Symptoms of bipolar disorder

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Do you have extreme shifts in your moods? Like you’re happy one moment and then super depressed the next? If your moods track within these extremes, you potentially have Bipolar Disorder. We’ll talk about the general symptoms of bipolar disorder here so you can start assessing yourself if you need to seek the counsel of a therapist and then treatment. Peter Max

Statistically, 20% of the people who enter treatment for depression may be suffering from bipolar disorder. The key difference is that people suffering from bipolar disorder may have periods of feelings of elation that therapists refer to as manic episodes. You can differentiate unipolar depression with bipolar depression with these shifts in moods and behavior. The standard unipolar depression does not possess these upticks in feelings like bipolar disorder has. This association with depression has made diagnosing bipolar disorder challenging. Peter Max

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Patients who suffer from bipolar disorder may actually also be suffering from the abuse of alcohol and drugs. Around 60% of individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder admit to abusing substances. It’s possible that these patients use alcohol and drugs to escape or manage their conditions, but this behavior can impact the detection of the disorder. The abuse of substances can also induce erratic changes in moods and can cloud the nuances therapists are looking for when making a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Peter Max.

Basically, what potential patients and therapists should look for involves the cycling of the moods between depression and mania. If a patient encounters a major depressive episode within a specific time period like a year, which is bisected by periods of hypomania like being upbeat and euphoric, there’s a high likelihood that the patient has bipolar disorder. The presence of these shifts, as well as how fast the patient cycles between mental states are, will dictate if they possess Bipolar I disorder, Bipolar II disorder, or other types of the condition. Peter Max