I. Bipolar Disorder
A. Introduction
B. Diagnosing bipolar disorder
C. Warning signs and symptoms
D. Treatment
E. Conclusion
F. References
Thesis
Bipolar disorder is serious brain disease recognized by the medical society as a mental illness, the purpose of this paper is to inform the reader about the disease, while providing informative facts, statistics, symptoms, and treatments of the disease.
Bipolar disorder is considered to be a serious mental illness that is characterized by extreme mood changes, from depression to mania (Abraham, 2011). When speaking about the mood changes associated with bipolar disorder, the word that makes a bipolar person different from an individual who does not have a mental illness is “extreme”. A bipolar person experiences moods of depression or mania for longer periods of time and at a greater intensity than an individual with healthy mental health who experiences the typical “ups and downs” that throughout all of society is experienced. They can experience these extreme moods for up to months at a time. Bipolar disorder is also known to be manic-depressive illness (Rogge, 2012), formerly known as “manic depression” (The free dictionary). The long periods of being in either a state of depression or mania are known as “episodes.”
Bipolar disorder can appear to be unipolar depression. Diagnosing bipolar disorder is often difficult, even for mental health professionals. When it comes to bipolar disorder not everyone with the disease experience the same symptoms. At least 70% of individuals with manic depressive illness will be misdiagnosed one time before being properly diagnosed with the disease (DBS Alliance). Bipolar 1 disorder is characterized by at least one manic episode without experiencing a major depressive episode. Manic episodes are the "high" of the manic-depressive cycle. A person experiencing a manic episode often has feelings of self-importance, elation,...