The Bipolar disorder, also know as bipolar affective disorder (TAB) and formerly as manic-depressive psychosis (PMD), is a mental illness characterized by extreme changes in mood.
In this mental condition, the person fluctuates between periods of deep sadness, intense depression and hopelessness, with periods of feeling extremely happy, excited, euphoric or irritable (mania or hypomania).
These periods usually last several weeks or months in stages, interspersing between normal behavior with manic-depressive episodes and can affect sleep, judgment, daily activity level, ability to think clearly, and behavior.
These extreme and unusual mood swings affect 2 out of 100 people and are equally prevalent in both genders. It is not something that can be solved autonomously and its severity may even require hospitalization.
The specific cause that produces bipolar disorder is not entirely exact, although studies suggest some possible points of origin:
It usually occurs more frequently in people with family background suffering from the same disease, so everything seems to indicate that there is a genetic and biological factor.
The limbic system, in charge of regulating emotions (among other functions) in our brain, it works in an erroneous way in people with bipolar disorder, which is why their mood undergoes sudden changes for no apparent personal, social or family reason. justify.
The biological cause It is another factor because there are neurotransmitters such as dopamine (increased levels in the manic phase), serotonin (decreased levels in the depressive phase) and acetylcholine that would be involved, as well as certain hormones such as thyroxine.
On the other hand, some episode triggers would be psychological factors, consumption of alcohol, toxins, some drugs, excessive stress, postpartum syndrome, sleeping less than seven or eight hours, etc..
There is no clear consensus on how many types of bipolar disorder exist, although their characteristics are differentiated depending on the degree of depressive or manic symptoms and can generally be classified into four types:
Type I bipolar disorder is common in individuals who have experienced at least one manic episode in addition to one or more major depressive episodes. For this diagnosis there must be one or more manic or mixed episodes without the need for a depressive episode to appear (although there may be).
It is characterized by episodes of major depression (severe depressions) and at least one hypomanic episode (moderate euphoria).
In this type, hypomanic episodes lack psychotic features or, if they appear, they must be associated with depressive phases, so the extremes of mania are not reached. This type is more difficult to diagnose.
It is assigned to the individual when he seems to clearly suffer from some type of bipolar disorder but does not meet the criteria for any of the other subtypes.
There may be a very fast alternation (in days) between manic symptoms and depressive symptoms, that do not meet the minimum duration criteria for a manic episode or a major episode.
A manic or mixed episode may also appear superimposed on a delusional disorder, a residual schizophrenia or an unspecified psychotic disorder..
Also called rapid cycle bipolar disorder, where the individual experiences numerous episodes of hypomania interspersed with depressive episodes that do not fully meet the criteria for major depressive episodes.
Low-grade mood cycling may appear as a personality trait, but interfere with the individual's function.
There are different variations of this type and moods change rapidly, hence they are called fast or accelerated cycles (the mood changes several times a week or even on the same day) and slow cycles, respectively. These cycles are associated with anxiety and high suicide risks.
Many people think that this disorder is characterized simply by sudden mood swings on the same day or by emotional ups and downs..
In fact, on more than one occasion we hear the typical phrase "you're a bit bipolar", misusing the term. Must try not to stigmatize the term bipolar and in this case, we could change this phrase to "changing mood", which undoubtedly does not mean the same thing once we have previously understood that bipolar disorder is a serious psychological disorder that requires treatment.
Oscillations in bipolar disorder are less frequent than people may believe, lasting weeks or even months, so it is important not to confuse our mood swings or the expression of different emotions caused by some stimulus, with the disorder. Properly said.
Possibly if my mood changes constantly in the sense that I express joy and after a while, I manifest anger, it may be because I am not able to handle my emotions very well, my personality traits or even my any psychological and / or physiological alteration (like PMS in women), but that doesn't mean "I'm bipolar".
Thanks to the appropriate pharmacological treatments combined with psychotherapy, it is possible to achieve a good quality of life when suffering from this disorder and despite being a lifelong condition, it is possible control the cyclical changes of the person who suffers it.
Always consult a specialist and ask for help if you think you need it. Your mental health depends on it.
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