PSYCHOLOGY & MENTAL HEALTH - Updated 1 hour ago

Bipolar Disorder - Symptoms, Causes, Treatments

What are the reasons ? Symptoms of bipolar disorder can mimic the effects of alcohol or drug use, delaying treatment.

YEET MAGAZINE

May 28, 2022 • 3 min read

By Deni Porter | YEET MAGAZINE | Updated 0439 GMT (1239 HKT) May 28, 2022 SUBSCRIBE

bipolar disorder symptoms bipolar symptoms what is bipolar disorder what is bipolar personality disorder bipolar personality disorder depression bipolar depression bipolar disorder meaning bipolar meaning mental disorder bipolar disorder test bipolar test symptoms of bipolar symptoms of bipolar disorder borderline personality disorder schizophrenia anxiety disorder anxiety bipolar disorder treatment bipolar treatment bipolar disorder icd 10 bipolar mood disorder mood disorder manic

Revised article

We often hear about it, yet do we really know what bipolar disorder is?

Reading: 2 min. BIPOLAR DISORDER

Bipolar disorders are complex and difficult to spot. Often these disorders are diagnosed well beyond their onset. They often hide in a complex form of depression.

Defining bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorders lead to mood disturbances manifested by more or less long phases of depression and elation/euphoria.

Of course, everyone goes through phases of joy and sadness, but for people with bipolar disorder, these changes are out of proportion . Thus, the person can totally sink into phases of deep depression, suicidal thoughts, and at other times have peaks of euphoria, disinhibition, ideas of grandeur, with a tendency to megalomania, being able to overspend. , sleep with his best friend, etc… the person no longer has control over himself. It is in fact the peculiarity of this disorder in these extreme and diametrically opposed phases .

The different symptoms

Whether the person is in a depressive or elated phase, we can notice different common symptoms:

a feeling of sadness, depressed mood;
fatigue and loss of energy;
weight loss or gain;
feelings of guilt;
sudden social withdrawal or sudden aggressive behavior;
recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal thoughts;
increased self-esteem or ideas of grandeur;
reduced need for sleep;
possible delusions;
inability to focus attention;
accelerated speech rate or need to talk constantly;
rapid thoughts or feeling too full of ideas, etc.

Patient care

Bipolar patients often face therapeutic wandering . Indeed, there are often significant delays in treatment between the first visit to a specialist and the treatment of bipolar symptoms. On average, it takes two years or more to receive the diagnosis of bipolarity.

On the other hand, for bipolar patients and consumers of alcohol or drugs, this delay is considerably longer and sometimes requires years to establish a diagnosis of bipolarity.

What are the reasons ? Symptoms of bipolar disorder can mimic the effects of alcohol or drug use, delaying treatment.

Why is this finding important? It would be almost half of bipolar patients who would present an addiction to alcohol or drugs. These addictions, in addition to aggravating the symptoms of this disease, affect the diagnosis made.

What are the possible treatments ?

Faced with bipolar disorders, treatments can improve the general condition of the person. Through treatment, the person can thus live his life in a more stable way in his daily life. But overall the person remains fragile and often dependent on drug treatment over the long term, sometimes for life.

The different treatments:

Chemical treatment : these are drugs that stabilize the mood. There are various stabilizers used in this type of treatment.
Psychotherapies : It is essential that the person be monitored by a psychiatrist, if only for medication monitoring. Remember that this disorder is a psychosis, originally called manic-depressive psychosis.
Other therapeutic approaches can be complementary , but it is necessary to be careful about their implementation. It is therefore important that the person is already stabilized by drug treatment.

Photos: Shutterstock

The information published on YEET MAGAZINE in no way replaces the relationship between the patient and his psychologist. Psychologue.net does not endorse any specific treatment, commercial product or service.

Read more posts and Bipolar Disorder