What is really a bipolar disorder?!


Question: What is really a bipolar disorder?
Please I'm investigating about bipolar disorder and I need someone who tell me more about it with all kind of Details, if there are bipolar people here who can answer this question would be better.
Questions about:
What are the symptoms?
How can a person know if it's a bipolar disorder or it's just a temporary depression? Etc etc etc
Please!!! Thank you beforehand! :)

Answers:

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder four years ago. It used to be called Manic Depressive Disorder. It runs in family's. My mother has it my grandmother had it and she killed herself.. (weird story) and my great grandmother had it. they used to cure it through sedative medicines. So the person would just go to sleep and feel better.I notice that I have massive mood swings.
My boyfriend will be talking to me and I will be all nice and he will ask a simple question like " How was your day" and I will blow up and curse at him and tell him it was terrible and never tell him why, because sometimes I don't even know why. I will be extremely hyper and then I will listen to a song any song not even particular sad song and I will want to kill myself. It is very weird. Sometimes when I am upset my stomach will hurt and my head will hurt and I will be very agitated. sometimes I will get very emotional and lock myself away and not come out of my room except for using the bathroom in days.
The difference between temporary depression and bipolar is that when you are in depression feel really sad, and may or may not get physical signs. But when you have a bipolar disorder your mood changes rapidly and you can be hyper and sad and angry all at once.
I believe it is incurable but you can stabilize it with mood stabilizers and sleep tablets.

I am bipolar.



Bipolar means that behaviour can be either manic or depressed. There is also a unipolar disorder which means that mood is usually normal and then can change to being depressed.

A temporary depression is just an instance of low mood and everyones mood is expected to vary. Depression is clinically diagnosed when it interferes with ability to live your life, e.g. can not get out of bed etc.

There was an interesting documentary on the subject presented by Stephen Fry for the bbc. He spoke to several people who suffered from the condition. It is worth watching if you can find it.

Studying Psychology



Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme changes in mood (poles) -- from mania to depression. Between these mood swings, a person with bipolar disorder may experience normal moods.

www.webmd.com is the best site to look into questions like that. It's a site many doctors use.



It's a mood disorder, where depending on how severe it is, a person's mood will fluctuate from day to day, hour to hour. Happy one minute, sad the next. Excited one minute and anxious the next. The two poles refer to mania and depression. Mania is the feeling of grandiosity--one feels they can accomplish anything, nothing can stop them. People during mania will talk very quickly, they'll be sleeping less, they'll have these outrageous goals, and they'll be in an inflated good mood and the only ones who won't be able to tell that's anything's wrong is the bipolar individual. Often people during mania may go on shopping sprees and be sexually promiscuous. Others might become more conservative.

Depression is the feeling of hopeless, that the person is worthless and has nothing to offer. Most of the time bipolar ppl. will be depressed, rather than manic, if they are to experience either of the two extremes.

Constant moodiness could indicate bipolar. The ultimate distinction between bipolar and depression is the mania. If a person experiences mania, then he is most likely bipolar. Depression itself does not indicate bipolar. Remember it has to be both.

There is not mental exam to take to diagnose, but certain aforementioned behaviors indicate the presence of the disorder. There is no cure, but people can take mood-stabilizing medication-NOT anti-depressants--since will actually cause the bipolar person to become manic, which is also bad and may be dangerous. Lithium used to be the drug of choice. Now there is a variety including Depakote, Lamictal, which happen to be officially anti-convulsants--anti-seizure medication.

If you want a book to read about a woman's personal experience, read Kay Jamison "an unquiet mind" about her personal experience--it's easy reading, but quite illustrative of what bipolar ppl. go thru.

Hope that helps.

i'm bipolar




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