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Bipolar Disorder

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Bipolar Disorder Abstract When many hear the words Bipolar disorder, they immediately think someone is borderline psycho. Known originally as manic depression, Bipolar Disorder is a mental illness that creates mood swings that affect an individual’s behavior and emotions, which can result in a lot of pain. This disorder has two types: Type I and Type II with both having manic and depressive phases in each. These phases are episodes that have symptoms from one extreme high being mania or an extreme low being depressed. As with any other disorder, there are always threats and risks if one goes undiagnosed or gets misdiagnosed. The biggest risk of having Bipolar disorder is committing suicide. …show more content…

For example, a young girl in her early 20s decides to go shopping with her dad’s credit card he handed her to get things for college. Instead of getting a mixture of school supplies and clothes, she decides that clothes are all she needs. Suddenly she feels overwhelmed about her upcoming college experience, and goes to a number of stores grabbing the most she can carry to the register, giving the cashier the credit card. She becomes very irritable in an instant when having to wait in line, because she is so anxious to get to the next clothing store. She continues this routine until the credit card is maxed out. Almost suddenly she crashes and can’t understand the whole idea of the shopping spree. She begins to feel extremely sad and all of her energy disperses. Just as fast as one can have energy for days, in an instant, the energy they once had an abundance of, disappears. Dealing with this disorder is difficult not only for the individual diagnosed, but also for their family and anyone they may come in contact with. As stated before bipolar disorder affects men and women equally, but research has shown that “bipolar kids are predominately male, while the adult bipolar population skews slightly toward the female” (Egan, 2008). It is important to understand the signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder to help prevent the biggest risk of this disorder: Suicide. The longer a person goes undiagnosed, their chances of committing suicide

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