ARTICLE BY NATALIE OKELLO:
Mental Health Professional/Digital Literacy Champion/Climate Action Advocate.
Envisage being ecstatic;ideas flowing and sometimes,sleep seems optional only for these to be short lived and crashed after weeks,falling into depression,losing a sense of sense of belonging,experiencing existential crisis and in severe cases,haing suicdal thoughts to a point where even performing day to day activities as simple as brushing your teeth start to feel like moving a mountain.
Unfortunately,this is not just an imagination for millions of people:it’s a harsh reality,living with bipolar!
Bipolar is more than just a dramatic mood shift,it’s a serious mental health disorder that oftenly alters with one’s;feels,thought process,moods,energy and even activity levels,but what is BIPOLAR?
According to the DSM-5,it’s a mental health condition characterized b extreme fluctuations in mood,energy and activity involving periods of mania/hypomania and depression.
MANIA-this is a distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated,expansive or irritable mood along with abnormally and persistently increased activity or energy,lasing at least one week.
HYPOMANIA-it’s basically charactirized the same as mania in that it lasts for shorter periods compared to mania that is,it lasts at least 4 consecutive days and present most of the day nearly everyday.
DEPRESSION-bipolar is characterized by a major depressive episode,requiring at lest five symptoms for at least two-week period,including depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure.
AM I A BIPOLAR DISORDER PATIENT?
Just like any other disorder/disease,there are many smptoms a patient has to present to conclude to it.
Mania and hypomania
Mania and hypomania are different, but they have the same symptoms. Mania is more severe than hypomania. It causes more noticeable problems at work, school and social activities, as well as getting along with others. Mania also may cause a break from reality, known as psychosis. You many need to stay in a hospital for treatment.
Manic and hypomanic episodes include three or more of these symptoms:
- Being much more active, energetic or agitated than usual.
- Feeling a distorted sense of well-being or too self-confident.
- Needing much less sleep than usual.
- Being unusually talkative and talking fast.
- Having racing thoughts or jumping quickly from one topic to another.
- Being easy to distract.
- Making poor decisions. For example, you may go on buying sprees, take sexual risks or make foolish investments
Major depressive episode
A major depressive episode includes symptoms that are severe enough to cause you to have a hard time doing day-to-day activities. These activities include going to work or school, as well as taking part in social activities and getting along with others.
An episode includes five or more of these symptoms:
- Having a depressed mood. You may feel sad, empty, hopeless or tearful. Children and teens who are depressed can seem irritable, angry or hostile.
- Having a marked loss of interest or feeling no pleasure in all or most activities.
- Losing a lot of weight when not dieting or overeating and gaining weight. When children don’t gain weight as expected, this can be a sign of depression.
- Sleeping too little or too much.
- Feeling restless or acting slower than usual.
- Being very tired or losing energy.
- Feeling worthless, feeling too guilty or feeling guilty when it’s not necessary.
- Having a hard time thinking or concentrating, or not being able to make decisions.
- Thinking about, planning or attempting suicide.
Other features of bipolar disorder
Symptoms of bipolar disorders, including depressive episodes, may include other features, such as:
- Anxious distress, when you’re feeling symptoms of anxiety and fear that you’re losing control.
- Melancholy, when you feel very sad and have a deep loss of pleasure.
- Psychosis, when your thoughts or emotions disconnect from reality.
The timing of symptoms may be described as:
- Mixed, when you have symptoms of depression and mania or hypomania at the same time.
- Rapid cycling, when you have four mood episodes in the past year where you switch between mania and hypomania and major depression.
Also, bipolar symptoms may happen when you’re pregnant. Or symptoms can change with the seasons.
