What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a mental health disorder that causes individuals to experience extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression). These shifts can affect a person’s energy levels, behavior, and ability to function. (Mayo Clinic, 2024)
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There are three types of bipolar disorder:
Bipolar 1 Disorder
Bipolar 1 disorder is defined by one or more manic episodes, including elevated mood and energy, as well as abnormal behaviors, that last at least 7 days. These episodes often severely impair typical functioning. Depressive episodes often follow mania periods.
Bipolar 2 Disorder
Unlike Bipolar 1, individuals with bipolar 2 experience mood swings that include hypomania for at least 4 days. It differs from mania because the manic symptoms are less severe and do not cause intense episodes.
Cyclothymia
Cyclothymia is a mild form of bipolar disorder that includes symptoms of hypomania and depression, yet does not meet the full diagnostic criteria.
Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder
The symptoms of bipolar disorder vary between hypomania/mania episodes and major depressive episodes. Symptoms can also vary between children, teens, and adults, as children are still developing emotionally. (Mayo Clinic, 2024)
Hypomania/ Mania Symptoms
Episodes include three or more of the following symptoms:
- Increased energy, activity, or agitation
- Inflated self-confidence and distorted sense of well-being
- Having racing thoughts or being unable to focus on one topic
- Being easily distracted
- Making unusual, poor decisions (i.e., spending sprees or taking sexual risks)
MAJOR DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS
Episodes include five or more of the following symptoms:
- Having feelings of sadness and hopelessness
- Losing interest or feeling a lack of pleasure in usual activities
- Unintentional weight loss
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Tiredness and lack of energy
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
- Thinking about or attempting suicide
Common Misconceptions Vs. Reality of Living with Bipolar Disorder (Miasnikov, 2021)
People with bipolar disorder are just moody.
The experience of extreme, energetic highs and majorly depressive lows is significantly different from typical moodiness. While individuals can feel extreme highs and lows throughout a given day, these tend to last just a few hours, where it can last days or weeks for a person living with bipolar disorder. The diagnosis is not solely based on mood, but a range of physical and emotional symptoms.
Bipolar disorder is mostly mania episodes.
Those who live with bipolar disorder experience a range of mood swings with symptoms that are not limited to mania, but also hypomania and depression. Additionally, not all people who live with bipolar disorder experience the same symptoms. Each diagnosis is unique.
Experiencing mania is fun and exciting.
While individuals who experience mania may feel good from increased energy and inflated self-confidence, these feelings can cause unhealthy and destructive behaviors.
Fast Facts
- About 40 million people, or 1 in 150 adults, across the world live with bipolar disorder (World Health Organization, 2024)
- The average onset age for bipolar disorder is 25 years old, but it can also happen in teenage years or childhood (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2012)
- Although women and men have the same likelihood of having bipolar disorder, women tend to experience more rapid cycling between mania and depressive episodes than men (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2012)