How Do You Know Someone Is Bipolar
Editor's Note: If you're feeling suicidal, having thoughts almost harming yourself or believe someone you know may be in danger of harming themselves, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at i-800-273-8255 to obtain confidential support. This resource is free and accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. TTY users can dial 711, followed past 1-800-273-8255. The organization also offers the Lifeline Conversation service for online support.
Bipolar disorder is a chronic mental health condition that was previously referred to as "manic depression." It causes frequent shifts in mood, energy and action levels. People with bipolar disorder experience strong feelings of sadness, guilt and hopelessness during episodes of depression, and these are followed by farthermost periods of happiness called mania.
Symptoms of bipolar disorder tin can vary from person to person in terms of severity and duration. For some people, feelings of depression and elevated moods may rotate or cycle. For others, moods might shift quickly or feelings of depression and elevated mood might alternate over a flow of months. The condition can sometimes escalate and include symptoms of delusions, hallucinations and other types of psychosis that disconnect a person from reality.
Bipolar disorder impacts approximately 4.four% of adults in the United States during their lifetimes. About usually, symptoms begin in adolescence and young adulthood, but they may announced in childhood too. At that place is no cure for bipolar disorder, and without treatment, this status can lead to negative effects on a person's finances, relationships and even their standing with the law. However, treatment options are bachelor to help manage symptoms and stabilize mean solar day-to-day life.
Symptoms and Alert Signs of Bipolar Disorder
During mood episodes of bipolar disorder, people feel intense emotional and behavioral changes that concluding for most of the day for multiple days or weeks at a time. The symptoms that a person experiences differ during depressive episodes and manic episodes. Symptom expression tin vary, merely typically an private will experience iii or more of the post-obit symptoms from these lists during each type of episode:
Depressive episodes may include:
- Feelings of sadness, emptiness or hopelessness
- Changes in slumber patterns (more than or less sleep than usual)
- Increased appetite
- Forgetfulness or difficulty concentrating
- Loss of involvement in or difficulty completing daily tasks
- Decreased sex drive or power to experience pleasure
- Thoughts of expiry or suicide
Manic episodes may include:
- Elated mood
- Irritability
- Decreased need for sleep
- Loss of appetite
- Rapid spoken language and actions
- Racing thoughts
- Feelings of increased importance or ability
- Changes in judgment (can frequently involve higher-risk behaviors like spending big amounts of money, engaging in unsafe sexual practices or impulsively making major life decisions)
It's important to keep in mind that depression and mania be on a mood spectrum, and a person might experience changes in mood that don't quite fit the criteria for either extreme but that can still cause a disruption to their daily life. For example, "hypomania" refers to an elevated mood that may non include the extreme behavioral changes that accept place during manic episodes. It's likewise possible to experience a mixed episode that includes symptoms from both of the above lists. Typically, someone with bipolar disorder experiences this as increased sadness or hopelessness with simultaneous increased energy or irritability.
Sometimes it's difficult for individuals to identify symptoms while they're experiencing them. A shut family fellow member or friend might point out changes in behavior that may signal the onset of symptoms.
Causes and Risk Factors for Bipolar Disorder
Although the precise set of causes of bipolar disorder is unknown, experts believe that a number of genetic and environmental factors are responsible. Studies show that genetics and environmental factors both play a part in the onset of symptoms. Causes may include:
- Structure of the brain: Imaging studies suggest that those living with bipolar disorder may have structural changes in certain parts of their brains that influence the way signals are conducted, impacting mood and behavior.
- Genetic changes: There'due south no ane gene linked to bipolar disorder, simply sure genes may make it more likely that someone develops bipolar disorder. This means that having a shut relative with the diagnosis makes it more than likely that an individual will feel bipolar disorder.
- Stress: Experiencing traumatic or highly stressful life events without adequate support may increase the likelihood of developing symptoms of bipolar disorder or trigger their onset in people who are predisposed to this disorder.
- Substance corruption: In some cases, excessive use of drugs or alcohol can act as a trigger for severe mood episodes in those who are predisposed to bipolar disorder.
There are several conditions that tend to coincide with bipolar disorder. This can complicate diagnosis and treatment. These include:
- Anxiety disorders
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Eating disorders (such as rampage eating disorder, bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa)
- Thyroid disorders
- Migraine headaches
- Heart disease
Testing and Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder
If you notice that you're experiencing extreme mood swings, it's important to speak with a healthcare professional. This can be your medical provider or a mental health specialist like a psychologist or a psychiatrist. These professionals tin can use a variety of diagnostic tools to assistance determine whether you're living with bipolar disorder or another condition.
