Bipolar Disorder Treatment in Minnesota
Accurate diagnosis comes first at NorthStar Regional, because a bipolar disorder treatment center has to see both poles, not just the lows. We treat bipolar I, bipolar II, and cyclothymic disorder in Shakopee and by telehealth statewide. Stability rests on three things: medication managed closely, protected sleep and routine, and therapy for life between the highs and lows. When substance use has grown around the swings, residential care on our campuses treats both in one plan. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and once the pattern is named, the pattern can be managed.
Bipolar care at a glance
Medical Detox
When drinking or drug use follows the highs and lows, safe medical withdrawal comes first. That happens with 24-hour nursing at our withdrawal management center in Eden Prairie.
Inpatient Rehabilitation
Our flagship inpatient program. It gives residential structure for when bipolar disorder and substance use go hand in hand.
Low-Intensity Residential Treatment
Residential living with recovery at its core, when drinking or drug use is part of the picture. Your routine steadies and you rebuild your independence.
Intensive Outpatient
An intensive outpatient program that fits around work and family. Join in person, with lodging, or by secure video from anywhere in the state.
Relapse Prevention
Weekly therapy that watches for the early warning signs of both conditions.
Licensed Treatment Programs
Founded 2015
Addiction and mental health care in one system
Multiple Campuses
Across the Twin Cities metro
MN Department of Health: Licensed
MN Department of Human Services: Licensed
Understanding Bipolar Disorder
What Bipolar Disorder Is
Bipolar disorder moves between two poles: periods of mania or hypomania, and periods of depression. NorthStar Regional is a bipolar disorder treatment center. We offer ongoing bipolar disorder treatment at our outpatient clinic in Shakopee and by telehealth across the state. No established diagnosis is needed to contact us. Sometimes the swings become more than outpatient care can handle, and drinking or drug use grows up around them. Then residential treatment gives what the condition needs most. That means steady sleep and steady days. Medicine is managed through our medical partner by people who keep a close eye on it. Therapy covers how to live between the highs and the lows.
When alcohol or drugs have been used to manage the highs and lows, both are treated in one plan by one team. Our treatment programs serve adults 18 and older, and we accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers. It all starts with one private call.
Different Diagnoses
Types of Bipolar and Related Mood Disorders
The diagnosis shapes the plan. These are the patterns a comprehensive assessment sorts between. Mood disorders need precise naming, and any good treatment center starts there.
Bipolar I
Full manic episodes, often with depressive episodes between them. Bipolar I is the version most people picture. It is the one where a single manic run can upend a person’s life in a week.
Bipolar II
No full mania. Instead, there are repeated hypomanic episodes that look like drive and energy. Meanwhile, the depressive episodes do the damage. Bipolar II often gets taken for depression alone, because only the low periods bring people to the doctor.
Cyclothymic Disorder
The milder version: years of cycling between hypomanic symptoms and depressive symptoms. They never quite meet the full criteria, but they still wear a life down. Cyclothymic disorder deserves treatment, not just getting through it.
What it Looks Like
Bipolar Disorder Symptoms: Both Highs and Lows
The pattern hides because the two poles get diagnosed on their own. These are the bipolar disorder symptoms families describe when they call.
The Up That Goes Too Far
Days on three hours of sleep, ideas coming faster than you can say them, energy that feels unlimited. Hypomania can feel like being at your best, until the problems start.
The Spending and the Schemes
Money spent, businesses started, messages sent, all done quickly and late at night. Manic decisions cause problems you have to deal with after the episode ends, and self-esteem rises and falls with the same swings.
Depressive Episodes: The Crash Is Real
Weeks of weight, sleep, and grayness that meet the full criteria for depression. Many people get diagnosed with depression alone, because only the low periods bring them to a doctor.
Sleep Is the Tripwire
A few short nights can trigger an episode in either direction. When sleep loss reliably comes before the swings, that is a sign of the pattern.
The Chemistry Follows the Poles
Drinking to slow the racing thoughts, stimulants to escape the low. Self-medication matches the highs and lows so closely that it can hide the diagnosis for years.
The Pattern Repeats
Seasons, years, cycles: the same pattern keeps repeating. A condition with a pattern is a condition that can be managed, once the pattern is named.
You do not need to check every box, and a checklist cannot diagnose you. If several of these sound familiar, a treatment center assessment gives you a clear answer. No established diagnosis is needed to contact NorthStar Regional for mental health care. Our outpatient clinic in Shakopee sees anyone. Reading this for a loved one? Start with our guide for parents or our guide for spouses and partners.
Treating Bipolar Disorder and Substance Use Together
Both highs and lows lead people to use substances. They want something to slow the mania, something to lift the depression. Seeing the whole picture, the swings and the self-medication, is what makes the diagnosis right and the treatment last. Co-occurring disorders are the rule here, not the exception. At NorthStar Regional, both run in one plan, by one team, whether the paperwork says chemical dependency, substance abuse, or substance use. If a loved one is the one cycling, start with the guides below. Explore both sides, each condition and substance explained in depth.
