How Common is Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Treatment helps reduce symptoms and reduce the severity of mood swings. When these aspects of the disorder are under control, you can focus more on your relationship.

This allows you to take proactive steps to prevent the recurrence of bipolar disorder, thereby improving your quality of life.

Regular and long-term use of medication can help reduce episodes of mania and depression.

While bipolar I manic episodes can be severe and life-threatening, people with bipolar II can suffer from chronic depression, which can lead to serious damage.

People with bipolar II disorder often have other psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety or substance use disorders, which can exacerbate symptoms of depression or hypomania.

Bipolar II disorder itself is a serious condition that requires intensive treatment, just like bipolar I disorder.

Bipolar disorder, formerly known as bipolar disorder, is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings, including highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).

People with bipolar disorder experience ups and downs, called mania and depression, that are different from the typical ups and downs that most people experience.

Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder

Children and adolescents may have well-defined major depressive, manic, or hypomanic episodes, but the pattern may differ from adults with bipolar disorder.

People with bipolar disorder may have a marked manic or depressive state, but they may also be symptom-free for long periods of time, sometimes years.

Some people with bipolar disorder experience episodes of mania or hypomania multiple times throughout their lives; others may experience them infrequently.

Although a person with bipolar disorder may find it appealing to have an elevated mood of mania, especially if it occurs after depression, the “high” does not stop at a comfortable or controllable level.

These mood swings can affect sleep, energy, alertness, judgment, behavior, and the ability to think clearly.

These cycles of mood swings can change slowly or quickly, with a rapid cycle between mania and depression being much more common in women, children, and adolescents.

Some people with bipolar I disorder also experience depressive or hypomanic episodes, and most people with bipolar I disorder also have periods of neutral mood.

If you’re wondering if these mood swings are “normal” or a sign of mental illness, consider whether these manic-depressive episodes are interfering or disrupting your life or the lives of those around you.

Some people with bipolar disorder may also have severe depressive episodes or low mood.

Depressive episodes have symptoms of depression, which cause a person to experience intense feelings of sadness with low energy and motivation.

Manic episodes are the opposite – people may feel energetic, optimistic, or even euphoric, which can lead to irrational and impulsive decision-making.

Some people experience mixed episodes, and they may experience depression and some of the signs and symptoms of mania or hypomania.

The symptoms of hypomania are the same as those of mania, but are less severe and less prolonged.

Severe bipolar episodes of mania or depression may include psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions.

These mood episodes are classified as manic/hypomanic (abnormally happy or irritable mood) or depressive (sad mood).

The strong mood swings between mania and depression can be very disruptive in everyday life, although there can be long periods of lull between these mood swings.

For example, in some people, after treatment for mania, normal mood may feel like depression because they enjoy the “high” caused by a manic episode.

People with this disorder sometimes feel overly happy and happy (or irritable), very sad, or feel normal.

In people with cyclomania, hypomanic episodes recur with mild depression for at least two years.

These symptoms do not meet the diagnostic requirements of any other type of bipolar disorder, but are clearly beyond the normal behavior of people and require treatment.

In addition, rapidly cycling bipolar disorder occurs when a person has four or more episodes of major depression, mania, hypomania, or mixed symptoms in a year.

People who have multiple (four or more) episodes of mood swings (rapid cycles) over the course of a year are much more difficult to treat.

Treating Bipolar Disorder

People with bipolar II often seek treatment first as a result of their first depressive episode, as hypomanic episodes are often pleasurable and may even improve performance at work or school.

The symptoms may not last long enough, or the person may have too few symptoms to be diagnosed with bipolar I or II.

Symptoms usually last at least two years in adults and a year in children and adolescents. Men and women appear to be affected equally, and the disorder usually occurs in people in late adolescence or early adulthood.

Additionally, bipolar symptoms may appear during pregnancy or change seasonally. In adolescents, bipolar disorder is sometimes mistaken for disorders such as schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other depressions.

Medication is the cornerstone of bipolar disorder treatment, although other types of therapy (psychotherapy) can help many patients understand their disease and stick to their medication regimen, preventing future mood swings.

In fact, in a recent report from the Canadian Psychological Society, researchers reviewed a number of studies on the treatment of bipolar disorder and found that when psychotherapy is combined with medication, it can significantly reduce the recurrence of manic and depressive episodes rate, as well as improving overall well-being. Function and Well-Being (Psychology Canada, 2013).

The main key is to take the right medications. You may have to keep trying medications until you find the right medicine cocktail that works for you and makes you stable.

I had to go through many medicine regimens until I found the right ones that helped me and made me stable.

Because bipolar disorder can cause major disruption to a person’s daily life and create stress in the family, professional resources can also be helpful for family members, especially mental health advocates and support groups.

However, parents who have themselves been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (and/or who are coping with another mental or substance abuse illness) can take steps to reduce their children’s chances of developing this condition by getting a quick fix.

Treatment in a professional licensed mental health center.

So, finding a good mental health doctor is the first goal.

Then, be honest about your bipolar disorder. Work with your doctor to find the right medication regimen and take your meds everyday exactly as prescribed.

Next, get into therapy. Your doctor can help you find a good therapy group or therapist. A proper medication regimen combined with therapy will help maintain your bipolar disorder. It really works.

finally, along with the proper medication and therapy, exercise more.

Exercise is not only good for you but it also makes you feel better. Exercise releases chemicals in the brain that make you feel good.

Try to exercise multiple times and week. Exercise combined with the medication and therapy will help you so much with your bipolar disorder.

It will also decrease your chances of relapsing or having a bipolar episode.

Bipolar and Comorbidities

If your child is diagnosed with another condition, it is important that both conditions are treated at the same time.

If you have more than one medical condition (called comorbidities), make sure you get the treatment plan that’s right for you.

These include, for example, bipolar and related disorders caused by certain drugs or alcohol, or due to a medical condition such as Cushing’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or stroke.

You can also have a comorbidity that includes bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder.

Comorbidities can also include alcoholism and drug addiction.

Basically comorbidities means 2 or more conditions.

There are several types of bipolar and related disorders. It seems like in most cases that there are comorbidities along with the bipolar or depression.

In fact, most people with bipolar disorder also have another disorder or condition. This is not uncommon.

Conclusion

Bipolar I disorder consists of one or more manic episodes, with or without depressive episodes.

As mentioned above, to be diagnosed with bipolar II disorder, a child must have had a depressive episode at least two weeks before or after a period of overt mania.

According to the National Institute of Mental Illness, most cases of bipolar disorder begin in adolescence or early adulthood and affect 2.6 percent of the US adult population, or approximately 5.7 million people.

In the United States alone, it is estimated that more than 17.4 million adults suffer from a depressive disorder each year.

This works for about 1 in 7 people, so there’s a good chance you or someone you know is dealing with a depressive disorder.

Mental health experts categorize the condition into these four types because the symptoms of bipolar disorder manifest differently in different people.

Find More Information About Bipolar Disorder on the Website Below.

NIMH Bipolar Disorder Signs and Symptoms