Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder also known as manic depression is a severe mental illness. The disease causes a person to experience severe changes in moods, thinking, energy, and behavior. Sometimes the person becomes hyperactive than normal a condition referred to as mania. Sometimes the person feels down and sad and not very active a condition called depression. There are different bipolar disorder causes, symptoms, treatment, and healthy ways of living.

There are various causes of bipolar disorder. Some people believe that it is a hereditary disease, whereby a child who has a parent or any family member suffering from the disease has high chances of being sick. Another cause may be abnormal structure and functioning of the brain. Besides, people who suffer from anxiety disorder are more prone to developing bipolar disorders. There are several external psychological and environmental factors referred to as external triggers, which may cause the occurrence of bipolar disease symptoms. These external triggers are stressful events in life that may cause sudden or drastic changes. Substance abuse, for example, ecstasy, cocaine, and amphetamines can lead to a person having mania while tranquilizer and alcohol trigger depression. Most of the time bipolar disorder episodes follow a periodic pattern. For example, during summer, the sick person may experience the manic episodes while in winter, fall, and spring they may experience depression episodes. When a person lacks sleep, or even fails to take some rest when tired can trigger bipolar disorder.

The use of some medication such as antidepressants, caffeine, appetite suppressants, thyroid medication, and corticosteroids medicine can cause manic episodes.

The disease symptoms vary between different people in their severity, pattern, and frequency. Among the people suffering from bipolar disorder, some are likely to experience depression episodes, others mania episodes or some may experience mixed episodes that comprise of both depression and mania alternating. Each of the mood episodes has different symptoms. A person suffering from mania episodes will tend to have less sleep, talk very fast that other people are unable to keep up with them in a conversation. They are easily irritated. They are not able to concentrate because they are easily distracted. In severe cases, they may suffer from hallucination or delusions, and they jump from one point to another.

People who suffer from depression episodes may experience problems with their sleep, they feel sad, hopeless, empty, fatigue, guilt or unworthy. They are mentally and physically slow, have suicidal thoughts, face memory and concentration problems or experience changes in weight or appetite. They are unable to experience happiness since they are easily irritated. People who suffer from mixed episodes may experience both symptoms of depression, mania, or hypomania. These symptoms include a mixture of depression with anxiety, irritability, sleeplessness, agitation, racing thoughts, and distractibility. The combination of these low and high mood changes can make the person have suicidal thoughts.
People suffering from bipolar disorders and do not seek treatment quickly may have serious problems at their places of work, relationships with others, develop complicated health issues, and if they are students, they may perform poorly in school. For example, people suffering from hypomania or mania may end up hurting their friends or family members. Most bipolar disorder treatments are long term because the condition keeps on recurring. Therefore, it is important for the patient to have continuous treatment even if they feel better from when they started treatment. Also, they should use medication to avoid new episodes and symptoms that cause them. A person with bipolar disorder needs to combine medication with lifestyle changes, social support, and therapy for successful treatment. Besides, the complications of bipolar disorder diagnosis and treatment may be difficult. Therefore, it is important for the patient to seek treatment from a skilled psychiatrist in treating bipolar disorder conditions.

It is important for a person suffering from bipolar disorder to make right choices concerning their daily habits and lifestyle. First, the person should research more on the disease and find details of what they can do to help in their recovery. The patient should avoid situations that would cause them to be stressed instead they should use relaxation techniques, for example, meditation, deep breathing or yoga to help them have a healthy balanced work life. They can join support groups for encouragement and advice. It is important for the person to develop healthy exercising, eating, and sleeping habits that can stabilize the individual’s mood. The person should keep a record of the symptoms they receive and look out for signs that their feelings are changing. This practice will help the person to be able to stop the issue even before it begins.

In conclusion, bipolar disorder is a chronic disease that the individual suffering from it should seek medical help early after suspecting they have it. It will assist in controlling the symptoms before the condition reaches extremes. Also, the individual’s lifestyle and daily activities will help in ensuring that the person can monitor and avoid the symptoms from occurring.