WHAT IS BIPOLAR DISORDER?

If you are facing severe mood swings, emotional highs and lows, mental instability and facing difficulty in dealing with people around, you might be suffering from Bipolar disorder.

In layman language, Bipolar disorder is called manic depression in which a person experiences extreme happiness and euphoria (mania) at one moment and gets extremely depress or hopeless (depression) the other.

Highs and lows in mood are the most prominent symptom of this disorder. Other symptoms include sleep depravity, anxiety attacks, depression and thought management issues.

Bipolar Disorder has several types such as:

1.          Bipolar 1 Disorder
2.          Bipolar 2 Disorder
3.          Cyclothymic Disorder

·         Other specified and unspecified Bipolar and related disorders

These types are different from each other in terms of the duration of the episodes of manic/hypomaniac and depression attacks.

In Bipolar 1 Disorder, a person experiences long mania attacks which stays at least for 7 days or sometimes gets worse requiring hospital care; whereas in Bipolar 2 Disorder, the patient experiences milder hypomanic attacks for a day or two and alternates with periods of severe depression.

Cyclothymic Disorder is characterized as a brief period of hypomanic attacks substitute with brief periods of depression. The last one includes both phases of the disease; a person feels hyperactivity as well as hopelessness at the same time.

Among many symptoms most commonly seen are dramatic and unpredictable mood swings; ranging from extreme happiness to severe depression.

The extreme happiness or euphoria is the mania phase and less or small mania attacks are known as hypomania.

In the mania phase of the disorder, a person feels unimaginable happiness, irritability, high energy levels, high sex drive and makes unattainable plans whereas in the depression episodes, hopelessness and sadness prevails over the subject. These fluctuations in the mood swings make them socially unacceptable as well as a nuisance for their surroundings.

RISK FACTORS

Bipolar disorder can mainly be occurred if it runs in the families whereas several studies showed that there are several genes responsible for the onset of this disease in kids and older people. Additionally, some external factors can also be responsible for its onset such as any brain injury, road accident, and severe mental trauma.

MEDICATIONS

Usually medicines used to treat bipolar disorder include anti-depressants, mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics; to avoid immediate mood swings and fluctuations however, dependency on these medicines can pose threat too.

Besides, there are many talk therapies conducted nowadays to deal with the patients. These therapies include: cognitive behavioral therapy, family focusses therapy, interpersonal and rhythm therapy, and psychoeducation, these therapies are a good alternative for they are designed in such a way that rapid and immediate attacks can be controlled by calming the patients.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Proper diagnosis of the disease is very important in order to have a proper and accurate treatment, for Bipolar Disorder is often confused with depression several times, but one thing that separates the two of them is the absence of the mania attacks which only occurs in Bipolar disorder. Depressed people do not experience any sort of mania or hypomania attacks rather stays depressed and sad.