What Does it Mean to Be Bipolar?

Mood disorders should not be confused with the sad mood that normally accompanies specific life experiences, particularly losses or disappointments. Mood disorders involve disturbances in emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and somatic regulation. Primary mood disorders include depression, which is known as the uni-polar condition. There is also manic-depression, which is known as the bi-polar condition.

All mental illnesses, including mood disorders, are flaws of the human brain. These diseases disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are brain disorders that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

The uni-polar condition is very mild compared to the bi-polar condition. The uni-polar condition is characterized by one or more episodes of major depression. By definition, major depression episodes last at least two weeks and typically longer. The bi-polar condition classically features episodes of major depression, just like the uni-polar condition. Unlike the uni-polar condition, the bi-polar condition is interspersed with episodes of manic and hypo manic. Manic episodes are distinct periods of elevated, abnormally expansive, or irritable moods. Hypo manic episodes are milder. They are usually brief periods, for days to several weeks, in which patients are often mildly dysfunctional.

The point prevalence for the uni-polar condition in the Western industrialized nations in 2000 was 2.3 to 3.2 percent for men and 4.5 to 9.3 percent for women. The lifetime risk for the uni-polar condition is seven to twelve percent for men and twenty to twenty-five percent for women. Risk factors for the uni-polar condition include the female gender, a history of depression in first-degree relatives, or prior episodes of depression. Unlike the uni-polar condition, the bi-polar condition affects men and women equally. The mean age at onset is twenty to twenty-nine years of age. Men are more likely to have an initial manic episode, while women are more likely to experience an initial depression episode. Uni-polar and bi-polar conditions nearly always reduce social, occupational, and interpersonal functioning to some degree. Functioning usually returns to the morbid level between episodes, if the episodes remit completely.

Uni-polar condition symptoms develop over days to weeks. Some people have only a single episode, with a full return to morbid functioning. However, more than fifty percent of those who initially suffer a single depression episode eventually develop another. Those with reoccurring episodes are at a greater risk of developing the bi-polar condition, than are those with single episodes. While a bi-polar person is under the influence of a manic episode, they often need to be protected from the consequences of their poor judgment and over activity, which often results in involuntary hospitalization. Over time, even with periods of remission, the chronic and unpredictability of the bi-polar disorder lead to secondary problems, such as: joblessness, legal difficulties, divorce, and death by suicide.

Psychoactive substances, such as cocaine and amphetamines; head trauma; certain neuralgic diseases; endocrinopathies; and some other disorders can produce secondary manic and hypo manic episodes seen in bi-polar conditions. This happens in other uni-polar and bi-polar conditions. The requisite feature in both uni-polar and bi-polar conditions is the occurrence of depression episodes in a seasonal pattern. The seasonal pattern is typically, fall onset and spring offset. Perhaps ten percent of patients with both uni-polar and bi-polar conditions experience seasonal episodes. Some patients exhibit a rapid cycling pattern, experiencing four or more patterns each year. The majority of those with the rapid cycling pattern are women.

A diabetic takes insulin, most people with uni-polar or bi-polar conditions need medication to help control the symptoms. Supportive counseling, self-help groups, housing vocational rehabilitation, income assistance, and other community services can also provide support and stability, contributing to recovery for both the uni-polar and bi-polar conditions. The estimated cost of mental health care is over one hundred and fifty billion dollars each year and still rising. Far more important is the effect untreated uni-polar and bi-polar conditions have on the lives of the individuals and their loved ones. These brain disorders are treatable.