Bipolar means two poles. This means two different sides of the same coin! People suffering from bipolar disorder often experience mood changes. In other words people have a lot of energy and time to do things. They are super productive and don’t need sleep like normal human beings. They may feel euphoria. It’s important to understand the signs and symptoms. This is called mania which in simple words means good feeling. The person might feel depressed as well. Feeling of tiredness or thoughts relates to suicide are some of the things that the person might experience. So some days are as high as mountains and some deep as well! This makes a continuous cycle and thus is called episodes. The treatment includes medications and therapy. The dark part of the disorder is that it’s chronic and thus will stay with you for life long. The only way is to minimise the symptoms by taking proper medications. There are as such no complications of this but we have to be regular for the appointments. Through online consultation one can be in regular touch with the doctor.
What is Bipolar disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a mental condition that affects the person day to day interactions like behaviour, mood, thought and energy. There are three types of bipolar disorder : bipolar l, bipolar ll and cyclothymic disorder. All three cause symptoms of either mania or depression or both. A person could feel a lack of energy or motivation to pursue things around him. The difference between the types of bipolar disorder is that of onset and severity. Onset of this disorder is typically around the age of 18. The person suffering from type 1 can actually have this for a week long and the severity of this can make a person hospitalised. Apart from that, mania is another thing associated with it. The person may experience major depressive episodes and symptoms. Other than that, a person may experience only mania without depression. A person with type ll will experience both mania as well as depression. This usually starts by the early 20’s. The major symptom is of hypomania and it lasts for only 4 days. This is less severe compared to type 1. Cyclothymia can start as early as 6 years of age. This also has a symptom of hypomania. The person will suffer from depression. It is less severe and thus cannot qualify for depression or mania. There is no scientific cause but it might be related to some genetic or environmental factors. People may suffer from
- Anxiety disorder
- Eating disorders
- Psychotic disorder
- Substance abuse
It is a lifelong disorder but can be managed by proper medication. This requires continuous visits with your doctor. Understanding of human psychology is a task itself. During bipolar disorder it becomes way tougher. The other causes include steroid-induced, substance induced, drug induced, autoimmune induced, neurosyphilis, HIV and subacute combined degeneration and hyperthyroidism.
What are the signs of being Bipolar?
The criteria described by neuropsychiatrist for manic episodes is a distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated or expansive or irritable mood lasting for one week. You might feel easily distracted or feel powerful some other time. There are some dig fast symptoms to get to know about the disorder. There are some classical symptoms that people suffer from. Your psychiatrist might tell you about sig ecaps symptoms and talk about major depressive disorder. Depression has its own symptoms and so is mania. Mania is considered the focal point for the bipolar disorder spectrum. The classic presentation is made up of DIGFAST symptoms. These symptoms are part of all the types of bipolar disorder that includes bipolar type 1, type 2 and cyclothymic disorder.
- D for distractibility
- I for impulsivity
- G for grandiosity
- F for fight of ideas
- A for activity
- S for sleep
- T for talkativeness
These are the general symptoms of mania. The psychiatrist checks all of them for maniacs. Now let’s understand what is distractibility? It is simply a lack of focus. The person starts bouncing over things, doing multiple stuff at the same time. Next is impulsivity which is risk taking impulse behaviour. The manic patient might get on top of the moving train or ride on the top of the train. They might go near an electrical pole and move down the wire. So that’s very impulsive and risks taking the character that the patient shows. Grandiosity means that the habit of thinking is more important than you actually are. This can make the person irritated. Patients might think that they are God. They might think that they have special abilities. Manic people have a rate of speech so fast that you cannot even interrupt them. That’s the flight of ideas. The word comes as really rapid speech. Manic people are active beyond normal levels. This is really weird sometimes. Sleep requirement is less in manic patients. This is due to hyperactivity of the patients. It’s really for a psychiatrist to understand these sleep changes. This is different in depressed patients, they feel the need to sleep if they slept for only a few hours. In maniac patients the need for sleep is decreased and they are very fresh the other day unlike depressed patients. This is the clinical feature to differentiate.
Treatment of Bipolar disorder
The treatment includes a combination of therapy and medication. The psychiatrist will advise you for long term medication. The patient has to be regular even though you don’t witness regular symptoms. The first phase of medication is the trial phase. Your psychiatrist will prescribe you medication and thus will see how your body reacts. Mood stabilisers are drugs of choice for bipolar disorder. Neuropsychiatrists prescribe them to avoid the episodes of extreme mood changes. Mood stabilisers are non-addictive and can be dangerous if discontinued. Working with a psychiatrist to minimise the mood changes and overcome depression is really important. The other groups of medicine that people take are antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs. These medications are prescribed by the psychiatrist to make mood stabilisers even more effective. But these medications are addictive. So it’s important to work with psychiatrist.
The drugs used for bipolar type 1 are mood stabilisers which are lithium, sodium valproate, carbamazepine and olanzapine. The drugs are the same for bipolar type 2 as well but in little less dose as the symptoms appear for shorter duration. It is found that not taking medications can actually worsen people’s condition. It might take a lot of effort to take medicine on a regular basis. Once you get this it will improve your condition and can effectively try to normalise things around you.
Finding a balance!
Are you mad? Are you okay?
These are the questions you get if you suffer from bipolar. It is considered to be still “bad” and above all there is no acceptance. People still think that it’s just about madness. Many don’t get the severity of this disorder. It’s all about showing empathy to the patient. Listening to someone is important. Support them instead of pulling them down or misunderstanding their behavior.Because bipolar disorder is not just for a few days or weeks, it’s for whole life! The person will go a lot of ups and down in their life. The least we can do is support. Offer help! You can simply help by doing their daily chores. It’s important to understand bipolar disorder to encourage effective treatment.
