Danger level: Medium

What is it?

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric disease characterized by episodes of extremely elevated mood followed by episodes of depression.

Who gets it?

It can happen anytime between childhood and age 50, but mostly happens around age 20. The chances of having the disease through your lifetime are 1%.

About 5 million Americans (3 in 100) are affected by the disease.

What causes it?

No one knows exactly. What is known is that it’s related to your genes (siblings and children of patients with the disorder are 7 times as likely to develop it themselves). Stressful life events are also somehow connected: Some of the patients have a history of abuse as children.

How does it feel?

Bipolar disorder is characterized by manic and depressive episodes. Photo by ZootAlor

The disease presents itself in attacks. These attacks, or episodes, can be either manic or depressive. What are these episodes?

Manic episodes:

These are episodes which last for at least a week, and in which the person has a very elevated mood, and at least 3 of those:

1. Inflated self-esteem (Also called grandiosity)
2. Decreased need for sleep
3. Greater talkativeness than usual
4. Flight of ideas (The person will have ideas about new things coming out constantly and not stopping), or racing of thoughts (one thought “races” the other, since they think faster)
5. Distractibility
6. Increased goal-directed activity – For example, a person might have an idea to correct the world’s global warming and work towards it, frantically.
7. Engaging in risky activities – Like gambling, spending all their money on clothes at one time, doing car races.

How can you spot a manic person?

They’ll sometimes wear flashy clothes. They’ll speak very fast. They’ll be easily distracted. The worst problem is that they don’t know something is wrong.

Depressive episodes

They include:

1. A depressed mood
2. Lack of interest in activities, or lack of pleasure from them
3. Weight loss or gain
4. Problems sleeping
5. Loss of energy
6. Decreased concentration
7. Thoughts about death or suicide

This all can be best understood by watching this video, about a woman coping with the disease. (You can also visit her blog at WannaBeNormal.com to learn more).

How is it treated?

Most patients respond to a drug called lithium. Other drugs used here are drugs which are usually used in the treatment of seizures, like valproic acid.

During the attack itself, sometimes antypsychotic drugs are used, since it takes time for the above drugs to work.

What happens after treatment?

Many people with the disease can live full and satisfying lives, although not everyone will benefit as much from the drugs.

The bottom line: How do I avoid it?

Unfortunately, there isn’t really a way to avoid the disease, since, as mentioned above, it’s probably genetic. What you can do is recognize the signs of the disease to get treatment as early as possible.

Have you experienced these episodes, or know someone who did? Share your story in the comments.

What next?

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