Bipolar Disorder ⁽⁴⁾

The three spring months are called the season of "dispelling the stale": heaven and earth give rise to life, and all things flourish. One should sleep late at night and rise early, walk widely in the courtyards, let the hair down and loosen the body,…

"Shangxia Liangji Dan" (Upper-and-Lower Mutual-Support Pellets) comes from Bianzheng Lu (Records of Pattern Differentiation) by the Qing physician Chen Shiduo. Its composition is: Renshen (Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma), 5 qian (15 g); Shudihuang (processed Rehmanniae Radix), 1 liang (30 g); Baizhu (Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma), 5…

The Qing-dynasty physician Zhao Xuemin recorded in Chuanya Neiwaibian (Collections from a Wanderer, Inner and Outer Sections) a formula called "Jiedan Fang" (Mania-Cutting Formula). It consists of equal parts of Baifan (Alumen, alum) and Yujin (Curcumae Radix); the two are ground together into powder and…

I am full of polar opposites: despair and hope, love and hate, coldness and warmth, stillness and motion, inferiority and confidence — too many to list. It is like the drop of a bungee jump, switching freely from one mode to another. I am a…