Bipolar Mental Illness

Bipolar disorder is one of the oldest known illnesses. Extensive research reveals that there was some mention of the symptoms in early medical records, which date back to the 1600’s. Bipolar was first noticed as far back as the second century. Aretaeus of Cappadocia (a city in ancient Turkey) first recognized some symptoms of mania and depression, and felt they could be linked to each other. Aretaeus’s findings went unnoticed and unsubstantiated until 1650, when a scientist named Richard Burton wrote a book, The Anatomy of Melancholia, which focused specifically on depression. His findings are still used today by many in the mental health field, and he is credited with being the father of depression as a mental illness. Bipolar is defined

While having a manic phase people with bipolar disorder cannot control themselves, their behaviors, they do not feel sleepy or tired, they are very involved in activities, and they can be very hyper , they can have very elevated mood.

Manic depression, also known as Bipolar Disorder is not your normal up and down mood change; it’s not like what most people experience, getting a little sad and getting over it. Instead it is extreme mood swing that “usually going from EXTREMLY happy to EXTREMLY angry” also include emotional highs and lows such as, depression and mania. Mood changes can happen as little as a few times a year or as often as several times a week; it depends on the person and their environment. At times, you feel very depressed and other times very relate. Bipolar disorder usually starts between the ages of 15 to 19 and rarely starts at the age of 40. When depressed or in a low mood you feel like you 're not happy all the time might even think that it’s not

Despite the similarities, there are more common symptoms in bipolar depression than it is in regular depression. For example, bipolar depression has individuals feeling guilty, hopeless, sad, empty, unpredictable mood swings, and feelings of restlessness. People with bipolar depression also tend to move very slow, gain weight, and sleep a lot (Hatchett). On the other hand the hypomania state has led observers to feel that bipolar patients are "addicted" to their mania. Paranoia or irritable characteristics begin to manifest in this stage. Hyperactive behavior can sometimes lead to violence and speech becomes very rapid (Hirschfeld, 1995). A mixed episode is when you have both manic and depressive symptoms at the same time. According to Hirschfield, “Those afflicted are a special risk because there is a combination of hopelessness, agitation, and anxiety that makes them feel like they,” “could jump out of their skin” (Hirschfeld, 1995). Up to 50% of all patients with mania have a mixture of depressed moods. This episode is considered very dangerous because individuals feel as if they could commit suicide.

Someone with Bipolar Disorder can experience unpredictable changes in mood and behavior so much so that it effects the whole body, cognitive, psychological, and behavioral through anxiety distress, and even psychosis. Bipolar Disorder is characterized be irregular episodes of mania or (manic phase) and depression that lasts days to months at times and is experience could be described and may be associated with suicidal thoughts, low motivation, loss of interest, in daily activities, or high energy or feelings of euphoria as impulsivity, recklessness, and reduce need for sleep and loss of touch with reality. These behaviors leading to loss of judgment and spending sprees, becoming promiscuous, risky behaviors with drug or alcohol abuse, or even getting in trouble with the law. The opposite can be said to be true when in the depressive state that causes the person to become withdrawn completely from anyone and everything. Treatment is usually life long and often involves a combination of medications and psychotherapy for patients/someone with this disorder, along side a specialists, psychiatrist, clinical psychologists, also their primary care physician or (PCP). Several contributing factors

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

Bipolar disorder is a costly and disabling disease. Patients with bipolar disorder may be misdiagnosed with another illness in their initial presentation. Major challenges to accurate diagnosis include difficulties in differentiating bipolar depression from unipolar depression. Significant heterogeneity between different patients of bipolar disorder, such that they would report different

Bipolar disorder is an often devastating mental illnesses, with high emotional, social and economic impact on the lives of patients and family members [Jin and McCrone, 2015; Miller et al., 2014]. In recent decades, there has been significant progress in developing diagnostic methods for reliably diagnosing severe bipolar disorder (bipolar disorder type I) and some related bipolar “spectrum” disorders (bipolar type II disorder), and there has also been recent progress in identifying some of the genetic loci (through linkage and association analyses) which contribute to severe bipolar disorder. Controversy remains, however, about the diagnostic borders of bipolar disorder, particularly in relation to schizophrenia and schizoaffective

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)

Bipolar (BP) depression is one of the main components of BP I and BP II. Both types of bipolar depression have similar symptoms, including sadness, anxiety, hopelessness, suicidal, tiredness along with issues of sleeping patterns and appetites. Most individuals who suffer from BP I and BP II are treated with pharmacological medications and psychotherapy. Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT) has been one of the several therapeutic approaches that have been used to treat BP depression by utilizing the Social Rhythm Metric-II self-report instrument. In previous studies, IPSRT has expanded the time length of bipolar episodes of depression and mania by focusing on interpersonal stressors, medication adherence and establishing daily routines

Before I truly understood Bipolar disorder, it was still a fairly common word in my vocabulary. Anytime I thought someone was being moody or fluctuating between emotions, I joked by claiming that person to be bipolar. Several incidents of this involved one of my roommates who seemed to be happy one day, and quite the polar opposite the next. However, it was not until my clinical experience on the psychiatric unit that I realized what true bipolar disorder was, and that she did not fit the criteria. Even though I always thought my roommate was bipolar, I quickly found after being exposed to a diagnosed bipolar patient that my roommate was instead just moody. I decided to write this paper on bipolar disorder, not because I have struggle with it or know a friend or family member with this disease, but because I had several misconceptions about what it entailed.

Bipolar disorder, or manic depressive disorder, is a disorder characterized by extreme mood changes. People with this disorder undergo unusual shifts in his or her mood, activity levels, energy and the ability to carry out daily activities (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). A person can go from being very outgoing and energetic to feeling irritated and worthless over a period of a few days, months, or even years. People with bipolar disorder experience “mood episodes”, represented by a drastic change in a person’s unusual mood or behavior (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). A manic episode he or she may experience is overexcited and overly joyful; however, someone in a