Bipolar Disorder Is Like Having Two Serious Illnesses at Once | Nicole Foubister | Big Think

Bipolar disorder can have lots of effects on a person's day-to-day functioning. So, for instance, again in the middle of an episode of either mania or depression, people who are manic will often do things that are really impossible, really out of character. Issues of infidelity can come up, for instance, in a patient with mania who's having a sexual partner or sexual partners outside of the relationship. In the midst of a manic episode, people will often spend money that they really can't afford to spend.

You can imagine this will cause a lot of strain for them personally, but also in the context of their families. People in the midst of mania often don't appear to be logical, so they will go to work and will have lots of irritability. You can imagine, again, that co-workers or confused bosses are confused, especially if they don't understand a lot about the illness. It can affect their work relationships and their ability to maintain their employment.

You can imagine that if it's hard to get up out of bed and even go to the supermarket and get your groceries for the day, it can be very difficult to go to work and get all the things that you need to get done, either in your work life or in your personal life. People will report guilt or sometimes feeling like they're worthless. People will also report that they feel like they're either kind of moving in slow motion, which is known as psychomotor retardation. Occasionally, people will report that they actually feel jittery, which is known as psychomotor agitation.

In addition, people will report disturbances in their sleep, which are most commonly insomnia—so either difficulty falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, or waking up earlier in the morning than one intends to. Occasionally, this can be hypersomnia, though, where people are sleeping, for instance, 10, 12, 13, 14, or more hours per day. Patients with bipolar disorder often are resistant to receiving treatment, especially during a manic episode, and this is really part of the illness in terms of not understanding that one is sick.

Bipolar disorder cannot be cured; however, people will often find that they will go through periods of time without having any illness or periods of you sigh meeow. It really depends on the individual and how their clinical course goes, as well as finding treatments that work. The mainstay of treatments are mood stabilizers, so these are mood medications that are used to keep somebody from having, most notably, a manic episode or a depressive episode.

Finding the right treatment can sometimes be a little frustrating, and patients really need to hang in there as their doctors try different medications to figure out what works best with their neurobiology. In order to support a loved one who has bipolar disorder, it's really important to realize that this is an illness like any other illness. A lot of times, people will think of mental illnesses as being something that's within the control of the individual, and the individual will often think that as well, feeling tremendous guilt when they do have episodes of either mania or depression.

So, the first thing is realizing that people don't choose to have bipolar disorder, and they would definitely choose to live with more mental wellness than having this illness. It's really important to be calm, present, and consistent with people with bipolar disorder, as well as supporting them in maintaining their treatment.

In the next 10, 20, 30, 50 years, I really see a lot more research being done to try to find treatments that are effective and have less side effects than some of the medications that we have currently available today. I really only see better things for the future.