46.)
• Conscious Storytelling — Speak — “What is Shareable is Bearable.” (Dan Siegel, MD, author of Mindsight)

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Genevieve Green & Lynn Hart Muto

A Perspective from a Patient and Caregiver

Genevieve Green, 20-year-old mental health activist and public speaker, and Lynn Hart Muto, IBPF Board Secretary and one of IBPF’s founders, gave their perspectives as consumer and caregiver and answered questions.

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Maricela Estrada

Hope: The Beginning of my Beautiful Life

Maricela Estrada has written Bipolar Girl: My Psychotic Self, is publishing Beautiful Bipolar Bisexual, and blogs at mentalhealthinspiration.blogspot.com. She was a patient of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health for ten years. Now she works as a Medical Case Worker helping patients with Prevention and Early Intervention.

Los Angeles Department of Mental Health Access Line (24/7): 1 (800) 854-7771

Milestones of Recovery Scale (MORS): Mental health recovery is non-linear.

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Thomas S. Jensen, MD

Medical Director of IBPF and psychiatrist in private practice in San Diego. He specializes in general and neuropsychiatry treating children, adolescents and adults, but is especially esteemed for his work with patients with bipolar disorder.

Medication Treatment: A 4-Phased Approach

• Phase 1: Rapidly stabilize mania or mixed state to help assure safety
• Phase 2: Introduce agents that dampen cycles and lengthen the frequency of cycles, rather than just dampening the mania
• Phase 3: Address residual depression
• Phase 4: Address coexisting conditions

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Dr. Jennifer Bahr, ND

Dr. Jennifer Bahr is a licensed naturopathic doctor who specializes in natural treatments for mental illness and endocrine disorders. For more information about her practice in San Diego, visit drjenniferbahr.com.

Healthy Living: A Natural Approach to Living Well with Bipolar Disorder

Focus on Right/Healthful Decisions

• CBT/Mindfulness
• Sleep
• Exercise
• Support
• Resilience is Health

Acceptance – Not perfect all the time

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Jake Roberts and Kayte Roberts

All in the Family: Overcoming Addiction and Bipolar Disorder Together

Panel discussion led by siblings Jake Roberts and Kayte Roberts addressed addiction and recovery from addiction, co-occurrence of mental illness and addiction, and genetic roots of addiction and mental illness.