Bipolar Disorder

2 Pages 460 Words

I. After talking to my mother several times on the phone and in person, I have often wondered if she is bipolar. She would often have alternate moods of elevation and depression. I found myself asking the questions. What is unipolar illness? It is when the mood is depressed. This is more common than the bipolar illness. Bipolar disorders are marked by periods of manic, greatly elated moods or excited states as well as by periods of depression. Although the manic depressive psychosis may alternate from on of its phases to the other, on e other the other phase is usually dominant for a while. Depression is more often dominant than mania. Manic-depressive patients often recover spontaneously for periods of time, but relapses are fairly common. Most often this disease is genetic.

II. Using the Medical and Health Encyclopedia, I found several definitions relating to this topic. I found that there are two types of bipolar diseases. Bipolar 1 and 2. Bipolar 1 is when a person experiences at least one and usually many more, manic episodes, alternating with episodes of major depression. Bipolar 2 is when the individual experiences periods of hypomania alternating with episodes of major depression. Then I found the word cyclothymia, similar to the bipolar disorder since it is characterized by mood swings from mania to depression. I did, however find differences. A person with cyclothymia can experience symptoms of hypomania but never a full-blown hippomanic episode. I a person with this disease is also never symptom free. Last, I found the word affective spectrum. This is when some people who have bipolar disorder (manic depression) or unipolar disorder (depression-only) has co-existing conditions such as migraines, attention deficit disorder, etc. These definitions have helped me to gain a clearer understanding of the different types of this disease. I didn’t realize there were categories. I just...