What Do We Know About Bipolar Disorder?

¶ … Bipolar Disorder

English Literature

Bipolar disorder, as much as thirty years ago, was a big American secret. Bipolar disorder was not as common knowledge as it is today. During the latter 20th century and 21st century a lot of light has been shed on the subject of bipolar disorder: the diagnoses, the treatments, the signs, and the ways to live with the disorder, both for the sufferer as well as the people close to the sufferer in his or her life. The paper will briefly outline key terms and conditions of bipolar disorder. The paper will additionally offer insight into the lives of people living with bipolar disorder providing commentary on the adjustments in life one must make to move forward, as well as commentary on some of the more popular treatments to assist with the symptoms of the disorder.

The causes of bipolar disorder are unknown to medical professionals to this very day. A sign that people should be on the lookout for the disorder is if another person in their family has the disorder. The relative need not be in the immediate family in order for the traits to be shared. Bipolar disorders, like many medical conditions, first show signs of onset during puberty. Doctors believe that bipolar shows the first signs during ages 15 -- 25. Because the signs start showing during puberty, it might take a little longer for parents to understand the differences between the normalcy of teen angst, rebellion, and mood swings, with an actual, recognized emotional disorder. (NAMI, 2008) In fact, many of the signs of bipolar disorder may be what people think normal teenagers go through, but the major difference between adolescents with normal psychosocial and emotional development and a person who is developing bipolar disorder, is that all of the traits of a normal teen show up in a bipolar teen in the extreme. Some signs of the disorder include: reckless behavior, lack of impulse control, hyperactivity, poor judgment, irregular sleeping patterns, excess involvement in activities (amount of activities and degree of involvement), false and elevated sense of self. (NIMH, 2009)

Bipolar disorder is primarily characterized by the extreme mood swings of the sufferer. A bipolar person will have episodes of mania, deep depression, and euphoria, not all at once, not necessarily in that order, but there will be a pattern. (NAMI, 2008) Bipolar people experience very high emotional highs -- so high that it is eerie, strange, or unwarranted based on the situation. They also experience very low lows and this is when bipolar people need extra support. The highs can be dangerous too -- when a person feels arrogant and invincible while that person also has poor impulse control, reckless behavior, and makes bad choices, that could add up to fatal danger. It is much more apparent to see how a person with those same traits who is in a very deep depression, which might include rage, can also very clearly spell danger for that person as well as for people who live with or hang around that person.

Bipolar disorder shows up in men and women equally. There is no particular sex or gender that is predisposed to BD. There are, however, studies researching if there are other common factors in sufferers of BD such as medical history, family history, ethnicity, class, neurological make up, and emotional traumas for example. (NIMH, 2009) There are essentially three types or three degrees of BD. Type I Bipolar disorder used to be called manic depression. As the reader may guess, this is the most severe manifestation of the disorder. These people experience full blown manic episodes. Type II BD patients have never had a full blown manic attack, yet they experience highs called hypomania. Sometimes people with Type II BD are misdiagnosed as depressives. Finally, the most mild form of BD is called cyclothmia. These people alternate between manic depression and hypomania, but not to the same degrees as patients with Type I or Type II. (NAMI, 2008) Bipolar disorder does not have a specific cause. The manic periods and the euphoric periods are typically triggered by changes and/or stressors in life, not just one particular cause. The person's predisposition is a critical factor in what kinds of events trigger an episode, though episodes are not wholly predicted, they are somewhat traceable when we know more about the patient's life.