Bipolar Disorder ( Bipolar )

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that is characterized by changes in mood. It can lead to risky behavior, damage relationships and careers, and even suicidal outcomes if it’s not treated. Bipolar disorder is more common in older teenagers and young adults, it can affect children as young as 6. Women experience more periods of depression than men. More remains to be learned about this condition that affects millions of people.

Mental illness has plagued human kind for as long as we have been on this earth. The science of psychology has made great strides in past century. The stigma of being mentally ill has begun to fall away and people are finally starting to get the help that they need to recover. Bipolar disorder is one illness that we have come to more fully understand. Through assistance from a psychiatrist, family and medication a patient with bipolar disorder can enter remission and live a normal life.

Bipolar disorder is a mental abnormality involving an intense mood change from mania to a depressive mood in a matter of seconds. This used to be called manic-depressive disorder. During the manic phase, your will be very energetic, happy, talkative, have an increased sex drive, and even aggression. You could also end up spending a mass amount of money in which you didn’t intend to do. But during the depressive phase, you are very depressed, hopeless, anxious, sleepy, guilty, and sometimes even suicidal. People with bipolar disorder, often struggle with psychosis as well. Psychosis is the hallucinations and hearing voices.

The stigma associated with bipolar disorder is unacceptable. The purpose of this paper is to improve the readers ability to understand what bipolar disorder is and how being diagnosed with this disorder affects all facets of daily living. Family, friends and associates of individuals with bipolar disorder are often affected as well. As a result of the stigma associated with the disorder, the effects remain: often multiplied by individuals that have a limited understanding of the disorder. There are numerous myths related to individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Hopefully a few of these myths will be put to rest after learning more about the disorder.

In Australia one in every 100 people suffers from bipolar disorder at one point in their lives.

Bipolar disorder, which is commonly referred to as manic-depressive illness, is a disorder within the brain that causes abnormal changes in mood, energy levels, and activity levels. People of any ethnicity can have bipolar disorder, although bipolar disorder is more prevalent in the U.S. than any other country (see figure 1). Bipolar disorder, as

While the precise causes of bipolar disorder are not yet fully understood, we do know that

One of my closest friends during my undergraduate career has a mental illness called bipolar. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar is defined as a chronic mental illness that causes a range of different shifts in mood, energy, activity occurrence, and the ability to function and carry out the day to day tasks (National Institute of Mental Health, 2016). Bipolar disorder is also known as a manic depressive illness due to the shifts in mood. People with bipolar often experience lows and highs. Research substantiates that there is no clear cause for bipolar, but there are many factors that contribute to the likelihood of a person developing bipolar.

Bipolar disorder affects 2.5% of the adult population in the United States. It is characterized by extreme mood changes from manic episodes of high energy to extreme depression. The disorder is hard to diagnose even for some experts, however, there have been quite a number of celebrities who have been linked to this disorder which made people more aware of their increasing prevalence.

Public stigma involves the views of the public towards, in this case, the person with bipolar disorder. Additionally, self-stigma is where the person with the illness believes the negative views about persons with the illness and as a result suffers from low self-esteem and despair. A person who suffers from both types of stigma would undoubtedly be unable to cope with the situation unless there is professional help and loved ones around to show them

When a seventh grader at Frederick Area High School in Frederick, South Dakota, was asked to describe what bipolar disorder is, he said that it refers to people that “change personalities fast” (McGaugh). However, this is only a common misconception. Though the word “bipolar” is often used in conversations to describe a person that has mood swings, bipolar disorder actually refers to a serious mental illness. According to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, about 2.6 percent of American adults suffer from a form of bipolar disorder, and about one in five people with bipolar disorder commits suicide. Despite the impact that bipolar disorder has on the lives of patients and families alike, it is treated casually by people across the United States. Even though many treat it flippantly, bipolar disorder is a serious mental ailment, and the public needs to have a greater understanding of it.

Bipolar disorder is known to be a mental illness. A mental illness can be described as a number of things. When talking about bipolar disorder being a mental illness it is described as lacking certain area in the brain. There are two stages of bipolar disorders, Type one and Type two. Type one is more severe than type two. Bipolar disorders began approximately around in the nineteenth century. Bipolar disorder was founded and introduced by both Jean-Pierre Falret a French psychiatrist and Emil Kraepein a German psychiatrist. Jean-Pierre which founded the mental disorder and presented it and Emil Kraepein which modified it. Between the both of them they came up with a plan and proposed the idea in France. As time has went on and technology has improved there has been a dramatic change in research and findings on bipolar disorder.

The World Health Organization states that over 60 million people worldwide have bipolar disorder. According to several studies, a significant proportion of the children and adolescents with depression may actually be experiencing the early onset of adolescent bipolar disorder, but have not yet experienced the manic phase of the illness. It is also suspected that a significant number of children diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD) actually have early-onset bipolar disorder instead of or alongside of ADHD. For example, an elementary school age child who seems difficult to settle in a classroom and cannot concentrate or refuses to do so might actually be showing the first adolescent bipolar disorder signs.”

When people are asked what bipolar I disorder (BD) is, they often describe someone as being psychotic, having drastic mood changes, being depressed then super happy, and the list is endless. Often, individuals who suffer with BD are stigmatized and discriminated. The following piece is part of a poem called “You and Me” written by Debbie Sesula, “...If you get angry/ You’re considered upset/ If I get angry/ I’m considered dangerous. / If you over-react to something/ You’re sensitive/ If I over-react to something/ I’m out of control…” BD is not well understood by society and it is unfortunate that individuals who have this disorder often isolate themselves and feel ashamed.

Bipolar Disorder is a mental illness, which involves hypomanic episodes, which are changes in someone’s usual mood. Originally, Bipolar Disorder was called manic depression because it does share similar symptoms with people diagnosed with depression. Bipolar Disorder is a severe condition because it can cause mania, which then causes hallucinations and paranoid rage. (Bipolar Disorder) Bipolar Disorder is classified into two categories, bipolar type 1 and bipolar type 2. Bipolar type 2 is more serious because there is more major depression episodes. (Bipolar Disorder) A study done by Revista Brasileria de Psiquitra, shows a higher prevalence of Bipolar Disorder type 1 but overall both are pretty low in the general population. (Clemente)