Discussion Madness as Muse

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Individuals with bipolar disorder experience episodes of energetic moods also known as mania and sadness in the form of depression, and this features can occur jointly or at different times. During the premature stages of the manic episode, individuals tend to be very jovial and energetic, and don’t need sleep or rest (Grunze, 2015). Bipolar disorder occurs when there is the destruction of brain cells within the hippocampus causing a change of mood and also an imbalance with the neurotransmitters-agents that assist brain cells to communicate and control mood (Almeida et al, 2017). Famous musicians, actors, and artists, have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, for example, Vincent Van Gogh a famous painter, had a serious bipolar disorder to a point whereby, he cut off his left ear because of an argument with his employer and traces this disorder to his family where some were even hospitalized.
The different types of bipolar include; type1 bipolar disorder whereby, the individual has a range of moods from mania to a depressive state. In type 2 bipolar, the individual has mild periods of hypomania-not severe but can perform daily activities alternating with episodes of intense depression. Cyclothymic disorder is a type of bipolar experience depression and hypomania jointly for a two year period or more, but the moods are mild. Individual experiencing a manic phase, have extreme and abnormal energetic moods. However, the mood can change to sadness and lasts for a short time, this affects the social life of an individual because they tend to be hostile and require hospitalization (Maes et al, 2018).

Some of the causes of bipolar disorder include; genes, this is whereby the condition is passed on to generations within the same family. Another risk factor is the environmental causes that include severe stress and physical illnesses. Scientifically, individuals genetically prone to the bipolar disorder are likely to show high measures of creativity than others mostly in areas of high artistic expertise where verbal skills are required (Kanchanatawan et al, 2018. A person who is creative is different from others because he is open to exploring new skills and a risk taker. This is all characteristics of an individual with bipolar disorder. Therefore, the individuals who have hypomanic symptoms are believed to be more creative compared to other individuals.
Traumatic experiences by people with bipolar disorder mostly occur during the manic phase where the individual may make a risky decision that poses a risk to the individual. This worsens to a point whereby, the individual gets suicidal thoughts, therefore, post-traumatic stress disorder causes high depression levels to a person with bipolar disorder. Most famous individuals who are bipolar overuse drugs like lithium-used to treat bipolar disorder- because it enables them to become more creative and that is how they manage to compose songs or write books, therefore, these people risk drug toxicity and addiction (MacCabe et al, 2018). The toxicity of this drug causes brain cell damage, making the brain to atrophy at twice the normal rate, the brain does compare to age leading to a loss of about 3cc of grey matter-part of the brain that participates in the control of muscles and the ability to hear, see and control emotions (Correll et al, 2015). Personally, if I had high creativity skills associated to madness, I would choose madness because with the skill I will be able to adapt to the difficulties of daily life and improve my social network unlike being depressed and not active. Moments of mental breakdown are important because they enable an individual to make good use of their skills or expertise and therefore play an important role in the society, and without this periods we would not have discovered many of the famous and talented artists and writers.
References
Almeida, J. R., Mourao-Miranda, J., Versace, A., Mechelli, A., Kupfer, D. J., & Phillips, M. L. (2017, May). Cerebral blood flow and connectivity differences between bipolar depression and unipolar depression. 19th Annual Conference of the International-Society-for-Bipolar-Disorders.
Correll, C. U., Detraux, J., De Lepeleire, J., & De Hert, M. (2015). Effects of antipsychotics, antidepressants and mood stabilizers on risk for physical diseases in people with schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. World Psychiatry, 14(2), 119-136.
Grunze, H. (2015). Bipolar disorder. In Neurobiology of Brain Disorders (pp. 655-673).
Maes, M., Bonifacio, K. L., Morelli, N. R., Vargas, H. O., Barbosa, D. S., Carvalho, A. F., & Nunes, S. O. V. (2018). Major Differences in Neurooxidative and Neuronitrosative Stress Pathways Between Major Depressive Disorder and Types I and II Bipolar Disorder. Molecular neurobiology, 1-16.
Kanchanatawan, B., Thika, S., Anderson, G., Galecki, P., & Maes, M. (2018). Affective symptoms in schizophrenia are strongly associated with neurocognitive deficits indicating disorders in executive functions, visual memory, attention and social cognition. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 80, 168-176.
MacCabe, J. H., Sariaslan, A., Almqvist, C., Lichtenstein, P., Larsson, H., & Kyaga, S. (2018). Artistic creativity and risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and unipolar depression: a Swedish population-based case–control study and sib-pair analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 212(6), 370-376.