What is bipolar disorder? Bipolar disorder is sometimes called manic depression or bipolar affective disorder. In this condition you have periods where your mood (affect) is in one extreme or another: One extreme is called depression, where you feel low and have other symptoms. The other extreme is called mania (or hypomania if symptoms are less severe), where you feel high or elated along with other symptoms. The length of time you spend in each extreme can vary. It is usually for several weeks at a time or longer. Bipolar disorder is very different from the mood swings that moody people have which last a few minutes or hours. You can have any number of episodes of highs and lows throughout your life. In between episodes of highs or lows there may be gaps of weeks, months or years when your mood is normal. However, some people swing from highs to lows quite quickly without a period of normal mood in between. This is called rapid cycling. (If you have the rapid cycling form of the condition you have at least four mood swings per year.) Note: some people with bipolar disorder can have periods where they have mixed symptoms where they quickly alternate between depressive symptoms and manic symptoms (usually within a few hours). This is known as a mixed bipolar episode.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 17:46:07 +0000
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