Bipolar disorder is an illness where a person feels extreme happy and sad feelings right after one another. This is not just the normal ups and downs that a person may go through in a day. These are extreme emotions of mania and depression. This mental illness affects an equal amount of men and women.
Mania is when a person goes through a stage of extreme happiness or becomes very excited. This person may also experiences hallucinations and or delusions. Some people take risks that they normally would not because they do not think of the consequences in their state of mind. The severity of these psychotic episodes determines the overall severity of the case. Some people may have mania that does not disrupt their social lives in a negative way. This is known as hypomania. Although, most cases of bipolar disorder as classified as severe.
Depression, as covered in my first post, is a condition that can completely take over a person's life. Bipolar disorder can make depression so severe for some people that they may not even be able to get out of bed. Suicide is not only found in depression. In bipolar disorder a person may become suicidal even in their manic state. This makes is much more difficult to treat because it is not just during their episodes of depression.
This illness usually sets in at about the age of 25. There are many different things that are thought to cause this type of mental illness. The biggest factor is genetics. There are many medications and therapies that can help to treat this mental illness that can keep it at a manageable level for the patient and their family.
Reference:
Bipolar Disorder. (2016). National Alliance on Mental Illness. Retrieved from https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Bipolar-Disorder
