Living with Bipolar Disorder

Living with Bi-Polar Disorder

Introduction: What is it like to have Bi-Polar and how does it affect the people around

you?

I. Bi Polar Disorder

A. What is Bi Polar Disorder?

B. Treatments for Bi Polar

C. Symptoms of Bi Polar

II. Who can get Bi Polar?

A. How many people are affected?

B. What are the ages of the people affected?

C. How early can Bi Polar be detected?

III. Life with Bi Polar

A. Daily Life

B. Good Days

C. Bad Days

IV. When a family/friend has the disorder

A. How other are affected

B. The role of family/friends

C. How to help someone with Bi Polar

D. What not to do

V. How can a person get help?

A. Who to talk to

B. Are there any cures?

C. Treatments for Bi Polar

Conclusion: What is it like to have Bi Polar and how does it affect the people around

you?

Living with Bipolar Disorder

What is it like to have Bipolar? Only a person who has this disorder really knows what it is like. We know that it can make a person’s life miserable and sometimes unbearable. We know it can be so extreme that people commit suicide. We learn from books and doctors that a person with Bipolar experience very happy times and very low times. Still, we do not know exactly how things are until we take a walk in their shoes. If you have someone close to you with this disorder, you know how it has affected you. It makes you feel sad, desperate and sometimes angry but we must all understand that people with Bipolar are going through all this and more. This leads us to the question: What is it really like to have Bipolar and how does it affect the people around you?

Bipolar is a mood disorder also called manic-depressive disorder. Manic depression breaks down into two parts; manic or mania and depression or sad. This disorder can lead to substance abuse and suicide so it is considered to be life threatening (Intro to Bipolar 1).

Most people with Bipolar can be helped by treatment so they can at least gain some stabilization of their mood swings. Long-term treatment in recommended because medicine will not totally help bipolar sufferers. Lithium will help control the symptoms when taken with anti depressants (Early on-set Bipolar disorder 1). Psychotherapy, along with medicine, gives extra benefits (Early on-set Bipolar disorder 1)

People who suffer from the disorder have repeated severe depressive episodes. They may also experience “excessive high feelings, reduced need of sleep, poor judgment, denial that anything is wrong, empty feelings of guilt, loss of energy, difficulty thinking, restlessness, loss/gain of weight, and repeated thoughts of suicide, among many other things” (Symptoms of Bipolar 3). During an interview, a family friend who has this disorder said “I think the worst symptom is how I am never in just a normal mood. I seem to either be very happy with no inhibitions or very, very sad” (Anonymous).

Bipolar disorder is believed to occur in one to two percent of adolescent and adult population. Other Bipolar related disorders such as mild cycling and recurrent depression occur in about five to seven percent of adults and adolescents (What is Bipolar? 3).

People of any age can have Bipolar. Although it is found mostly in adults, it is said that people start developing the disorder as a child and it just goes undetected (Ikelman1). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there are 1.5 million severely depressed kids under the age of 15. Bi polar symptoms can emerge at any time. A study shows that half the children with major depression before puberty will develop Bipolar by age 20. (Early on-set Bipolar 1).

When a person has Bipolar, they experience happiness and sadness, never an in between. As a Bi Polar sufferer, you will experience changes in energy as well as major mood swings (Ikleman 2). In an interview with a family friend who has Bipolar,