Welcome to The 5 Pillars of Bipolar Recovery. You’ve likely enrolled in this course because either you or someone in your life has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or you are a health professional researching ways to provide holistic care to your patients. If so, then this is the place for you. 

You might be witnessing the acute highs of mania, wading the marshy waters of depression, or vacillating rapidly between various extremes of anger, laughter, sadness, paranoia, fear, anxiety, hyper-sexuality, asexuality, thoughts of grandeur, and even thoughts about ending your life. In a desperate attempt to find stability, a doctor may have prescribed you a cocktail of mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, antidepressants, pain killers, sleep aids, and side effect medication, and now you may be feeling like a helpless baby or a mindless zombie, unable to uphold life’s responsibilities, to fulfill your goals, to take care of your family, or to simply have the will to get out of bed. In any case, you might be feeling like you’ve been thrown into the ocean during a hurricane and trying to figure out what is going on. 

Hi, my name’s Imran. I’m here to offer you some insights by sharing my own story of receiving a bipolar diagnosis, suffering through the acute phases of mania, depression, and other severe physiological health issues, ultimately rejecting the prognosis of a life of mind numbing medication and mere symptom management, and navigating a self-guided healing journey. I want to share with you a system that I wish I had access to when I was first diagnosed. There is a lot of holistic, or traditional, healing methods that can be integrated into the pharmacological approach of modern psychiatry and psychotherapy. Pulling from various healing modalities, I’ve built for you an affordable, natural system rooted in the fundamental idea that, “Your body has an innate ability to heal itself.” I’ve spent three years of research, guidance from psychiatrists, therapists, exercise coaches, nutritionists, and a lot of trial and error to come up with a practical guide to help you kickstart your healing journey. 

My system is built upon five pillars: Sleep, Nutrition, Movement, Mindfulness, and Community. Each module goes into each pillar by outlining theoretical knowledge, practical tools, a guided movement and mindfulness practice. I wish I could offer you a clear timeline on when this system will begin to work for you, but I promise you that it eventually will. Everyone’s experience of bipolar is different; however, I’ve seen clients recover in less than a month while some, like myself, require multiple years. Everyone’s journey is different, but - as hard as it may seem to believe right now - it does get better. You can live a full life again. 

I use the analogy of pillars because each one of the pillars listed above work together in supporting your mental health. If one pillar or multiple pillars begin to crumble, you can rely on the other pillars for a temporary period; however, in order to maintain mental stability, it is important to guard these five pillars with vigilance.

Let’s begin your healing journey together then! Bipolar can be overwhelming. Trust me, I’ve been there wondering if my suffering would ever end. I placed trust in my support group’s faith even when I didn’t believe it. I encourage you to make space for the possibility of a better tomorrow. Plant the idea in your heart and nurture it with positivity. I leave you with the first affirmation in this course: “this too shall pass.” Write it down on a flash card and read it out loud every morning or when you are in need of the remedy. By the end of this course you will have several of these affirmations to repeat to yourself to remind you that you have an innate ability to heal yourself.