This is a PPT on mental health issues, redefining how we look at "mental illness", our care and what we need to be healthy.

1. Thoughts on mental “illness”,
resiliency and recovery by an
unmedicated bipolar
Richard Gardner
rtgardner3@yahoo.com
July 2019

2. I have had some form of depression/hypomania as
far back as I can remember.
My family history shows that I was gifted with bipolar
from both maternal and paternal lines. My paternal
grandfather was a classic bipolar – extremely gifted
and an alcoholic. My mother’s family has enough
personality to fill several small states to overflowing.

3. I have no issues with who I am, thankful that I have
the gifts I do. (I do not always like me, but that is
okay as we all have bad days and good ones.) I am
thankful for my highs and lows because they drive
my creativity and drive me forward to attempt and
achieve more than I am supposedly capable of as
someone “crippled” by bipolar. To me the sane and
average are the people who are crippled.

4. Resiliency – I gained it through pushing past my
normal limits athletically; I ran marathons and
ultramarathons. The events may be hard, but training
for the events is much tougher. The commitment to
do these events required me to work hard with no
one pushing me but me. It required discipline,
planning months if not years ahead, self-knowledge,
not only of my body, but of my mind, the ability to
overcome setbacks such as bad days, bad weather
and injuries. The challenges and discipline of training
for events like this are the same as the challenges
and discipline needed for living a full life.

5. I learned much about myself, what I can do and that
the limits are usually in my head.

6. I have eight major concerns with the mental health
system (and thousands of minor concerns. After all,
I am bipolar and we are incredibly thorough
whenever we do anything (please laugh)).

7. 1. My first and greatest concern is that we redo the
language of mental health. Words like illness,
disorder, disability and similar define us as disabled,
not gifted differently than other people.

8. The book “Neurotribes” has done much to mature my
thinking. It talks about how we are different and the
importance of accepting being different, not trying
uselessly to be like everyone else.
“Neurotypical” describes people who have lives like most
of their neighbors. “Neurodiverse” describes people like
me who are different from our neighbors.
We may be perhaps 15% of the population, but we are a
tremendous force in our world, dwarfing the
neurotypicals many times over.

9. 2. My experience has been that there is very little
information given to people with mental health
challenges about their diagnosis (diagnoses).

10. 3. Wellness focused life styles should be the
primary way of dealing with mental health
challenges. Medications should be the alternative
secondary therapy given only when necessary.

11. I am unmedicated for bipolar. This requires a
disciplined lifestyle of daily exercise and a healthy
whole foods diet with an affectionate,
understanding mate as the essential elements of
keeping me healthy. With a healthy body comes a
healthy mind.
The Diabetes 2 diet and lifestyle works for mental
health in the same way it works for diabetes 2.
Doughnuts and coffee do not make a healthy
breakfast or a healthy person.

12. 4. Our outreaches miss most of the people who need
us. From my experience, most people with mental health
challenges live-in low-level crisis, not critical crisis.
We need to reach out to barbers, hair dressers,
beauticians, massage therapists, tattoo shops and
neighborhood bars. These are the settings people tend to
talk about their issues.
Once we find the people in low level (or critical crisis) we
need to assure them that they are worthwhile human
beings with a lot to give our world, instead of being
garbage kicked into the gutter. People like us
unfortunately understand being outcasts; feared and
kicked into the gutter.

13. 5. The medical community’s way of perceiving and
dealing with what we are is flawed. In the medical
community literally, everything from before being
conceived to dying is a medical crisis which needs
fixing. We are continually focused on “illness”, not on
being whole people with real lives who, like everyone
else, have physical and mental health issues common
to being alive.

14. 6. We need groups which meet in informal
situations, so we can learn from each other. The
three question groups (how do I feel – does anyone
have something they want to talk about – how do I
feel now?) serve a purpose, but are not the complete
answer.
It would be nice if we can have events at restaurants,
concerts, dances and other venues, so we can
socialize without focusing on “our mental health
challenges”.

15. Our families/significant others need to be given the
same opportunities as us to meet in casual social
situations and talk.

16. 7. We need to focus on our strengths, not our
perceived weaknesses. By our nature we are creative
people with the ability to find unique solutions to
issues facing our world. It is almost impossible to be
healthy functioning members of society when all we
hear is how sick we are. Let’s hear how whole we are
and the unique gifts we have!

17. 8. We need physical contact to be healthy. The
mental health system appears to be more worried
about coercive physical contact than the huge
benefits non-coercive physical contact brings.
For me, lack of physical (and sexual) contact with
other people puts me in an emotional wasteland.

