Julie Fast Writes About Bipolar Disorder at Bipolar Happens Dot Com

Posted by David B. and Dianne Hansen | June 23, 2009 .

It’s hard to explain this illness to people- especially if you or someone you care about was just diagnosed- here is a script you can use:

Most people know what depression looks and feels like- a lack of motivation, waking up in the morning with the thought, what is the point of my life?, asking- is this all there is?, Depression includes a lot of anxiety (fear), ADD, symptoms, irritation, and sometimes psychosis. (Psychosis is a break with reality that includes hallucinations and delusions). Depression symptoms also include crying, catatonic feelings and what I call psychic pain.

Bipolar disorder has everything described in depression- the difference between a diagnosis of depression and bipolar disorder is a mood swing called mania. This is a mood swing where the mood elevates instead of going down. This elevation is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. There are two types of mania- full blown mania and hypomania. If you have full blown mania, your diagnosis is Bipolar One. If you have hypomania, your diagnosis is Bipolar Two. Mania in both forms can be exciting, wonderful, vibrant, awesome and great! You can feel like the most beautiful person in the world and the world feels the same!

Many artists with bipolar disorder such as Virginia Woolf and Vincent Van Gogh did their most successful work when they were manic. It really can be an exciting time with lots of energy and creativity. This exciting mania is called euphoric mania.

Then there is agitated mania- also called dysphoric mania. It’s awful. It’s like having gravel in your eyes and anxiety in your blood. You can’t sleep- you roam around and have trouble dealing with the world because it’s all so overstimulating. You can’t work, maintain relationships or take care of yourself. It’s very uncomfortable.

The main symptom of both euphoric and dysphoric mania is SLEEPING LESS WITHOUT BEING TIRED THE NEXT DAY. This is the difference between mania and insomnia. You desperately want to sleep when you have insomnia. You can’t sleep or don’t even want to sleep when you have mania.

Mania makes you do things you would never do if given the choice. It can wreck lives and often does a lot of damage.

Mania doesn’t last- what goes up always goes down. Always.

You can’t have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder unless you have experienced clear cut mania.

So, there you go. A nutshell explanation of the two main parts of bipolar disorder- there are a million more, but that is a good place to start.

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Julie Fast Writes About Bipolar Disorder at Bipolar Happens Dot Com

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