Mental Health
Challenges of Dealing with Duality of Bipolar Disorder
Reflections for a mental disorder associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from manic highs to depressive lows
Living a life on the two extreme ends of the emotional spectrum can challenge patients experiencing bipolar disorder. I create awareness of common mental health conditions based on my literature reviews and observations in my circles.
Yesterday, I wrote about schizophrenia, mentioning several famous people who experienced it. Mental health disorders do not discriminate against people for status. In this article, I touch on another psychotic disorder called bipolar, aka “manic depression”, affecting millions of people globally.
Like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder also affected many famous people, such as Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, Maria Carey, Patty Duke, Vivien Leigh, Ted Turner, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and many more.
Bipolar disorder is common. It is two times more so than schizophrenia. Based on information from the World Health Organization, bipolar disorder affects 45 million people worldwide. According to the Mental Illness Policy Organization, just in the US, 2.3 million people (nearly 1% of the population) are affected by bipolar disorder.
Many global research organizations are working on this condition actively. For example, the search I conducted on the National Library of Medicine showed thousands of artifacts related to bipolar disorder in 27 major medical databases.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to cite even 1% of them in an article. Therefore, rather than going into the details from the papers, I introduce some key points in summary format from my accumulated knowledge in dealing with this condition effectively.
Bipolar disorder presents a paradoxical situation for patients in materializing the phenomenon known as “mania”. While episodes start with a feeling of heightened and pleasurable energy, these feelings sometimes rapidly turn into uncontrollable manic episodes.
These episodes might occur as euphoric or disturbing states. The problem is that experiencing mixed episodes, including both mania and depression, simultaneously on the same day poses a difficult situation for patients.
The false sense of power and greatness causes the patients to make reckless decisions such as taking uncalculated financial risks, wasting their money on unnecessary goods, engaging in inappropriate sexual activity, and taking illicit drugs.
Even though the exact root causes of bipolar disorder are unknown, scientists theorize that genetics and imbalances of neurotransmitters in the brain are two common causes. The associated neurotransmitters of the condition are believed to be noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine. For example, excessive noradrenaline may trigger manic episodes, and the deficiency of the exact neurotransmitter cause depressive episodes.
Manic and depressive episodes might be triggered by several traumatic, disease, and lifestyle factors such as emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, losing loved ones, sleep deprivation, chronic stress, anxiety, physical illness, drugs, alcoholism, and worries related to work, finance, or relationship problems.
The precise cause of the bipolar disorder is still unknown. However, a combination of genetics, environmental factors, and altered brain chemistry may play a role in its manifestation.
Manic episodes may include symptoms of high energy and loss of touch with reality. Depressive episodes may show signs such as low energy, reduced motivation, and loss of interest in everyday activities. Mood episodes may take several days. More importantly, during these episodes, patients may have suicidal thoughts.
Usually, specialized psychiatrists make the assessment of risks for patients with suspected bipolar disorder by checking symptoms and medical and family history. Then they create a treatment plan using medication, psychotherapy, or a combination.
In addition to prescribed medication as seen as necessary by healthcare professionals, treatment of bipolar disorder also includes psychological and physical therapies and lifestyle improvements.
Some common lifestyle improvements include observing symptoms by keeping a diary, scheduling routine activities, healthy diet, moderate exercise, high-quality sleep, stress reduction, meaningful social engagements, meditation, detoxification of heavy metals, and avoiding alcohol and drugs.
In addition to standard medication types, such as anti-depressants and anti-anxiety, some people also use mood stabilizers recommended by their healthcare professionals. The most common ones are Lithium Orotate, Valproate, and Carbamazepine.
These mood stabilizers might have different brand names in various countries. For example, Lithium Orate is sold over the counter as a dietary supplement in some countries, such as the US. However, according to Drugs.com, it is not approved by the FDA to treat medical conditions.
Creating an emergency plan is part of the lifestyle recommendations. For example, finding support during the episodes is an essential coping mechanism. I use the concept of having a mental health kit, as pointed out in this article.
Some mental disorders may also initiate other ones due to chemical imbalances in the brain. They are called co-occurring disorders (a.k.a. comorbidity), which can create more complexity in dealing with situations. Therefore, obtaining support from qualified medical professionals is critical.
While being cautious about mood disorders is essential, sometimes little knowledge or lack of understanding of the nature of a person might cause misdiagnosis by unqualified people and cause unnecessary stress to healthy people.
Some talented people enjoy life using various emotions considered at extreme levels by others. For example, I naturally feel euphoria during the flow state at work. It is by design. My mood does not fluctuate, and I never feel a depressive state afterward. I shared my perspectives on euphoria in this article.
So, my point is some of us can manage extreme emotions in a controlled way. Those emotions observed at a point in time by another person do not necessarily mean mental disorders.
Despite great progress in science, our knowledge acquired through scientific studies of mental disorders is still limited. Some scientific studies often tend to look at disease phenomena from a single angle, ignoring or neglecting other dimensions due to methodological constraints. Mental health conditions might have their roots in several different dimensions of our being.
For example, as mentioned in my previous article, when I read Nijinsky’s diary, I gained unique perspectives on energies surrounding the cosmos. Those deep and convoluted points might not make sense from a scientific standpoint yet. However, those unconventional outlets may give us insights from philosophical, spiritual, and artistic perspectives.
While we use right and wrong for results in science to prove hypotheses, there is no right or wrong in the spiritual domain, especially when intellectual judgment is isolated and focus is given to pure experiences.
In short, there are things to be understood through experiences using multiple faculties and with open minds. Therefore, in my opinion, besides clinical and epidemiological studies, we also need to consider phenomenological studies and integrate multiple methods, tools, and perspectives to gain superior insights into mental disorders.
Thank you for reading my perspectives.
I wish you a joyful and healthy life.
Please note that this article is not health advice. I shared my perspectives for information purposes only. If you experience bipolar disorder or other mental health conditions, please consult your healthcare professionals.
My Recent Mental Health Articles
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