This is an update on my mental health; a sharing that I hope will
benefit some, if not all, of you.

I had stopped taking my meds (carbamazapine, klonazepam) in May 2004.
I started reading "Cognitive Therapy" by David Burns and, at the same
time, I went to see a spiritual (faith) healer who gave me verses from
the Quran to recite three times at dawn and three times at night.
These verses are also found in the Old Testatment of the Bible. My
healer had a simple explanation ~ the mind is in a state of balance,
or at least, the body tries to keep it in a state of balance as best
it can, given circumstances.

Sometimes, there is a cause which causes an imbalance and meds are
needed to help the body maintain some semblance of balance. Prayer
will remove the cause of the imbalance and therefore if I were to
still take the meds, I will tip the other way. So he asked me to
titrate my meds, which is to slowly reduce the meds as and when I feel
I could do so.

By July 2004, I was completely meds-free and when I had an appointment
with my psychiatrist, he told me I looked a lot better. I hadn't told
him I had gone off the meds and my feeling better and looking better
was a direct results of my going off the meds and find solace in prayer.

I had also, in May 2004, started on a mostly vegetarian diet. I had,
for a number of years up to that time, suffering from what I thought
was gout, which is a build up of uric acid crystals in between the
muscle layers of the body. When the muscle layer slide over each
other, they rub against the uric acid crystals, causing pain. I had
painful ankles which i had attributed to gout. In fact, I found out
from a visit to a podiatrist, that I had (and still have) flat feet
also known as fallen arches. This was easily sorted by wearing arch
insoles made from silicone rubber in my shoes. The pain inmmediately
disappeared, without the need for taking any meds.

From about July to September 2004, I started on a course of 4 aqueous
detoxificaton footbath sessions. This therapy consists of puting one's
feet in a solution of salt water and having a gadget with electrode
arrays perform an electrolysis process. The electrolysis causes an
ex-osmosis effect to take place, removing trans fats, heavy metals and
medications from my body. I removed all that lithium I had been
taking all those years previously as well as medications that had
accumulated in my body.

In September 2004, I attended an Anthony Robbins program in Singapore
called Unleash the Power Within (UPW) which I found very useful as I
learnt so many things about living a healthier lifestyle. This
included being vegetarian, aerobic exercise, diaphragmic breathing and
living waters (eating of raw vegetables and fruits). The next UPW in
London will be in May 2005 (next month) and in Sydney, Australia in
September 2005. There will also be one in Kuala Lumpur from June 9 to
12, 2005.

From April 1 to 6, I attended a more advanced Anthony Robbins program
in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia called Date
with Destiny (DWD). This was the most empowering week I had spent in
my life. DWD is only conducted twice a year, in the Gold Coast and in
San Diego, California. It is a solid one week of total immersion and
and I came out of it totally transformed. I cannot recommended it more
highly to not just bipolar patients but also our psychiatrists because
we will learn to make interventions and permanent transformations
without meds. It requires the application of understanding how the
mind works using a technique called Neuro-Linguistic Programming
(NLP). A good book to read on this subject is "Awaken the Giant
Within" by Anthony Robbins.

On the subject of health, I recommend "Perfect Health" and "Live
Longer, Grow Younger" by Deepak Chopra and also "Consciousness" by
Susan Blackmore. Deepak Chopra is not just a medical doctor trained in
Western allopathic medicine, but also in the 6,000-year-old Indian
tradition of Ayurvedic Medicine. Ayurvedic come from the words Ayus
(Life) and Veda (Knowledge). So Ayurveda is all about the Knowledge of
Life. Deepak Chopra is also a philosopher and leading living
spriritual light of our times.

I am very happy with the changes~indeed, Permanent
Transformations~that have taken place in me over the past year. I am
sure many of you would like to be meds-free as well as symptom-free.
You may pick and choose any of the alternative therapies I have tried
over the past year but whatever you decided to do, please report back
to this yahoogroup so that we can share in your experience.