Bipolar disorder is one of the most misunderstood mental health conditions out there. Also known as manic-depressive illness, It is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.
When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities. When your mood shifts to mania or hypo-mania less extreme than mania, you may feel euphoric, full of energy or unusually irritable. These mood swings can affect sleep, energy, activity, judgement, behaviour and the ability to think clearly.
Here Are Some Facts About Bipolar Disorder That Everyone Should Know:
1: Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by dramatic shifts in mood and behaviour:
A person with bipolar disorder may have different attacks without the symptoms of either mania or depression.
2: Bipolar depressive episodes tend to look a lot like classic depression:
Without knowing somebody’s medical history, it’s virtually impossible to determine whether their depression is the result of bipolar disorder or classic depression.
3: Manic episodes are more complicated than simply being up:
It doesn’t necessarily mean a person is running around feeling invincible and happy. There are many different signs and symptoms of mania :
- Unusually high energy.
- Increased activity levels.
- Feeling wired or jumpy.
4: Hypo-mania can involve many of the same symptoms of mania but on a less severe scale:
Some people only ever experience hypo-mania, but it’s also possible to experience full mania, which can eventually become dangerous.
5: People can experience symptoms of mania and depression at the same time:
This involve the high energy and activity of mania and the hopelessness and despair of depression.
6: There are several types of bipolar disorder:
Bipolar I Disorder, Bipolar II Disorder, Cyclothymic Disorder, Unspecified Bipolar and Related Disorders.
7: The length of these mood episodes can vary from person to person:
Two weeks is the set minimum for a depressive episode.
8: There is no known single cause of bipolar disorder:
Scientists are still investigating the roots of the disorder, but they have identified three risk factors that contribute to your likelihood of developing the condition: genetics, brain structure and functioning, and family history.
9: It can take a while to receive a proper diagnosis of bipolar disorder, which is often misdiagnosed as depression:
People who have bipolar disorder are typically more likely to reach out for help during a depressive episode than a manic or hypo-manic one.
10: Treatment almost always involves medication, but effective drugs and dosages vary widely by individual:
The main goal of medication is to stabilize a person’s mood over time in order to minimize the number of manic and depressive episodes they experience, There are several kinds of medication that have been shown to be effective for bipolar disorder in various ways. Mood stabilizers work by decreasing the amount of abnormal activity in the brain.
11: Therapy can help people cope with bipolar disorder in a few different ways:
It can help people come to terms with the disparate ways they behaved during mood episodes, especially when someone first receives a diagnosis.
