Written by: Celine Yang
Artwork by: Celine Yang
Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that mostly affects your emotions. People with the disorder occasionally go through manic, hypomanic, or depressive periods which can be mentally draining as they cause feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Additionally, they lead to a loss of interest or enjoyment in most activities.
What is bipolar disorder?
People often think a bipolar person is someone with severe mood swings ranging from extreme happiness to sadness, often regarded as manic depression. It involves a dramatic shift in emotions, mood, and energy from extreme lows to extreme highs. The dramatic shifts often occur during the span of a few days or weeks.
The low moods people experience are similar to a major depressive disorder, or unipolar disorder. Individuals with this disorder feel hopeless as well as lethargic and blurred focus. It also leads to physical ailments such as eating or sleeping too much or little.
On the other hand, manic episodes are when the individual experiences extremely high moods. People tend to feel very energetic, overly happy, and euphoric with high self-esteem. Although people might think of these optimistic and happy characteristics as something good, they can be extremely dangerous. These extreme behaviors may lead to making impulsive decisions such as investing all their money in a risky business venture. In addition to making these decisions without any thought, people in manic episodes may have pressured speech or racing thoughts.
Affects in daily life
The drastic mood swings people with bipolar disorders experience affect their mental health. It can cause people to feel restless and they may have a hard time making decisions when they are in a low mood. On the other hand, when in manic episodes, people with bipolar disorders may be prone to making more impulsive decisions that will result in consequences later in life. These inconveniences in making decisions will ultimately have a toll on people’s mental health as decisions are a prime aspect that determines one’s day-to-day life.
Ways of Treatment:
Although bipolar disorder cannot be cured, there are numerous therapies and management techniques that one can employ to control their symptoms. Medication and psychological therapy (psychotherapy) are the main forms of treatment for bipolar disorder, while education and support groups may also be used.
The main takeaway from the blog is to recognize bipolar disorder as an illness. Characterized as highly unpredictive and maladaptive according to the DSM-5, it is a serious disorder that affects a lot of people around the world. To mock those who suffer from it, for example, Kanye West would be an insult to the millions that are suffering from mental health illnesses. Therefore, we must show compassion, and empathize with their situation.
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