Bipolar disorder is a condition that causes an individual to go through extreme mood swings, including emotional highs and lows, known as mania or hypomania (mania is more extreme than hypomania) and depression, respectively. These mood swings can occur either extremely rarely or as often as multiple times a year, or even more frequently. These mood swings often affect things like sleep, energy, activity, judgment, behavior, and the ability to think clearly. Often, these mood swings can last for several days, and can shift from one extreme to the other easily. Occasionally, these episodes can be mixed and occur together.
Mania and hypomania are characterized by things like:
Higher energy activity, agitation
Increased self-confidence or feelings of well-being
Less sleep than usual
More talkative and faster talking
Racing thoughts, moving from one topic to another very quickly
Easily distracted
Poor, sometimes reckless, decision-making
By contrast, depressive episodes are characterized by things like:
A deeply sad or empty feeling/mood. In children and teenagers, this can lead to an irritable, angry, or hostile mood
A loss of interest in activities and/or feeling little to no enjoyment from said activities.
Significant weight change, either extreme loss or extreme gain
An unhealthy amount of sleep, either too much or too little
Feelings of restlessness and acting more slowly than usual
Feeling extremely tired and losing energy often
Feelings of worthlessness and guilt, even if the guilt isn’t necessary
Struggles with thinking and concentrating, as well as making decisions
Suicidal thoughts or tendencies
While most people know there are both type 1 and type 2 bipolar disorders, there are several other types as well.
Bipolar 1 is characterized by a manic episode, which can be severe and dangerous to the individual or others, that occurs either before or after a hypomanic or major depressive episode. This manic episode can sometimes include psychosis, which is a break from reality due to a manic episode.
Bipolar 2 is characterized by having at least one major depressive episode and one hypomanic episode, but not having a manic episode. While not characterized by the severity of bipolar 1, those diagnosed with bipolar 2 can often go through longer episodes of depression.
Cyclothymia is characterized by two years (or one for children and teens) of multiple periods of hypomania and depressive episodes. While these are less severe than major episodes, they occur extremely often.
Several other bipolar types exist, such as those caused by drugs or alcohol or caused by a medical condition like Cushing’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or a stroke.
Some common misconceptions include:
Most people think bipolar disorder is very rare, but it is more common than most think, with 2.8% of adults in the U.S. experiencing bipolar as of last year, with it being most common in those 18-29 and falling with age.
People often think bipolar disorder just deals with normal mood swings, but the episodes of depression, hypomania, and mania caused by bipolar disorder are often far more extreme and detrimental than standard mood swings.
It is often assumed that mania is the primary part of bipolar disorder, and can be fun or exciting, but neither is true. Bipolar disorder is characterized by all episodes equally, and while people experiencing mania may feel good, it can also be extremely unpleasant and does not stop at healthy or controllable levels.
Common ways to treat bipolar disorder include:
Medication can be used to ease and/or control bipolar symptoms and can be different for different people. Oftentimes, things like mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics
Psychotherapy (or talk therapy) is a form of therapy used to help an individual and/or their family with ways to identify and change things like troubling emotions, thoughts, actions, behaviors, etc.
Some people find more complementary approaches helpful to their condition, such as relaxing hobbies like yoga, massage, acupuncture, etc.