Mental Health Treatment by Condition
Addiction Treatment by Substance
How We Treat It
How Our Bipolar Disorder Treatment Works
Accurate diagnosis comes first, because bipolar disorder misdiagnosed as depression alone gets the wrong treatment. The comprehensive assessment looks at the whole arc: both poles, and the substance use that may be hiding behind them. From there, the treatment plan is built on the three things stability depends on. Medical staff manage medication and watch closely. Sleep and daily routine are protected on purpose, and therapy teaches the skills of living between the highs and lows. Treatment is a daily routine, not just a prescription. Bipolar treatment only works when the routine around it stays in place.
When bipolar disorder comes with substance use, residential care helps because structure is part of the treatment: consistent sleep and wake, steady meals, morning meditation, and days with a shape. The clinical work runs on evidence based therapies matched to the condition: CBT for the early-warning thoughts of each pole, DBT skills for the emotional weather, and weekly group and individual therapy. Family therapy sessions help the household spot episodes early without becoming the mood police. Healthy coping skills are practiced daily, and relapse prevention covers both conditions where substance use is also present. Every plan here is built around the person in front of us and what they actually want out of treatment, not a template we hand to everyone. When someone needs psychiatric care beyond what we offer in house, we don’t guess. We connect you with the right providers and stay involved so nothing falls through the cracks.
Am I ready?
Signs You're Ready for Bipolar Treatment
The checkpoints, including the one nobody says out loud.
The Wreckage Is Compounding
Accounts, relationships, jobs: each cycle costs more than the last. When each episode does more damage than the one before, the condition is progressing and it is time for treatment.
You Miss the Mania
Many people worry that stability will cost them the energy of the highs. That worry is worth raising in therapy.
The People Who Love You Are Exhausted
When the household has become an early warning system, everyone needs the structure treatment brings, including them. Family work is part of the plan. So is self care for the family members doing the watching.
You don’t have to wait until you feel ready. Make the call while you are willing. Here is how admissions works, and how the treatment center assessment turns “maybe” into a plan.
Where you can get help
Mental Health Treatment Across NorthStar Regional Locations
You don’t have to find the one bipolar disorder treatment center in the metro. Co-occurring addiction and mental health care runs through designated NorthStar Regional programs. Mental health services on their own are offered at our outpatient clinic in Shakopee. Outpatient services by telehealth reach the whole state. Your comprehensive assessment matches you to the right campus, treatment options, and level of care.
Medical detox + men’s care
Withdrawal Management Center | Eden Prairie
Where most people start: our only campus with medical detox, with nurses on site 24 hours a day.
Men’s IOP with lodging
Men's Treatment Center | Chaska
Intensive outpatient therapy with a place to stay, so you can start recovery before you have housing lined up.
Women’s campus
Women's Treatment Center | Chaska
A fully separate women’s campus in downtown Chaska. The Klein Mansion lets women move from residential into IOP with lodging.
Men’s residential
Men's Treatment Center | Otsego
32 wooded acres on the river, with outdoor groups and a gym, serving the northwest metro.
Men’s residential
Men's Treatment Center | Shakopee
A home on a residential street, not a hospital wing, minutes from our outpatient center.
Outpatient clinic
Outpatient Mental Health Clinic | Shakopee
Counseling, assessments, and mental health services on their own, in person or by telehealth. No established diagnosis is needed to contact us.
Where treatment happens
The Programs That Treat Bipolar Disorder
Structure matched to your rhythm, from clinic visits to a full campus. Treatment programs at every level, with one treatment center system underneath.
When substances co-occur
Medical Detox
When drinking or drug use follows the highs and lows, safe medical withdrawal comes first. That happens with 24-hour nursing at our withdrawal management center in Eden Prairie.
About 35 to 50 days
Inpatient Rehabilitation
Our flagship inpatient program. It gives residential structure for when bipolar disorder and substance use go hand in hand.
85 to 105 connected days
Low-Intensity Residential Treatment
Residential living with recovery at its core, when drinking or drug use is part of the picture. Your routine steadies and you rebuild your independence.
With or without lodging
Intensive Outpatient
An intensive outpatient program that fits around work and family. Join in person, with lodging, or by secure video from anywhere in the state.
6 to 8 months or longer
Relapse Prevention
Weekly therapy that watches for the early warning signs of both conditions.
Ongoing
Outpatient Mental Health
Ongoing bipolar care, with individual and group therapy. It runs at our outpatient clinic in Shakopee, or by telehealth. Outpatient services are built around your work day.
