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Bipolar Disorder : Depression And Depression Essay

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A popular fallacy of bipolar disorder is that it is simply a rapid shift in someone’s mood. This misconception leads to the frequent misuse of the word, when, in actuality, it 's a serious mental illness that negatively impacts a person’s emotions and manners of thinking. By definition, bipolar disorder is characterized by intense and fluctuating states of depression and mania (Caponigro & Lee, 2011, p. 6). Despite popular opinion, bipolar disorder is not simply fluctuating from happy to sad, it is staying in a state of mania or depression for a varying amount of time. There are two polar opposites on the bipolar scale that every other bipolar sub-illness ranges from: mania and depression. Mania is the distinguishing factor of bipolar disorder and refers to the high or elevated periods in bipolar disorder sufferers. Mania is defined by a shift in mood that involves feeling great excitement, euphoria, delusions, and over-activity. During a manic episode one feels immense levels of creativity, boundless energy, excessive self-confidence, and illusions of grandeur but can also experience feelings of irritability, argumentativeness, and impatience. On the other end of the pole is depression. Although mania is considered to be the core of bipolar disorder, depression makes up the bulk of the illness and is what lends it it 's precariousness. A depressive episode is the presence of five or more symptoms of depression experienced for a minimum of two weeks (Caponigro & Lee, 2011,

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