Why Psychotherapy for Bipolar Disorder?

We’re often told the best treatment for bipolar disorder is a combination of medication and psychotherapy. For some, medication is acceptable, the logic being if bipolar disorder is an imbalance in the brain’s biochemistry, then taking medication to correct the imbalance would be sensible. While many diagnosed with the illness resist taking medication, it nonetheless is logical that if there is a discrepancy in neurotransmitters, some pharmaceutical agent would be helpful to restore the mood balance.

But what about psychotherapy? What contribution to mental wellness does talk therapy make to the overall treatment along with meds?

There is an argument going on about this beneath the surface. We, as a society, have a bias toward the technical and scientific outlook. Such a slant in perspective has us accepting a therapy that is in a physical form—a pill. This is not to say there isn’t a controversy over medication treatment in society today, a view natural substances or mind-over-matter thinking will bring relief. The mindset that pills are bad stems from a view we embrace attacking any ingestion of a foreign substance. At the heart of this is the suspicion we are being led down the garden path by labeling more and more behavior as pathological, losing sight of the varieties of human actions, which in the past we either put up with or kept behind closed doors.

Regardless of our personal opinions as to the efficacy of having an increase in conditions labeled aberrant, there are still illnesses we are coming to understand in biological, brain-centered maladies. Therefore, it is no great wonder acceptance of medication as treatment for bipolar disorder is seen as making sense. But what do we gain from talk therapy? What is so important about it that it is put before us as an equal to meds and stands as part of a two-pronged approach, a best scenario for success in a return to normalcy?

Many believe talk is hardly a treatment. The primary and predominant view often held by the public is that bipolar disorder has brought about dysfunctional, harmful behaviors, which have led to aberrant acting out. What does talking do to alleviate this? The answer is simple. Psychotherapy can help bring insight. It is an opportunity to think through and take responsibility for what we have done, finally coming to terms with ourselves as the flawed beings we are. Often this foray into healthy introspection makes it possible to identify those we have hurt, damage done to our social lives, and careers harmed in the course of an episode. How can all of this take place simply by engaging in a conversation, albeit a therapeutic conversation?

Opening up to ourselves about our greatest fears is the narrowest of beginnings to mend the tentative, long-sought and struggled for acceptance of psychotherapy by those from all stratas of our culture. There is still much work to be done to gain far-reaching acceptance for psychological treatment.

Today, there is not just one psychotherapy, there are many. They can be relied upon to reduce symptoms and correct harmful mood effects. Psychotherapy helps to clear the cobwebs in our thoughts. In the beginning, it may consist of keeping on track with medication before we are ready to confront our illness and face living life with a mental illness diagnosis.

A pill can return you to biochemical balance, but only therapy can help sort out the repercussions of a manic episode or depressive slide. How to deal with, how to sift through, how to make amends; these are all the province of psychotherapy.

How often is one who is diagnosed bipolar brought back to sanity by medication only to be overwhelmed by actions taken in a mood swing of major proportion? Perplexed how to explain to others the lies, financial malfeasance, infidelities, substance abuse, job loss or debt, there is more here than a person can likely handle alone. To understand, to think through, to gain acceptance and guidance is the work to be done with a mental health professional. In short, talk can heal.