E32 – More Than a Mood: Stories and Science of Bipolar Disorder

In this two-part episode of BrainSTEM, Dr. Hilary Marusak explores bipolar disorder from two angles: lived experience and neuroscience.

In Part 1, she talks with Dr. Maya Schumer, a neuroscientist diagnosed with bipolar I at 20 who now studies the illness she lives with. Maya describes what mania and depression feel like from the inside, the long road to an accurate diagnosis, the difference between adhering to a treatment plan and accepting the condition, and what finally helped her feel stable, including medication and a ketogenic approach featured in her recent New York Times story. She also pushes back on the worn-out idea that mania is just fuel for creativity.

In Part 2, Dr. Mary Phillips, Director of the Mood and Brain Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and a leading expert in bipolar disorder, explains what happens in the brain's emotion and reward circuits during mood episodes, why the illness so often surfaces in adolescence, and where the search for biomarkers and brain-based treatments stands today. There is a full-circle element here too: Maya trained in bipolar neuroimaging with Dr. Phillips's group at Pitt, so the two guests have worked closely together.

Together, the conversations give a fuller picture of bipolar disorder than either could alone: what it feels like, what it looks like in the brain, and what real treatment involves.

🔗 Topics Covered

• The winding path to a bipolar I diagnosis, and what mania and depression feel like from the inside

• Why "mood disorder" is too small a label

• Living with, and researching, the same condition

• Adherence versus acceptance

• What actually helped: medication, sleep and structure, therapy, support, and a ketogenic approach

• The romanticized link between mania and creativity

• What bipolar looks like in the brain's emotion and reward circuits, and why adolescence is such a vulnerable window

• Biomarkers, neuroimaging, and emerging brain-based and neuromodulation treatments

📢 Follow us on Instagram @brainstempodcast to submit questions.
🎧 Available now on Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. Full video episodes on YouTube.

📄 Learn more:

• Dr. Phillips's Mood and Brain Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh: https://phillips.pitt.edu

• Maya Schumer's New York Times story on ketogenic therapy and mental health: https://nyti.ms/4sj2WZD

• Maya's THINK+SMART profile at Metabolic Mind: https://www.metabolicmind.org/thinksmart/explore-strategies/maya-schumer/

• Maya in a longer, two-part conversation about bipolar disorder, chronic suicidality, and lived-experience research on the podcast "A Chat with Uma" (Parts 1 and 2), available wherever you get your podcasts

🌱 Where to find support and community:

• International Bipolar Foundation: https://ibpf.org

• International Society for Bipolar Disorders: https://www.isbd.org

• Metabolic Mind (metabolic and ketogenic approaches to mental illness): https://www.metabolicmind.org

• One Mind: https://onemind.org

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: https://afsp.org

• Your local NAMI chapter: https://www.nami.org

As Maya says, treatment takes a village, and it is rarely any single thing that helps.

❤️‍🩹 Help is available 24 hours a day at the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988.

🧠 BrainSTEM is hosted by neuroscientist Dr. Hilary Marusak. Manmeet Bhogal is the Technical Producer and Web Developer. Social media assistance from Amanpreet Bhogal, Gabby Maramag, and Natalie Thurston

This podcast is made possible by the generous support of the Society for Neuroscience and the Michigan Society for Neuroscience.

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