18. Our needs to be healthy are basic and read like the Four
Freedoms of FDR; focusing on freedom from want and
freedom from fear:
a. We need to be assured we will not be hungry,
homeless or without proper medical care.
b. We need to be assured that we will not be put
into a hospital or a prison against our will and without
solid medical reasons.
c. We need to know that we will not be given
more than the minimal medications we absolutely need
to deal with the crisis or forced to take mind/personality
altering medications which make us into little more than
domesticated sheep or well-trained dogs.

19. Every medication we are given needs to have an
exit strategy, not be a lifetime addiction. We need to
be trained in the behavioral tools which help us gain
freedom from specific medications and groups of
medications.

20. Symptoms do not have to get worse with age. With
a supportive environment, knowledge of the
condition, self-knowledge and training symptoms can
decrease.

21. One of our biggest and most glaring voids is lack of
everyday role models in our community who show us
by example what a healthy lifestyle is and what we
can be.
Knowing who of our neighbors and friends are like us
would be a big help.

22. Finally, we need to be appreciated for who we are,
different and differently gifted than most people.
This goes a long way to making us healthy and a
healthy/vital part of society.

23. Other thoughts:

24. That the concept of “neurodiversity” comes from
the language of autism is tremendous. That this
group put forward this concept is a surprise to most
people who assumed autistic people were incapable
of speaking out for themselves. This concept and the
speaking out for ourselves is an example the rest of
us need to follow.

25. Mental health conditions such as bipolar 2
apparently come with type 2 diabetes.

26. We are known as Polymaths/Renaissance people,
gifted in not only one area of creativity, but many.
Exceptional creativity is something I hear continually
to describe people like me.

27. Social dance - East Coast Swing, in my case, was an
important part of keeping me healthy. East Coast
Swing was a great place for me to use my bipolar
creativity within the framework of the structure of
the dance. Like all real creativity, it does not exist in a
void. Rather it requires knowing the structure of the
dance first then adding disciplined creativity.
It also provided me with the interpersonal emotional
contact and human touch I needed to be healthy.

28. Creativity does not exist in an undisciplined void. It
is a search for order based on our ongoing past
experiences interpreted in new ways; portraying a
new aspect of order. It is expressing what was not yet
seen in a way that it can be plainly seen/understood
by ourselves and other people. It is rarely perfected
in one-time inspirations. It is a commitment to work
hard to refine what we sense and feel into
coherency. I wordsmith fiercely everything to the
limits of what I am capable of. Others do the same in
their art.

29. We live in paradoxes, which is the source of our
creativity. Being able to work with opposites in our
lives fuels a creative dialog not only in ourselves, but
in society, which can manifest itself in unique and
wonderful ways.

30. Outreach – It may be a surprise to most people, but
an incredible number of people like ourselves are
part of hiking clubs.

31. I learn mostly by reading, listening inside myself
and by casually talking to people like me.

32. Bipolar has always been a part of me and always
will be. I can embrace and work with it,
accomplishing much.
Or can I fight and work against it, living a life in
continual crisis.
My choice is obvious.

33. Once in a while it would be nice to hear that we are
valued and treasured, with much to give to our
families, communities and the world. We have been
given much and have much to give.

34. The measure of our lives is
our successes, not our
failures; getting up after every
fall is more important than
the number of falls we make.

36. Richard Gardner
rtgardner3@yahoo.com

37. autism bipolar 2
introvert can be introvert or mildly extroverted
hyper-focused able to hyper-focus
distractible by environment distractible by environment
creative creative
large working memory on certain subjects large working memory on many subjects and in general
overwhelmed by touch sensitive to touch
environmentally sensitive environmentally sensitive
uncomfortable in many social situations uncomfortable in many social situations
socially insecure can be socially insecure
can enter a trance while working on a project enters a trance in certain "performance" situations
studies people to understand them intuitively understands certain types of people
logical and progressive study of a subject intuitive understanding of a subject - may need to work from
conclusion to start
linear study of a subject intuitive and apparently chaotic study of a subject
needs order in life needs order in life, but seeks constant change to keep "fresh"
creativity is from studying a subject deeply creativity is from seeking and understanding patterns
extrovert is a role extrovert is a role
slow emotional development slow emotional development
loyal to certain people loyalty is not easily given or maintained with people or causes
can appear narcissistic can be narcissistic
is often insensitive to other people due to inability to
understand people
can be insensitive to other people, but can also be
hypersensitive to other people
little time sense strong time sense and ability to work with it
unable to multi-task multi-tasking comes easily as part of creativity
never give more than one task at a time easily works from a list of multiple tasks
apparent differences in presentation between genders few if any apparent gender differences
sexual contact can be overwhelming very active sex drive
needs some form of non-coercive touch to be healthy needs non-coercive touch to be emotionally healthy
capable of being alone for long periods of time needs regular human contact
May be thought of as stupid or slow due to the inability to
multitask, taking an unusual amount of time to think through
situations, social discomfort and focus on whatever they are
doing at that moment. Most are not stupid, just different.