Friday, September 24, 2010

Bipolar Shambles

Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder, characterized by extreme mood swings which are beyond what most people experience. These extremes may include lows (depression) and highs (elation/mania) and it affects person’s daily activities in a bad way. If the fluctuation of the mood does not cause any problems in his/her daily activities, it is called cyclothymia and it is not an illness. But sometimes cyclothymia can go into full blown bipolar disorder. Features of bipolar disorder may change from one person to another or one episode to the next within the same patient. Classically patients present with prolonged depression alternating with mania.



Features of bipolar disorder
Elevated mood: - These patients have elevated mood that is out of keeping with the circumstances. They may be jovial and happy.
Increased energy: - Patients with mania usually gets up early in the morning and they say that they can do more work than usual. Their activity level is higher than the normal individuals.
Increased self-esteem:- They have overoptimistic ideas. Because of that they tend to overspend money.
Most of the patients can have social disinhibition. Due to that, they can become sexually promiscuous. In addition some patients may sing songs in inappropriate places

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