What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a mental health disorder where particular individuals experience extreme mood swings. There are periods when your mood is exceptionally high, which is called mania. There are also periods when your mood is low, which is depression. That’s why another name for bipolar disorder is manic depression.
There are also three common types of bipolar disorder:
Bipolar I – An individual experiences manic episodes that may last a week or more
Bipolar II – With this type of bipolar disorder, people will enter a state of depression that will last for an additional two weeks
Cyclothymic disorder – People that suffer from cyclothymia deal with depression and hypomania
There may only be a few months out of the year when they have a stable mood
Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder
Because of the different types of bipolar disorder, it can vary in each individual. However, signs that you should look out for include:
Symptoms of mania
- Talking fastly due to racing thoughts
- Minimal need to sleep
- Feeling restless
- Participating in risky behavior
- Feeling extremely happy for extended periods
Symptoms of depression
- Hopelessness for lengthy periods
- Loss of appetite
- Trouble concentrating
- Having suicidal thoughts
- Experiencing fatigue and lack of motivation
What Causes Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is not caused by one factor but a multitude of things. Factors contributing to bipolar disorder include:
Genetics
If a family member suffers from bipolar disorder, you are more likely to develop the condition too
Brain abnormalities
If brain cells are damaged either through physical injury or trauma-inducing events, this can increase the likelihood of developing bipolar disorder
Environmental factors
Job stress, problems in your daily life, and substance abuse are some environmental factors that can contribute to developing bipolar disorder
Treatment For Bipolar Disorder
At Interpersonal Psychiatry, we offer several treatment options for bipolar disorder. We understand its severity, so providing different effective treatments can increase your success in dealing with bipolar disorder.
The treatments that we offer include:
- Prescribing medications such as Lithium and Xanax
- Through our Psychiatric Medication Management program, we prescribe the correct dosage of medication to help you through your treatment
- Lithium helps stabilize your mood during manic episodes
- Xanax can help reduce anxious feeling
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- This type of therapy helps you recognize the negative thoughts and emotions you’re having and how they affect your behavior
- As you learn about how those negative feelings are affecting your daily life, we teach you techniques to help you manage them
- Techniques include:
- SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based)
- Participating in positive activities
- Doing some journaling to help you relieve negative thoughts