What Is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder used to be known as manic depressive disorder or manic depression. It’s a serious mental illness, one that can lead to risky behavior, damaged relationship and careers, and even suicidal tendencies — if it’s not treated.
Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme changes in mood (poles) — from mania to depression. Between these mood swings, a person with bipolar disorder may experience normal moods.
“Manic” describes an increasingly restless, energetic, talkative, reckless, powerful, euphoric period. Lavish spending sprees or impulsive risky sex can occur. Then, at some point, this high-flying mood can spiral into something darker — irritation, confusion, anger, feeling trapped.
“Depression” describes the opposite mood — sadness, crying, sense of worthlessness, loss of energy, loss of pleasure, sleep problems.
But because the pattern of highs and lows varies for each person, bipolar disorder is a complex disease to diagnose. For some people, mania or depression can last for weeks or months, even for years. For other people, bipolar disorder takes the form of frequent and dramatic mood shifts.
“There’s a whole spectrum of symptom and mood changes that have been found in bipolar disorder,” says Michael Aronson, MD, a clinical psychiatrist and consultant for WebMD. “It’s not always dramatic mood swings. In fact, some people seem to get along just fine. The manic periods can be very, very productive. They think things are going great.”
The danger comes, he says, when the mania grows much worse. “The change can be very dramatic, with catastrophic results. People can get involved in reckless behavior, spend a lot of money, there may be sexual promiscuity, sexual risks.”
The depressed phases can be equally dangerous: A person may have frequent thoughts of suicide.
Bipolar disorder is equally difficult for families of those affected. The condition is the most difficult mental illness for families to accept, Aronson tells WebMD. “Families can more easily accept schizophrenic, to understand that it is an illness. But when a person is sometimes very productive, then becomes unreasonable or irrational, it wreaks more havoc on the family. It seems more like bad behavior, like they won’t straighten up.”
What Are the Symptoms?
The primary symptoms of bipolar disorder are dramatic and unpredictable mood swings. The illness has two strongly contrasting phases.
In the manic phase:
- Euphoria or irritability
- Excessive talk; racing thoughts
- Inflated self-esteem
- Unusual energy; less need for sleep
- Impulsiveness, a reckless pursuit of gratification — shopping sprees, impetuous travel, more and sometimes promiscuous sex, high-risk business investments, fast driving
- Hallucinations and or delusions (in cases of bipolar disorder with psychotic features)
In the depressive phase:
- Depressed mood and low self-esteem
- Low energy levels and apathy
- Sadness, loneliness, helplessness, guilt
- Slow speech, fatique, and poor coordination
- Insomnia or oversleeping
- Suicidal thoughts and feelings
- Poor concentration
- Lack of interest or pleasure in usual activities