What is Bipolar Disorder?

It may be helpful to think of the various mood states in manic-depressive illness as a spectrum or continuous range. At one end is severe depression, which shades into moderate depression; then come mild and brief mood disturbances that many people call "the blues," then normal mood, then hypomania (a mild form of mania), and then mania.

Some people with untreated bipolar disorder have repeated depressions and only an occasional episode of hypomania (bipolar II). In the other extreme, mania may be the main problem and depression may occur only infrequently. In fact, symptoms of mania and depression may be mixed together in a single "mixed" bipolar state.

Descriptions provided by patients themselves offer valuable insights into the various mood states associated with bipolar disorder:

Depression:

I doubt completely my ability to do anything well. Its seems as though my mind has slowed down and burned out to the point of being virtually useless...I am haunted...with the total, the desperate hopelessness of it all....Others say, "It's only temporary, it will pass, you will get over it," but of course they haven't any idea of how I feel, although they are certain they do. If I can't feel, move, think, or care, then what on earth is the point?

Hypomania:

At first, when I'm high, it's tremendous. Ideas are fast, like shooting stars you follow ''til brighter ones appear. All shyness disappears, the right words and gestures are suddenly there. Uninteresting people, things, become intensely interesting. Sensuality is pervasive. The desire to seduce and be seduced is irresistible. Your marrow is infused with unbelievable feelings of ease, power, well-being, omnipotence, euphoria. You can do anything but somewhere this changes.

Mania:

The fast ideas become too fast and there are far too many. Overwhelming confusion replaces clarity. You stop keeping up with it--memory goes. Infectious humor ceases to amuse. Your friends become frightened. Everything is now against the grain. You are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable, and trapped.

Diagnosing Bipolar

Recognition of the various mood states is essential so that the person who has manic-depressive illness can obtain effective treatment and avoid the harmful consequences of the disease, which include destruction of personal relationships, loss of employment, and suicide.

Manic-depressive illness is often not recognized by the patient, relatives, friends, or even physicians.

An early sign of manic-depressive illness may be hypomania-a state in which the person shows a high level of energy, excessive moodiness or irritability, and impulsive or reckless behavior.

Hypomania may feel good to the person who experiences it. Thus, even when family and friends learn to recognize the mood swings, the individual often will deny that anything is wrong. Also in its early stages, bipolar disorder may masquerade as a problem other than mental illness. For example, it may first appear as alcohol or drug abuse, or poor school or work performance. If left untreated, bipolar disorder tends to worsen, and the person experiences episodes of full-fledged mania and clinical depression.

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