Bipolar Disorder ? A disease or an illness?

The first time I heard about bipolar disorder was in a movie, I practically had to check it up on my phone dictionary and I was amazed. I quickly made more findings on it and I realized so many people around us exhibited the symptoms and I am pretty sure they do not know it’s bipolar disorder. I was having this conversation about bipolar disorder and my friend didn’t have an idea of what I was talking about. It occurred to me, a lot of people do not much know about bipolar disorder and some even have the wrong facts about it. Thus the reason for this article.

Bipolar disorder is also known as manic depression.

What is bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder is an illness or a mental health issue that is accompanied by extreme mood swings that are emotional and the emotions can come in “high forms” that is, mania ( mania is when your mood comes with high energy, irritability with delusions and it can last for days, weeks and even years), and also “low forms depression (when you are depressed you feel sad, or hopeless and you easily lose interest in things happening around you and even events do not catch your fantasy anymore and you do not want to indulge in fun activities.

Bipolar disorder is a long-time condition, you can manage it by managing your mood swings and even go for treatments and psychotherapy.

The main bipolar disorder symptoms are : 

1. Mania: while experiencing mania, as I said earlier the person with bipolar disorder may feel excited, impulsive and may even engage in behavior such as, use of drugs, unprotected sex, and even a spending spree.
2. Hypomania: Hypomania is not as severe as mania, but you will still notice a change in moods of a bipolar disorder person.
3. Depression: with depression comes a sense of deep sadness, lack of interest in activities, loss of energy, suicidal thoughts, and even lose hope in anything with too little sleep or too much sleep.

often it is quite hard to diagnose bipolar disorder because its symptoms vary.

Bipolar disorder occurs in both men and women, it is not gendered specific, so let’s look at how it affects or the symptoms found in each gender, males and females alike. however, Men experience the symptoms differently from women. Even teenagers and children.

Bipolar disorder symptoms in men

• Men with bipolar disorder are diagnosed earlier in life
• They tend to act out during an episode
• most times they have drugs or substance abuse issues
• they likely do not seek medical help on their own, they need help to do that.
• They likely die by suicide.

 Bipolar disorder symptoms in women

• women with bipolar disorder experience milder episodes
• they are diagnosed not so early in life
• experience more depression episodes
• they relapse more often
• they experience multiple conditions at the same time, malaria, thyroid, migraines.
• they abuse alcohol and substances.

Bipolar disorder symptoms in Teens and Children

The most important sign or signs to look out for as a parent or guardian may include extreme mood swings that are different from their normal mood swings gotten from school stress or anger issues from parents or guardians. To confirm any signs of bipolar disorder is to go for a medical check-up.

Main types of Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar I disorder: This is when you may have experienced a mini manic episode and then followed by a hypomanic and a major depression situation.Bipolar II disorder: This is when you have had a serious depression situation and one hypomanic episode. there is no manic situation.Other types (cyclothymia): This is when you experience hypomania and depressions, the experience is shorter and not so serious like bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder.

There are no sure ways to prevent bipolar disorder, and when you see symptoms ensure you go for a medical check-up at the earliest sign of mental health disorder.

Hope you find this content useful. If you do, don’t forget to comment and share on your social handles.

Xoxo ❤ 👒