Bipolar disorder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bipolar disorder is a term from psychiatry. It is also called manic-depression because people who have this disease are sometimes manic and at other times have depression. It is a kind of mental illness.
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[change] Symptoms
Sometimes, a person can experience something called mania. Mania is when a person's brain goes into a high-energy state. The other extreme is a low-energy state that is depression. "Bipolar" literally means "two poles" or two extremes in how much energy the brain has. When in a high-energy state, mania can cause extreme emotions such as panic attacks or extreme happiness such as euphoria.
When a person with Bipolar disorder is manic, they might not think as hard about the choices that they make, and sometimes may do things like give things to people, or spend lots of money. This is because during a manic episode, a lot of people start to believe things that aren't really true, or get confused about what's real and what's made up. People can also become aggressive and possibly violent while manic, but this only happens in very, very bad cases, so it's not as common as some people think.
[change] Mania
There are a few things that a lot of people start to believe when they have manic episodes. Sometimes, they might think they have lots and lots of money, when they really do not. Other times, the person who has a manic episode might think that people they knew are alive, even though the truth is that these people have died. Every person is different, so it's important to remember that these things do not happen to all people with Bipolar disorder.
[change] Treatment
Like most mental illnesses, there are ways to treat Bipolar Disorder. Sometimes taking medicine or getting therapy can make it easier to control. The same treatments and medicines do not work for everyone, and it is not rare for people to have manic episodes when they stop taking their medicine because they feel like they can control their disorder. Things like this can make Bipolar Disorder a difficult illness to live with, but when people are educated about it, it is not quite as hard.
[change] Manic Depression
Bipolar Disorder used to be called Manic Depression. This was because the two symptoms were mania and depression. Now psychiatrists and psychotherapists (doctors who specialize in mental illnesses) think bipolar disorder is one illness in its own right, not a combination of two other illnesses, and have developed new treatments and "coping strategies" (plans to live more easily with bipolar disorder)
