What is bipolar?
Bipolar disorder or manic depression is a type of mood disorder. This is a psychiatric illness that causes major disruptions in lifestyle and health within the life of the patient and their families. It is hard to deal with for both the patient and the families of the patient.
We all have mood swings to some degree but in patients with bipolar, their mood swings are extreme and last for a long time sometimes for months at a time. The depressive state seems to last longer for everyone. When they move between cycles quickly they are considered to be a rapid cycler and sometimes these extremes can happen on the same 24 hour period.
They call this bipolar because there seems to be 2 distinct and opposite phases they go through but with that high and low phases there has to be a middle phase when they are not experiencing the other two. Granted most of the time they are in the extreme phases, and rarely seem to go into the other one.
The Phases:
Mania phase is when they are on the up swing of the disorder. This phase has a feeling that everything is right in their world. Patients may believe they don’t need their medicine, they are perfect in every way that they can do anything and they tend to spend money like it is going out of style. Many will go on shopping sprees with money they do not have. They do not feel the need to sleep and can literally stay up 48 hours straight and keep going. They do not have time to eat for it would take time away from their other more important issues such as discovering the cures for cancer or writing a best seller. They have grand ideas during this phase and they skip all normal act ivies during this time to accomplish their most important stuff.
The depressive cycle is when they are super depressed and they feel nothing is right within their world and nothing will ever be right within their world. They may hurt physically along with hurting mentally. They may quit jobs, lash out at their loved ones and engage win destructive behaviors because they just do not care about anything or anyone. They may also have thoughts of suicide or homicide at this part of the vicious cycle. They cry and sleep often during this phase. They also feel the need to have others talk to them for endless pep talks, also they are very lonely. They may experience bouts of extreme paranoia and once they get a wrong idea in their head they just build upon it.
They have a cycle in between which I call ‘middle of the road‘ and this is where everything seems to be fine. I am not sure what the medical community calls this phase but as an ex-spouse of a bipolar patient this is what I call it. Bipolar patients are not showing any depression or mania symptoms and will seem almost normal in many aspects. They are able to hold jobs, be part of the family and hold jobs down.
Treatment:
Treatment consists of both daily medications and counseling a few times a week. Sometimes when a patient is in the mania phase they will stop the medications because they feel nothing is wrong there for they don’t need them. However one counselor has told me personally that when someone with bipolar stops taking their medicines it induces a natural high for them, which she likened to cocaine high so no wonder they skip medicines. Without their medications they cycle viciously out of control.
Daily medications could include wellbrutrin, seraquil, depakote, paxil and a host of others. The trick is finding the right combination for each patient. What works for one patient will not work for another, also the longer a patient uses a medication sooner or later they will grow intolerance to it and have to change medications.
What causes it?
This condition does tend to run in families, so if one has it then you will most likely see another one as well with bipolar to some degree. If one parent has it and one does not, a child born to them has a 50/50 chance of developing bipolar. If both parents have it that chance jumps up to a whopping 90% chance.
Some scientists think that bipolar is caused by drug abuse or extreme stress but most of them think that bipolar is caused by a short circuit in the brain. Either was the only treatment is counseling, medications and hospitalizations when the breakdowns occur.
Statistics on this disorder:
Bipolar disorder occurs in both men and women but more generally it occurs within the males. About 2.3 million people in the United States have bipolar, that is a lot of people. There is no cure for this one only drugs and counseling to control the symptoms it causes. Patients with bipolar will do anything to feel better; hence the suicide rates are high with this disorder.
Summary:
I currently am working on an article about my own personal experience as the spouse of a bipolar patient. It was a very hard thing to watch my ex suffer so much, especially when I knew he could not totally control his mood swings. He could have controlled them more had he took the medicines as prescribed but he liked to self medicate better, perhaps that was part of the disorder and not a personal choice, I will never know as we are currently separated.
When my ex husband was first diagnosed seven years ago, it was rough as I did not know anything at all about bipolar disorder. I educated my self extensively on this disorder, because I had a very personal interest in it for myself as well as my children. I do not owe anything to my ex husband but I owe my children the world and I must protect them at all costs.
