I know it’s one that both villainized and sensationalized by media, I want to know what it’s really like and not some fear-mongering missinformation a lot of people spread. Thanks
In: Biology
In addition to the first comment…Bipolar I is what most people think of when they hear about someone with bipolar disorder. Experiencing mania (mood really high and you feel kinda like a super hero in your own story), sometimes psychosis (maybe you see things that aren’t really there, hear voices, or get really scared and paranoid), depression (really down, feeling tired and sad, mind moving slow). Euthymia is an in-between time that is something like feeling “normal”.
Bipolar 2 doesn’t involve mania, but something called hypomania. Think of it as being a smaller kind of mania, and this is what I have experienced myself. It is like being in a really good mood and being able to do a lot of stuff, like I am super-charged. But like a lot of mental illness, it exists on a spectrum, and can be more intense than that for some people. I get a lot more depression, which is a thing that can make it really hard for doctors to figure out that it is bipolar disorder and not just major depressive disorder. Something else I experience is something called a mixed state. This is when you might be really agitated and talk really fast, have higher energy, but feel really angry and sad, sometimes all within a short amount of time. People with bipolar I can also experience this. And I must say it really sucks.
There are other kinds of “bipolar” that don’t really fit these categories, and one is called Cyclothymia. It doesn’t typically go to the highest highs or the lowest lows, but can be very uncomfortable for someone and they can still feel pretty moody.
Bipolar disorder often must be medicated in some way to help manage the highs and lows. Lithium is an older drug that a lot of people used to take, and it really works well for some people still. Some people take drugs called anti-psychotics, which can really help with mania and psychotic symptoms. Some people find that certain drugs for epilepsy can be good. Some people take a mix of things. Anti-depressants are typically not great for bipolar disorder, and can even trigger it in some people.
They think there is some connection between bipolar disorder and circadian rhythm. So along with medication, keeping a really regular sleeping and eating schedule, and getting plenty of light and dark is also helpful. This is what I have to focus a lot on since my body does not like any bipolar medication. Some scientists think there is also a link between bipolar and metabolism.
There is more, of course, but hopefully this is helpful.
Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition characterized by extreme mood swings, including episodes of mania and depression. During manic episodes, individuals may feel overly energetic, euphoric, impulsive, irritable and in some cases can cause psychosis. Depressive episodes involve feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and low energy. These episodes usually last long periods of time, like weeks or months. The emotions Bipolar patients experience are much more intense than everyday emotions.
It’s categorized into Bipolar I and Bipolar II. Bipolar I presents with full mania, while Bipolar II presents with hypomania. Hypomania is a less severe form of mania. It’s characterized by milder symptoms, shorter duration, and it doesn’t lead to psychosis. Both I & II can present with depressive episodes, but the biggest difference is in the severity of the manic episodes.
A personal example, my mother has Bipolar I and during an episode of mania, she quit her job, sold her car to make up for quitting, became extremely religious, married her boyfriend at the courthouse, started boiling objects from around the house to “sanitize” them etc. 4 weeks later she went into a depressive episode and slept at least 16 hours a day for weeks then ended up slitting her wrists and being hospitalized. She was unmedicated at the time, and was put in a psych ward until she was able to resume in everyday life.
Most medicated Bipolar patients can present with almost no symptoms. It varies between individuals, but a lot go into “remission” while doing a combination of talk therapy and medication.
Stability is achievable with proper medication, exercise, sleep, and management of stress (healthy coping mechanisms).
I’m bipolar and even I don’t know. It really just boils down to mood swings and highs and lows. Depression makes up most of it which can range from sad to big sad and the occasional boost of energy and life from mania. I finished an entire semesters worth of work in one night for my culinary class and got called out for it the next day by my teacher
Everyone here gave great answers. I’ll just add some things about moods and mood swings.
Moods and emotions are different. A mood is like a season, and emotions are like the weather during a certain day. Out might warm up for a few days in winter, but it’s still winter.
Let’s say a healthy, neurotypical person’s mood can range from -5 to 5. 0 is neutral, -5 is the saddest they could feel, and 5 the happiest. Those are the upper and lower limits of the intensity of their moods.
Someone with a mood disorder, like bipolar disorder, experiences moods that go beyond what a healthy, neurotypical person experiences. Someone with bipolar disorder might experience a low mood of -8. Or a high mood of 8.
The exact numbers don’t matter. The point is the moods are outside what healthy neurotypical people experience. I have bipolar disorder. When I talk about being depressed, I mean, at minimum, having a mood of a -6. But if I’m talking to a neurotypical person, they often think I mean a -3 or -4.
Often friction that develops between someone who has a mood disorder, and those they are close too. They don’t understand what’s going on because it’s outside their experience.
As for what it’s like….
Depression was exhausting. I was tired all the time. I slept all the time. I felt like I was wearing a heavy suit of armor. Personal hygiene was terrible because I felt too exhausted to do it. My inner voice was just a constant stream of insults, put downs, name calling, and attacks on my insecurities aimed at myself. I would frequently interpret events in my life in the worst possible way. I would still go out with my friends. Sometimes I would stop going to work for a week.
I never experienced mania; I experienced hypomania. It’s a state of agitation. It was like I had ants in my pants. I felt invincible. I could do no wrong. Every idea I had, every joke I told, everything I did was perfect – or so I thought. I became very sociable and very productive. Everything was exciting. I sometimes would shoplift while I was hypomanic.
