Not sure why the text of my last post was so enormous.
Clark,
When I said that I doubted that 20% of bipolars kill themselves, I didn't mean that I doubted that there were studies a person could use to make that claim. I mean I doubt it, as a fact, despite the studies. The one you linked to (which, unfortunately, cannot be read in its entirety without a subscription) ascribes (by clear suggestion) the high rate of bipolar ѕυιcιdєs to the co-morbidity of bi-polar and anxiety disorders (the two of which, I'm sure you realize, are quite distinct).
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I am in remission from bipolar and besides my personal experience in the world of professional psychology, I have discursive exposure to professional psychology in my own professional life. I am not appealing to cօռspιʀαcιҽs but speaking from a combination of experience and familiarity with the scholarly and peer-reviewed materials available on the topic.
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I'm not telling bi-polar people to go off their meds. I'm saying that bipolar people who take meds are usually not solving anywhere near all their problems. The meds may keep them alive, and may keep them functioning at a socially acceptable level. But the meds can hardly be considered a serious solution if not taking them makes a person worse, wouldn't you say? They are a psychological tourniquet, and merely impose an artifical balance rather than helping the human mind and body to actually heal.
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Even the psychological literature supports this notion. No serious psychologist actually thinks that medication is the only thing keeping a bipolar person healthy. Most psychologists recommend psychotherapy along with psychopharmacology precisely because, in their own (skewed) view, medication is an incomplete solution. But they're right, in principal.
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Anyways, the budding field of epigenetics is going to show that mental illness as such is almost entirely accountable through environmental factors. In other words, it's "learned." So, like anything else, it can be "unlearned." Through a process of healthy temporal and spiritual relationships, through diet, etc.