Running Head: BIPOLAR DISORDER 1
BIPOLAR DISORDER 2
Bipolar Disorder: What it is Today
Leah M Mangano
Cambridge Christian School
The word bipolar means having two poles, when you suffer from bipolar disorder you have two "poles" of moods. Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (Myers, 2010). Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depressive disorder. People who have bipolar will have major shifts in moods. Some people with bipolar have long periods of either depression or mania. These periods of time can be as long as years or months to as short as minutes. Just like everything else in life there are different levels of severity for bipolar. Symptoms of bipolar, however, are never like the normal ups and downs people undergo throughout life (National Institute of Mental Heath, 2008). Like a pendulum, when one ball is in the air it's a high point for depression, but then it comes down and the other ball is in the air, it's a high point for mania.
Sodium valproate is a common mood stabilizer
HP de la Demeure du Chaos P1050174
HP de la Demeure du Chaos P1050176The cycle continues until the pendulum loses force to continue. When depressed, a person with bipolar will have mood changes, such as, have a period of feeling worried, empty, or like everyone/thing is out to get them. They will also lose interest in things they once enjoyed. Just because bipolar is a mood disorder, however, doesn't mean that it doesn't affect a persons behavior as well. When depressed, the behavioral changes include: feeling tired or slowed down, having problems concentrating, remembering, and making decisions, being restless or irritable, changing eating, sleeping, or other habits, thinking of death or attempting suicide. Behavioral changes with mania differ largely. People will talk faster, jumping from one idea to another, and...