As for the mood *swings*… Often people with bipolar will have a couple mood episodes a year, maybe a depressive episode that lasts a couple months, and then maybe a (hypo)manic episode that last a couple months. I have a “rapid cycling” diagnosis. When the bipolar disorder started to present, I was having major mood episodes every two weeks. Two weeks of depression followed by two weeks of hypomania. I think I was 18 when this started, my first year in college, and I had no idea what was going on. After I was diagnosed, I put on my calendar my expected mood swings to help prepare for them. It was eerie how consistent they were.
This post has gotten really long, so I’ll just say one last thing. A lot of people with bipolar disorder, and neuroatypical people in general, develop a lot of issues related to their diagnosis. For example, the first time I shoplifted something, it caused an existential Identity crisis that last 5 or 6 years. It was so out of character for me that I struggled to reconcile my behavior with my conception of self (it was also so out of character for me that it was what caused me to get diagnosed). But it means that on top of all the symptoms of bipolar disorder I had to manage, I also was generating and having to deal with new emotional baggage.
I’ll stop here. Hope this was helpful.
It is an extreme euphoric and extreeme low feeling. The highs can be accelerated with psycadelcis but the lows will be that much worse. It is also damn near impossible to treat because many people will opt out of taking meds just to chase the euphoric feelings but then the crash is seer, leading to very dangerous mood swings and behavior. I have witnesses people with bipolar feel like gods are even talk to gods but then want to crawl into a hole for a long time after. Ye, clearly has it bad. You can even hear it in his lyrics. Some times he’s clamoring to god and other times he IS god. It’s an interesting gift/curse to have.
Thank you to everyone who has given an answer, I really didn’t want to come to a source that was outdated or harmful.
Just want to highlight a variant of the the Bipolar experience called mixed episodes. This is what I usually experience. Basically, it’s the worst of mania and depression combined. Imagine being fully suicidal yet completely psychotic at the same time. It’s truly awful.
A disorder I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Other comments have done an amazing job explaining it.
It’s absolute hell for the individual and their loved ones if they’re unmedicated and not in therapy. You might be able to get by without the therapy but I personally think it’s a requirement if you or someone you care about wants to have a stable life. If you’re not the one diagnosed the trauma caused by loving someone who is is just excruciating and isolating. Support groups help some, your own personal self care is important too of course.
My spouse is diagnosed and it’s a requirement for both of those things to happen and it’s even better when the therapist and doctor can interact as well. The second one of those drops off it’s always bad.
It’s hard when you know the person you love is capable of so much can turn into a person you start to question about. They’re are not them when they’re in an episode. They’re in there somewhere behind those eyes..
I believe the disorder is degenerative meaning it will get worse over time and change brain matter if untreated.
Anecdotally after many support groups, doctors and therapists we’ve been through the biggest thing is people with bipolar are truly their own worst enemy. It’s extremely common that the second they feel fine it’s highly likely they will stop treatment and thus the cycle of destructive behaviors begin that will lead them to the depression/despair to get back on meds to feel great again and stop again.
Hello I am diagnosed Bipolar II.
As others have said, this condition involves manic phases and depressive phases.
Experiencing shifting moods is normal, but in bipolar disorder the intensity of the moods is what makes it a condition worth treating.
In my manic phases, I am brimming with energy and confidence. I’m extremely sociable, I sleep short nights but wake up super-charged like I got a full 8 hours.
I bounce from task to task, always needing to do something. I can’t sit still. I’m more reckless and daring and spontaneous and will do things I usually wouldn’t do.
I’ll be for real honest here… my manic phases rule. My mania isn’t extreme (it’s called hypomania).
Extreme mania will lead people into making decisions that might ruin their life (quit their job they hate with no planning, cheat on their SO, spend all their money). When I’m in a manic phase it can be hard to identify because it’s sort of the vision of who I want to be. When I start feeling like that, it just feels like I woke up on the right side of the bed.
I told my psych “if only I could always be in a manic phase, I would rule the world.”
He laughed at that.
There’s a metaphor about mania I like to use and that’s that it’s like borrowing energy from the future. Eventually, there comes a time I need to settle that debt – and those periods of time following mania are so exhausting I cannot put it into words.
This isn’t my depressive swing. Though this can easily trigger one. In case that’s hard to understand let me put it like this: imagine that, in my manic phases, I signed up for a marathon for the first time and ran the whole thing! I feel wonderful and alive. When the mood wears off, my body reveals just how badly it’s been hurt and how it needs to recover. This period following manic phases is what I think of as my recovery phase. But just like the manic phase begins out of nowhere, so do the depressive phases.
The depressive phases are different for everyone. Just like the manic phases, these are hard to identify when they’re happening. They usually begin with a feeling like I didn’t get much sleep the last night. Then that feeling sticks around day after day and gets worse and worse. I am grumpy and unmotivated. I feel very badly about myself. I seclude myself. For me they once last a long time. Now (being treated) they only last a day or two.
Bipolar Disorder (both I and II) are life-ruiners. Lengthy periods of time that motivate you to shirk responsibility, socialization, long-term goals will inevitably end good things.
Treatment is done using mood-stabilizers. They don’t stop the swings, but they reduce their intensity and, for me, their duration.
My grandmother was Bipolar. It is a genetic condition so if your family has a history, consider getting evaluated. No one knows they have bipolar until they know they have bipolar.
She was prescribed Vallium to treat it but she didn’t take it. At the time there wasn’t much known about the condition and there was a great stigma against it so she had no social support, no knowledge, and probably some deep shame around it.
How fortunate we are to live in a time when we encourage people to face their mental health challenges head on. You can’t overcome something you are afraid to face.
Getting diagnosed and treated completely changed my life.
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