Who's behind the work
About NorthStar Regional
NorthStar Regional is Minnesota’s treatment system built around access: alcohol and drug treatment centers and mental health care across multiple Twin Cities metro locations. Founded in 2015, we provide one connected continuum: detox (withdrawal management), residential, outpatient, mental health, and a sober housing pathway. Separate men’s and women’s campuses, co-occurring care at designated programs, and no faith requirement set us apart. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and if you are uninsured, our admissions team helps you through enrollment. A person can walk in with nothing and leave with everything they need to build a life.
Paying for Care
Insurance and Payment Options
Our team helps review your benefits and handles the paperwork with you. If you have no insurance, we help walk you through enrolling for benefits. County case managers, probation officers, hospitals, and crisis teams send clients to us because, in their words, we just get it done.
Insurance and State Funding
Commercial plans, Medical Assistance (Medicaid), county placements, and private pay. We verify benefits and handle the paperwork with you.
We Are Here to Help
We help review your benefits, find your right starting point, and schedule you for the same day or the next whenever possible. Then we pick you up anywhere in the Twin Cities metro.
How Admission Works
What Happens From Your First Call to Your First Night
You did the hard part when you picked up the phone. Here is exactly what happens next, so nothing about day one is a mystery.
You Call and a Real Person Answers
A real person answers, usually within seconds, and asks one short question: substance use, or mental health? There is no phone tree, and you don’t have to tell your life story. We ask only what we need and handle the rest.
We Help with the Details
Our team helps review your benefits, and a short screening covers withdrawal risk, medical needs, and mental health, so you land at the right level of care. Then we schedule you, same day or next day whenever possible.
We Pick You Up
You get reminder calls and texts. Before pickup, your admissions coordinator and your driver call you together, so you know the name, the car, and the timing before it’s in your driveway. In the car: water, Gatorade, snacks, and a bagged lunch. Your driver, most often someone in long-term recovery, helps with your bags.
A Real Person Meets You When You Arrive
Your driver walks you inside and hands you off by name to the team member waiting for you. Your intake team completes your application with you. If you’re hungry, there’s a meal waiting. Treatment starts, and you never carried the logistics.
“The client has done the hard work by picking up the phone. We will carry them the rest of the way.”
Sarah Roy, Executive Vice President
Reviews from Google
Why Clients Choose NorthStar Regional
Don’t just take our word for it. Here is what alumni say about their time in treatment.
Keep reading
Related Articles and Resources
Resources
Before You Call
How admissions works, guides for families, and the forms you can complete early. More resources are linked throughout the site, or contact admissions and we’ll send anything by email.
Questions we hear every day
Common Questions About Bipolar Treatment
When does bipolar disorder need residential treatment?
When the swings have outrun outpatient care and substance use is tangled into the cycle. Residential care at a treatment center stabilizes the rhythm; the long-term treatment plan maintains it. For bipolar disorder without substance use, care runs through our outpatient clinic in Shakopee and by telehealth.
Do you treat bipolar I and bipolar II?
Yes, both, with treatment for each. Bipolar I brings full mania. In bipolar II, hypomania hides as drive and energy while its depressions do the damage. The assessment maps which pattern is yours, because the treatment details and options differ.
Why does bipolar disorder get misdiagnosed as depression?
It usually happens because people see a doctor during the lows, not the highs. The highs often feel good, so people rarely ask for help with them, and the diagnosis ends up based only on the depression the doctor sees. Young adults are especially affected. Bipolar disorder often first shows up in the early twenties, when a wrong diagnosis can shape your care for years. If antidepressants alone have made you feel worse or set off a high, mention it at your assessment, because that history matters.
How does substance use change bipolar disorder treatment?
Substance use needs to be treated in the same plan as bipolar disorder. Substances can disrupt the routine you build in treatment, and both highs and lows can lead people to use. So we treat both conditions together, and co-occurring care is central to how NorthStar Regional works. Peer support can help too, through 12-step groups, SMART Recovery, or other structured programs. These options make support groups easy to reach, but none of them is required.
Can a person with bipolar disorder live a normal life?
Yes. With treatment, steady sleep, medicine where it fits, self care that gets practiced, and people who know the early warning signs, bipolar disorder becomes a condition a person has. It stops being something that controls their life. Stability comes first, and a good life gets built on it. Reaching a treatment center early makes that faster.
How do I help a loved one with bipolar disorder?
Don’t argue during an episode. Someone in full mania cannot take in what you are saying, and someone in the crash cannot respond to your urgency. Learn the early warning signs together between episodes, take care of yourself, and call us. Helping a loved one into treatment depends on practical planning and on timing, and our guides for parents and partners walk you through both. A person who feels policed resists, while a person who feels supported comes along, and family therapy teaches the difference. When your loved one is ready, ongoing support for the whole household is part of treatment here.
Does insurance cover bipolar disorder treatment?
Coverage depends on your plan, the service, eligibility, and authorization requirements. Our team helps review your benefits and available payment options. Benefits verification is not a guarantee of payment.
Admissions
Make the First Call and We'll Take It from There
Confidential, no obligation, and answered by someone who knows what you’re facing and cares to listen.