Personal Bipolar

Bipolar Disorder

I am choosing to write on Bipolar Disorder. People with bipolar have mood episodes that fall into mania and depression. The mania includes euphoria, restlessness, activity, racing thoughts, rapid speech, extreme irritability, etc. It can affect sexual behavior, sleep patterns, and judgment. Severity varies between individuals and makes it difficult to diagnosis. Many are misdiagnosed as simple depression when in fact they are bipolar. There are several types of bipolar disorder. The main types are Bipolar Type I and Bipolar Type II and Cyclothymic disorder.

Type I is the general form of bipolar where the patient feels at least one full or mixed episode including major depression. Type II is where is patient has a form of mania and one major episode of depression; however they never get fully manic or mixed episodes. Type II is much harder to diagnose because the symptoms may not be as obvious without the mixed episodes. Finally the cyclothymic type is defined as having hypomanic and depressive symptoms for at least over two years yet the cycles are not severe or last very long.

While both men and women can be affected by bipolar disorder, women can tend to suffer from a more “rapid cycling”. Rapid cycling is a time characterized by mania and depression alternating between the two moods for four to seven days predominately by depression. This happens frequently for the patient within one year. Why women more frequently get rapid cycling is linked to three possibilities: hypothyroidism, gonadal steroids and stress levels which increase cortisol levels.

Treatment for the disorder is typically a combination of mood stabilizers and anti-depressants. Anti-depressants cannot work alone because it can cause a change in mood to mania for the patient and trigger cycling. That is why it is important for close monitoring of the dosage and results by both the patient and physician to obtain optimal results for the patient to combine the two...