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Bipolar Disorder

What is Bipolar Disorder?

Bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder categorized by extreme mood disturbances affecting thoughts and behavior. This sort of illness causes unusual alterations in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out daily routine tasks.  

According to American Psychological Association (APA), “bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness in which common emotions become intensely and often unpredictably magnified. Individuals with bipolar disorder can quickly swing from extremes of happiness, energy, and clarity to sadness, fatigue, and confusion. These shifts can be so devastating that individuals may consider suicide.”

Bipolar Disorder Types and Symptoms:

  1. Bipolar I Disorder: This disorder is diagnosed typically when a person experiences a manic episode that may be preceded by hypomanic or depressive episodes. During a manic episode, people with bipolar I disorder undergo an intense increase in energy and may feel on top of the world or uncomfortably irritable in the mood. 

MANIC EPISODE

  • Abnormally upbeat, jumpy, or wired
  • Decreased need for sleep (e.g., feeling energetic despite significantly less sleep than usual)
  • An exaggerated sense of well-being or self-confidence.
  • Increased or faster speech
  • Uncontrollable racing thoughts or quickly changing ideas or topics when speaking
  • Distractibility
  • Increased activity (e.g., restlessness, working on several projects at once)
  • Increased risky behavior (e.g., taking sexual risks, reckless driving, making foolish investments or spending sprees)

HYPOMANIC EPISODE

A hypomanic episode is classified by less severe symptoms of a manic episode that need to last only four days in a row rather than a week.

MAJOR DEPRESSIVE EPISODE

  • Intense sadness or despair
  • Marked loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyed
  • Significant weight loss when not dieting, weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite 
  • Either insomnia or sleeping too much
  • Either restlessness or slowed behavior
  • Fatigue or loss of energy
  • Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt
  • Decreased ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness
  • Thinking about, planning, or attempting suicide

2. Bipolar II Disorder: Bipolar II Disorder is not a milder form of Bipolar I Disorder, but a different diagnosis. To formulate the diagnosis of Bipolar II Disorder, a person must have had at least one major depressive episode and at least one hypomanic episode.

3. Cyclothymic Disorder: This disorder is a milder form of bipolar disorder and is defined by persistent hypomanic and depressive symptoms that are not intense enough or do not last long enough to qualify as hypomanic or depressive episodes.

4. Other Specified and Unspecified Bipolar and Related Disorders: Sometimes a person experiences the symptoms of bipolar disorder that do not match the above-listed categories, in such cases, it is referred to as other specified and unspecified bipolar and related disorders. 

Bipolar Disorder Treatment at The Hermitage:

The journey for getting treatment for bipolar disorder can be a challenging one as this mental health disorder not only affects you psychologically and physiologically but also harms your family and relationships crippling you sociologically as well. 

The treating team at the Hermitage Rehab consisting of qualified professionals offers various psychotherapies, specialized psychodrama therapy, and pharmaceutical interventions as well as the all-new rTMS technique for the most outstanding results. Even in the most severe cases, bipolar disorder is treatable, so, the sooner the treatment begins higher the chance of reducing the severity and managing symptoms.