Bipolar Affective Disorder
Is someone around you like this-?
For some time usually for months remains very enthusiastic and very happy, becomes highly confident, talks a lot and talks about money, power and capacity most of the times, becomes over friendly and socially active, sleeps very less and in spite of that seems very fresh, spends money recklessly, does lot of shopping, highly optimistic, becomes aggressive if someone interrupts him/ her.
In contrast to that for some months remains in the room, not talking to others, eats less, lies on the bed most of the time, seems sad, has low confidence and becomes pessimistic, talks like life is not worth to live, don’t go to work.
Then he/ she might be suffering from bipolar affective disorder.
Bipolar affective disorder (type 1)-
Firstly, we will understand the meaning of the word- “Bipolar affective disorder”
“Bipolar”– two poles
“Affect” – broadly speaking external expression of mood
Bipolar affective disorder means having two poles of mood- depression and mania. Mania is the period of elevated and irritable mood (depression is the state of sad mood and to fully understand depression, you can click here “depression” )
Per year 1 person in 100 suffers from bipolar affective disorder, but it is difficult to estimate because milder forms of bipolar disorder are often missed. Bipolar affective disorder type 1 is equally found in males and females.
This disorder is more common in divorce and single than in married persons. In studies it was found that bipolar affective disorder is more common in rich people. Bipolar affective disorder is also present with alcohol abuse, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and social anxiety disorder.
Why a person suffers from bipolar affective disorder-
- Imbalance of chemical of brains
- Hormonal imbalance
- Change in the structure of the brain is found in these patients
- Stressful life events (eg. Childbirth, loss of spouse)
- Family history of bipolar affective disorder
Symptoms-
Patients have excess cheerful and irritable mood, increase level of energy, increase self-esteem (like they will start insulting people and feels like the superior person), decrease need for sleep (their sleep time in night decreases), increase talkativeness (they talk a lot like they can’t be stopped by others), feeling like thoughts are racing in mind, distractibility (attention is very easily drawn to unimportant things), increase activity (like works a lot in the office) and involves in the activities which have very harmful consequences (like foolish business investments).
Know whether someone is suffering from bipolar affective disorder or not?
All these symptoms should be present for at least for 7 days and impair the working of patients.
In the bipolar affective disorder patient have multiple alternating episodes of “mania” and “depression.”
Treatment-
Mainstay treatment is medicines and therapy.
This site is just for the awareness of mental illnesses not for diagnosis. If someone finds himself/herself or their loved one having symptoms kindly consult a psychiatrist.