What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a mental health disorder which was formerly known as manic depression. This condition causes mood swings at an extreme level that includes emotional highs and lows. When a person gets depressed, the individual feels helpless, loses interest in doing simple activities.
When a person’s mood shifts to a higher level, i.e., hypomania or mania, the person starts feeling irritable and full of energy. Due to mood swings, it may also start affecting activity, sleep /energy, thinking ability, judgment & behavior.
Bipolar disorder is a condition which is a progressive and exists lifelong. One can manage mood swings by adopting a treatment plan. Most of the cases of bipolar disorder are treated with the use of medications while in some thorough psychological counseling is done
Types of Bipolar Disorder:
Bipolar I disorder: in this, an individual experiences only one disorder that can be preceded by major episodes of depression or hypomanic. In some of the cases, a person gets out of the reality known as psychosis.
Bipolar II disorder: in this, one major episode of depression is experienced by an individual as well as at least one of the episodes of hypomanic is also experienced.
Signs of bipolar I & bipolar II disorder brings other features like anxiousness, psychosis, melancholy, etc. The change in the season, as well as pregnancy, also bring about these symptoms.
Cyclothymia disorder: one of the many symptoms of the hypomania is that a person experiences two phases, whether in childhood or the teenager.
High-risk factors related to bipolar disorder:
Hereditary: when the family is going through the same disorder one can have greater chances of getting affected.
Genetics are solely not responsible. Environmental factors also play an important role in decreasing and increasing the risks related to the development of the mood disorder condition. In a study, it was concluded that when identical twins are born, then both of the twins will not always develop this disorder.
High stress or depression: when the person is going through various traumatic events they might have a higher risk of getting this disorder. Some of the factors related to childhood, like, physical or sexual abuse, early death of a parent, etc. may also aid into this condition. Several other traumatic issues enhance the risk of getting bipolar disorder.
Sometimes when a person goes through highly stressful events like losing a job, moving from one place to another or experiencing a death in a family, he or she goes through different episodes of depression. This is often associated with lack of sleep, which in turn enhances the chances of getting this mood disorder.
Alcohol or drugs consumption: when an individual starts consuming drugs or alcohol this may also affect the physical and mental health of a person, leading the person into higher risk.
Consuming drugs and alcohol don’t cause this disorder, but it can worsen and stimulate the mood of a person to a higher level. Therefore, it is required for the person to detox himself from these substances so that the doctor will provide a proper diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
Gender: both men and women are equally affected by bipolar disorder. Studies have found that as compared to men women experience rapid cycling of mood disorder. Women’s get easily depressed, and experience mixed episodes of feelings rather than men.
Causes of Bipolar Disorder
Cause of bipolar disorder is unknown, but many other factors are responsible for leading this disorder. Such as:-
Biological factor: a person experiences physical changes that also occur in the brain. This help in examining the significance of changes that are uncertain and help in rectifying causes. It causes a change in a person’s mood and ability to function.
Hereditary: this is most common in the individual who is having a parent or a sibling going through this condition. Researchers are finding genes which are involved in causing this disorder.
Symptoms:
Whether the symptoms are normal ups or downs, at first, the symptoms may appear when the individual is in the teenage years or early adulthood. It is difficult to analyze the symptoms of bipolar disorder in children and teenager. Researchers analyze that children of the parents with a mental disorder rarely had a 1/3 chance of developing mental illness by adulthood.
Some of the symptoms are listed below:-
- Engaging in bad extreme activities with poor vision or judgment.
- Lack of sleep or insomnia.
- Multiple thoughts.
- Changing topics in conversation is more likely.
- Excessive speech.
- False belief or failure by maintaining wrong assumptions.
Treatment:
It will be treated by focusing much on involving the patient in rectifying mental illness, by doing aerobic exercise, yoga, and by providing physiotherapy treatment. Medicine treatments are also given to be able to treat multiple thoughts and problems arising due to sleep. This disorder is not treatable with medicine, but they can somewhat lessen its influence. Nowadays, Health diary is also very popular among patients suffering from any kind of health trauma or disorders. The Health diary, in this case, allows an individual to monitor his or her mental health easily and effectively.
Medicines used in treating bipolar disorder are:-
These are the medicines given to people with a mood disorder:-
Paliperidone (Invega)
Asenapine (Saphris)
Iloperidone (Fan apt)
Lurasidone (Latuda)
Brexpiprazole (Rexulti)
Lithium or lamotrigine are also given in order to stabilize mood and episodes of depression.
Other problems this disease can lead to:-
Some of the diseases which lead to bipolar disorder are:-
Thyroid
Headache (Migraine)
Cardiac diseases
Diabetes
Obesity
Physical illness
Psychosis
Conclusion:
There has been an increase in the living standard of the life of the people and advancement in the use of technology but humans become nuclear. Nobody shares their thoughts and feelings anymore to the other person. This makes them live with their mental illnesses. With the help of treating bipolar disorder properly, a person can be made free of worries. Having an active lifestyle with proper sleep is essential. With the help of following a few simple steps, this disorder can be treated, but it involves direct involvement of family with the doctor.