Mood Disorder / Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a potentially serious mental health issue that affects about every two out of 100 people.Bipolar disorder treatment is safe and effective. Let’s see in brief what it means.
It is characterized by extreme mental and behavioral changes, from manic and overly excited states to depressive states.Mood swings can happen from Severe mania- hypomania (mild to moderate mania) – normal/ balanced mood- mild to moderate depression- severe depression.
When you have bipolar disorder, your mood shifts are severe — quite different from normal, everyday ups and downs.Untreated, these mood shifts can hurt your relationships and your performance at work or school.They cause poor decisions and distort your sense of self.Not surprisingly, people with untreated bipolar disorder are at risk for suicide.
Recognizing signs of Mania (Also called as bipolar disorder)
- During a manic period, feelings of euphoria, creativity, and heightened awareness are Common.
- Abnormally upbeat, jumpy or wired
- Increased activity, energy or agitation
- Exaggerated sense of well-being and self-confidence (euphoria)
- Decreased need for sleep
- Unusual talkativeness
- Racing thoughts
- Distractibility
- Poor decision-making — for example, going on buying sprees, taking sexual risks or making foolish investments
- Substance use
Milder forms of mania are called as hypomania and is also called as bipolar disorder
After a brief period of normalcy, people can experience bipolar depression. This includes symptoms that are severe enough to cause noticeable difficulty in day-to-day activities, such as work, school, social activities or relationships. Such as:
- Depressed mood, such as feeling sad, empty, hopeless or tearful (in children and teens, depressed mood can appear as irritability)
- Marked loss of interest or feeling no pleasure in all — or almost all — activities
- Significant weight loss when not dieting, weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite (in children, failure to gain weight as expected can be a sign of depression)
- Either insomnia or sleeping too much
- Either restlessness or slowed behaviour
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt
- Decreased ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness
- Thinking about, planning or attempting suicide
Despite the mood extremes, people with bipolar disorder often don’t recognize how much their emotional instability disrupts their lives and the lives of their loved ones and don’t get the treatment they need.
And if you’re like some people with bipolar disorder, you may enjoy the feelings of euphoria and cycles of being more productive. However, this euphoria is always followed by an emotional crash that can leave you depressed, worn out — and perhaps in financial, legal or relationship trouble.