Bipolar
Bipolar disorder used to be called ‘manic depression’. As the name suggests, it is characterised by mood swings – or episodes – that are beyond what most people experience in their lives, although they can also be subtle and gradual.
With bipolar disorder, moods can swing between low, high and mixed.
A low mood involves feelings of intense depression and despair. This is known as a depression and symptoms include:
- sad, empty or anxious feelings
- loss of interest in food, work, sex and other people
- insomnia or over-sleeping
- chronic aches or pains with no discernible cause, and
- thoughts of death or suicide.
A high mood involves feelings of elation. This is also known as mania or a manic period. Symptoms include:
- impaired judgement
- over-spending
- too much energy and little need for sleep
- anger or irritability, and
- unrealistic beliefs in one’s own abilities.
A mixed mood involves, for example, depressed mood with the restlessness and over activity of a manic episode.
People usually experience both depressive and manic episodes, but some will have only manic episodes.
Bipolar disorder affects about one in every 100 adults. It can start at any time during or after the teenage years, although it is unusual for it to start after the age of 40. Men and women are affected equally.
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