Bipolar disorder in
psychiatry is a medical diagnosis which refers to mania (mixed
states or hypomania) alternated with euthymic or depressed mood
(clinical depression) within a specific duration of time.
Compared to ups and downs experienced by normal people, a person
affected by a bipolar disorder can have extreme swings of moods
which can last for a few minutes or even months. Changes in
moods are often associated with disruption and distress with
high suicidal tendencies. There are also instances linking
bipolar disorder to extreme functioning. Most creative talents
are attributing bipolar disorder on their creativity.
A bipolar disorder is categorized either as Type I or Type
II. In Type I, a person may experience a full-blown mania. In
Type II, the "highs" of a person never exceed the hypomania
stage unless it was triggered by the mania medications. During
manic periods, psychosis may occur. Rapid cycling is also
possible. When talking about bipolar disorder, severity and
problems connected with moods have its own variations. Thus, a
bipolar spectrum disorder concept is employed more often which
includes cyclothymia.
A bipolar disorder is involving periods of abnormally
agitated moods which adds to the depressed mood condition. The
intensity and duration of mood condition widely varies among
people diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. Moods can fluctuate
from one state to another causing improved functioning or
impairment depending on the highs and lows of moods and its
severity. The energy level, social rhythms, cognitive
functioning, activity level, and sleep pattern is also altered
affecting the normal routine of a person.
The depression experienced by people having a bipolar
disorder is similar to a clinical depression. The symptoms
include persistent feelings of anxiety, sadness, anger, guilt,
hopelessness, and isolation, appetite and sleep disturbances,
fatigue, escapism, lack of interest on things once enjoyed,
problems concentrating, indifference or apathy, self-loathing,
social anxiety or shyness, chronic pain, irritability, and
suicidal tendencies.
When talking about disability, loss of productive years,
potential suicidal tendency and duration, the periods of
depression in a bipolar disorder are widely recognized today as
the most severe problem of an individual. Sometimes, the mania
periods are more disruptive and noticeable to other people.
Some types of serious depression are also accompanied by
psychosis symptoms. It includes hallucinations (seeing, hearing,
or sensing stimuli perceive to be there although it is not),
delusions (false beliefs of a person that aren't subject to
contradictory evidence or reason and aren't explained by a
cultural concept), and escapism (creating diversions mentally to
escape from unpleasant and perceived phases of stress).
These people may be also affected with paranoid thoughts
that a powerful entity is monitoring or persecuting them. Some
may think that those people who are close to them are conspiring
and bullying against them. Greater levels of anxiety are felt
without a cause. They felt that their family or friends are
giving them up or leaving them. Unusual and intense religious
beliefs is also present, thus some people strongly insists that
historic and great missions are given to them to be accomplished
believing that they have supernatural powers. Delusions can be
more distressing in depressions. It is manifested in the form of
a strong guilt for things that are supposedly done wrong
inflicting the lives of other people. Numerous conflicting
theories are created considering different causes associated
with bipolar disorder. Nevertheless, nothing is accepted widely
as correct.
The primary nature of a bipolar disorder is flux. It is the
state of mental operation wherein a person is immersed fully on
what she or he is doing, accompanied with a feeling of full
involvement, energized focus, and success during the activity
process. The biological markers of a bipolar disorder include
mood, energy, sleep, activity, and thought. The bipolar
disorder's diagnostic subtypes are sometimes static snapshots of
the descriptions of the continual changes of an illness.
According to the US NIMH (United States National
Institute of Mental Health), there is no predetermined cause of
a bipolar disorder. However, lots of factors are acting together
to create the illness. This disorder also runs in families, thus
most researchers are searching for a specific gene which
increases the possibility of developing the disease. Most
findings suggest that the disorder is caused by multiple genes
similar to other mental diseases.
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