- Assessment: In assessing for a mood disorder, a provider will likely ask questions about your lifestyle, relationships, family unit history, mood and sleep patterns, substance use and daily activities. It's important to reply these questions honestly so the provider can identify whether you're at take chances. In club to be fix to reply these questions, it can exist helpful to maintain a log of your mood changes and how long they last over fourth dimension. Keep track of how you act and how you lot feel, and talk to your friends and family almost whether they've noticed anything out of character or unusual in the mode you've been acting.
- Blood work: After asking you a serial of questions, a provider may gild sure blood or urine tests to rule out any physical explanations for your mood swings, like thyroid abnormalities or substances in your system. Brand sure that, when you attend your appointment, yous bring data nigh any medications you're currently taking.
- Scans: Some brain injuries or tumors produce symptoms that are similar to bipolar disorder. If your doctor has a medical reason to suspect such a problem, they might club a CT scan or an MRI. A specialist will outset to treat these types of conditions as before long every bit possible, and your symptoms will probable stop.
In order to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, your symptoms must align with those listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is a handbook that helps healthcare professionals diagnose mental health conditions. There are four subcategories of bipolar disorder that a provider might identify during diagnosis:
- Bipolar I: Symptoms of depression lasting for at least two weeks, and accompanying manic behavior lasting for at to the lowest degree one week
- Bipolar II: Characterized by less severe mood swings alternating betwixt periods of hypomania and depression — manic feelings and behaviors are non symptoms of this condition
- Cyclothymic disorder: Periods of hypomania and depressive symptoms that last for at least 2 years in adults — symptoms can be more than subtle and may not meet criteria for manic or depressive episodes
- Not otherwise specified: Symptoms of low, hypomania or mania that impair an individual's functioning merely don't meet the blueprint criteria above
Preventing and Treating Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder isn't a condition that you lot can necessarily prevent. You cannot control your genetics, and you cannot control many negative situations that may occur in your life. The all-time preventative measures are to stay informed, monitor your symptoms, find out whether mood disorders run in your family and listen to your friends or family if they betoken out whatsoever significant changes in your behavior. It'southward important to seek treatment for bipolar disorder as before long as these changes get noticeable. Without proper supportive treatment, symptoms may go worse and increase the risk of harm or hospitalization.
Treatment modalities for bipolar disorder may include one or a combination of the following:
- Psychotherapy: Several types of talk therapy exist to help support an individual in addressing disruptive emotions, thought patterns and behaviors.
- Medications: Your provider may prescribe these alone or in combination with individual therapy. A variety of psychotropic medications have the potential to be helpful in targeting the mood and sleep symptoms of bipolar disorder. It can take time to find a medication regimen that works for you lot, and providers may offer trials for the post-obit types of medication:
- Brain stimulation: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a treatment method that stimulates your brain through electrical currents and tin relieve symptoms of bipolar disorder. Patients are typically under general anesthesia for this procedure, which is repeated over a menstruation of fourth dimension. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has also been studied every bit a less invasive way of stimulating the brain to regulate moods.
- Day treatment or hospitalization: If symptoms are severe, intensive outpatient or inpatient treatment allows mental health professionals to monitor symptoms, accommodate medications equally needed and help stabilize moods in a safe environment. Most often this blazon of treatment is elective; hospitalization is only required if a person is an imminent danger to themself or others.
It'southward very of import to find a trusted healthcare provider to piece of work with in creating a treatment plan. Treatment is typically lifelong, and consistent monitoring and treatment adjustments are commonly necessary to create balance and rubber for yous while you lot're living with bipolar disorder.
If y'all or someone you know is struggling with symptoms of bipolar disorder, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a national helpline to connect people with local mental wellness support services and groups. Many patients feel success through back up networks. By interacting with peers and discussing mutual problems, patients, along with their friends and family, are better able to cope with the challenges of bipolar disorder.
Resource Links:
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/wellness/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/bipolar-disorder.shtml
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-atmospheric condition/bipolar-disorder/diagnosis-handling/drc-20355961
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/ten.1111/pcn.12852
https://world wide web.samhsa.gov/find-assistance/national-helpline
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/x.1177/2045125320973790
Source: https://www.symptomfind.com/health/bipolar-disorder-condition?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740013%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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