Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, is a major affective disorder. Once labeled as an “organic” symptom or syndrome in nature, bipolar is now decidedly realized to be a “real” medical issue, a medical issue caused by “disturbances in brain psychology.”* Manic depression, no longer considered organic in nature, is now referred to as a mood disorder and is believed to be caused by a general medical condition.
The severity of the mania and/or depression varies, and studies continue to find that each individual case is unpredictable. It is still unknown, the cause of bipolar disorder, but it is widely believed in the medical world to be familial. It is understood that bipolar disorder usually occurs before the age of twenty.*
Women are no more likely than men to suffer manic depression; however, there has been extensive study on the days before a woman’s monthly cycle. The tests show that premenstrual dysphoric disorder diagnostic criteria are quite similar to the depressive and manic symptoms listed below.
The diagnosis concerning manic depression generally remains unclear. What is known, though, is that “[children] of individuals with bipolar disorder have an increased risk of developing bipolar disorder.”* It is also clear that women tend to rapid cycle, with 75 percent of women being understood to rapid cycle more than men. Rapid cycling is when a patient has four or more episodes in one year. Those episodes include mania, hypomania, depression, or mixed state. Mixed state, an additional atypical mood, is seen in bipolar disorder as a collaboration of the intense, frantic, and often dangerous state of mania and the misery of bottomless depression. The symptoms seem to work simultaneously in some patients.*
Depressive symptoms*
- Depressed mood
- Dysphoric mood
- Diurnal variation of mood
- Guilty feelings
- Loss of ability to feel pleasure
- Social withdrawal
- Suicidal thoughts
- Cognitive (thinking) symptoms
- Poor concentration
- Poor memory
- Indecision
- Slowed thinking
- Sleep disturbances
- Insomnia
- Hypersomnia
- Appetite disturbances
- Weight loss
- Weight gain
- Loss of interest in sex
- Fatigue
- Constipation
- Headaches
- Worsening of painful conditions
- Delusional thinking
- Hallucination
- Catatonic states
Mania Symptoms*
- Elated, euphoric mood
- Irritable mood
- Grandiosity
- Cognitive (thinking) symptoms
- Feelings of heightened concentration
- Accelerated thinking (racing thoughts)
- Increased energy level
- Decreased need for sleep
- Erratic appetite
- Increased libido
- Grandiose illusions
- Hallucinations
The Creative Side of Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression)
One thing that is common for most people with bipolar disorder is creativity. Dr. Mondimore explains that a truly remarkable amount of talented and famous artists are well-documented in having psychiatric illnesses, and bipolar disorder is one of the most common of the many illnesses. It is suggested in his book Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families that Vincent Van Gogh is one of these many greats that suffered from bipolar disorder. Any simple Internet research will show that a striking number of famous artists and actors from the past and the present have lived their lives maintaining bipolar disorder.
When one is manic, there is an extreme charge of productivity, and along with the mania comes, inevitably, the crashing depression. This fluctuating disorder is no easy task to bear. When the passionate, imaginative, and inspired energy subsides into the psychotic feelings of despair, hopelessness, and desolation where no creativity can be found, it can be fearful for the afflicted as well as their loved ones. It can be so tempting to not take medications when one is manic with creativity, never needing sleep or food, only hungering to create. There are ways to get better, though. With a delicate balance, there are ways to stay well.
Treatments for Bipolar Disorder
Knowing the symptoms is one thing, but knowing how to live with them, use the correct medications, and behave with conducive lifestyle choices is another thing. When it comes to bipolar disorder, lithium has had the most success in stabilizing patients with manic depression. A list of medications to help manic depression can be found through your doctor as well as at WebMD. Other ways to ease bipolar symptoms include the regular use of aroma therapy, massage, acupuncture, herbal teas, and homeopathic remedies for stress. There is also the belief that clearing out your space of living for better organization can help your thoughts become more balanced. Talk therapy is also said to help, and this is described by talking with your significant other about ways to reverse negative thoughts and turn them into “positive, life- affirming ideas.”**
These methods can help in milder cases, but they are not going to calm the strongest manic and psychotic episodes, major depressive episodes, or these in combination with schizoaffective disorder. For those episodes, you need the assistance of a practicing physician who knows psychotropic medications and can see you through the dilemma, monitoring your behaviors and emotional state closely. While depression brings the afflicted to the lowest despondency and oftentimes creates suicidal actions or ideation, mania most often creates in the sufferer the dangerous and frightening circumstances of terribly risky behaviors — not to mention unmanageable hyperactive energy levels. Both mania and depression can last weeks to several months, even years. It is crucially important that the manic depressive work with a physician or psychiatrist for the treatment to balance out the mood disorder. Mood-stabilizing medications such as lithium, Depakote, Epivale, Carbamezapine, and many others are known to be successful.
Once the afflicted is feeling better, they tend to think, “Oh, I feel great. I can get off these meds now,” but it is a bad idea to go on and off the meds for bipolar or schizoaffective disorder. Lithium, in particular, loses its potency each time you go off of it, so when you feel you must begin taking it again, you then require to go up to a higher dosage. This can be dangerous due to toxicity levels.
Being manic depressive myself, I know this first hand. As little as I want to take medications, I have learned by now — after living with the severe ups of mania and the miserable downs of depression — that I need to take the medications regularly in order to gain the most effective results and have the most peace and stability in life. I used to not believe a word of what the doctors told me. I thought rebelliously, “Not me. I am just fine,” and I went on my rambunctious way. But, after years of situations of turmoil — situations of intense danger that I put myself in — I no longer toy around with this disease. I hope that those of you who love someone with manic depression, or those of you who have it yourself, can read this article and understand how serious this malady actually is.
Sources:
*Mondimore, Francis, M.D., Bipolar Disorder: A Guide For Patients and Families. 2nd ed. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2006. 205-216. Print.
**Fast, Julie A., and John Preston. Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder: Understanding & Helping Your Partner. Oakland, Calif.: New Harbinger, 2004. 53 – 64. Print.
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