Posts Tagged ‘Mood Swings’

13 Bipolar Affective Disorder Triggers – 4 Treatment Plans

Manic Depressive is now known as Bipolar Affective Disorder, a mood disorder of which there are millions of sufferers. It is natural for people to have mood swings, but in this disorder moods go beyond what is normal. Sufferers experience extremes of low depression and high moods of elation or mania, and the frequencey varies from person to person.

Experts seem to think that the causes of Bipolar Disorder is through genetics or hormone levels, but this hasn’t yet been fully established. In some cases acquired illnesses in a person have contributed to them getting a Bipolar Disorder.

In our daily lives, we all experience different events that give us emotions, some of which can at times, trigger mood swings. Having to cope with happy, joyful moments and then unpleasant, sad times can threaten to cause depression or a manic episode.

These triggers are also know as Stressors, which can cause mood swings. The following are examples:

1 No regular sleep
2 Alcohol or drug abuse
3 Stopping medication
4 Starting medication or herbal products for depression
5 Medical conditions such as thyroid problems
6 Changes in the seasons
7 Illness
8 Holidays
9 Having disagreements with family or friends
10 Problems at work
11 Death of a loved one, family or friend
12 Marital strife
13 Start of a new job or course

Once you have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, you will begin to recognise what triggers it. Devising your own mood chart or keeping a diary will help as you record all the events that have happened and how you felt about them. Certain patterns will emerge after some time which will help you find the triggers, and for each person it can be different.

Having help at hand to make your mood chart can be difficult. Enlist the aid of a trusted friend or member of the family. If you prefer, talk to a therapist or other healthcare provider; you can get their views and understand what they see. This can help you pick up on things that you may not have noticed.

By working out what triggers your mood swings, you can plan how best to avoid these situations. It will require some effort to get rid of bad habits, so help make your family and friends aware of your struggles, especially those who are strong enough to help you muddle through, and those who understand you better.

Some people can go through years without being diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder. Many do not seek professional help, as laboratory tests do not needed to be carried out, as for other illnesses. The MDQ is what a medical provider uses, which is a questionnaire specially utilised for Bipolar disorders. The person conducting the questionnaire has a checklist to fill on all the symptoms that a person may exhibit. Only a medical professional can use this to give the correct diagnosis, and nobody else.

Bipolar Affective Disorder can be treated with many different medicines available, which are:

1 Antidepressants – Used alone can trigger a mania episode if a person is having a depressive episode, or it can be used with a mood stabiliser.

2 Antipsychotic – For people going through mania episodes; depressive episodes or severe mania can end in psychosis, for which an antipsychotic can help with. Can be used alone or prescribed with other medications if a person has trouble sleeping or feels nervous.

3 ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) – A treatment rather than a medication to help those who suffer from severe depression or from mania episodes. This therapy can also be given to those who do not respond to medications.

4 Mood Stabilisers – Medicine which can ease or delay depression and to relieve mania episodes.

ECT is only used as a therapy to help those who have acute depressive and manic symtoms. It is effective at reducing mood instability and cycling, and also helps to mimimise bipolar symptoms and side effects from given treatments. A bipolar patient can resume a normal life with a good management plan.

Bipolar Affective Disorder affects the individual as well as their families, but we all need to remember that with good proper treatment and medications, the disorder can be stabilised and controlled. Seek medical advice now.

Why Sarah Palin is Not Bipolar

In what has been a strikingly bitter and divisive US election campaign, one of the most distasteful forms of personal attack has been left-wing bloggers labeling VP candidate Sarah Palin as bipolar. These commentators apparently believe it is possible to diagnose Governor Palin as a closet sufferer of manic-depressive illness, without ever having met her or going through a formal diagnostic process. Bipolar is actually a specific medical term and the criteria for bipolar is set forth in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).

For those of us who do have bipolar disorder (also known as manic-depressive illness), or who advocate on behalf of the bipolar community, this is a disturbing development that epitomizes the extent to which bipolar has become synonymous with bad behavior. Increasingly, lay people feel free to sling the term bipolar around as a pejorative, and seem to believe they have, through pop culture osmosis, become experts on this very complex illness. The term bipolar has become contemporary cultural shorthand for anything we interpret as extreme or obnoxious in light of our own personal belief system.

In reality, bipolar is a spectrum of mood disorders, characterized by mood swings between mania and depression.

The symptoms of mania include excessive risk taking, hypersexuality, reckless financial spending, gambling or investments, and incoherently rapid and disjointed speech. Another common bipolar symptom is grandiosity, a grossly inflated sense of one’s abilities and entitlements.

The bipolar community has disproportionately high rates of marriage breakdown, financial problems, substance abuse, obesity, and career under-achievement. During depressive phases, bipolar people may become withdrawn, unmotivated, despairing, or even suicidal.

Governor Palin has a very happy and successful marriage, her personal finances have been scrutinized and found above reproach through the VP vetting process, she has maintained a successful career, and does not abuse alcohol or drugs. Instead of grandiosity, Palin drives herself to work, listed the Governor’s jet on e-Bay, and dispensed with an executive chef. Like many Alaskans, she does use a tanning bed during the long dark winters to fend off vitamin deficiencies and Seasonally Affective Disorder (SAD), a far cry from clinical depression.

Of course, not all Americans are pro-life feminists like Sarah Palin. Some voters disagree strongly with her on the important issues of the day, and will choose to support her opponents instead. It should be possible to go through this process without further caricaturing sufferers of manic-depressive illness. Invoking the specter of mental health disorders to denigrate individuals with a different political perspective is ignorant, hurtful, and childish.

Governor Palin is a hard working, high functioning politician, with views some do not share. Labeling her bipolar in order to express ideological disapproval is taking a medical term already overloaded with cultural baggage, and using it to further marginalize millions of fellow citizens who bravely struggle against this misunderstood disease every day, and who are already subject to a heavy burden of stigma and ignorance.

What Is Bipolar Disorder And How Do You Treat It?

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a diagnostic category describing a class of mood disorders where the person experiences states or episodes of depression and/or mania, hypomania, and/or mixed states. Left untreated, it is a severely disabling psychiatric condition.

The difference between bipolar disorder and major depression is that bipolar disorder involves “energized” or “activated” mood states in addition to depressed mood states. The duration and intensity of mood states varies widely among people with the illness.

Fluctuating from one mood state to another is called “cycling” or having mood swings. Mood swings cause impairment not only in one’s mood, but also in one’s energy level, sleep pattern, activity level, social rhythms and thinking abilities. Many people become fully disabled, for some period of time, after being diagnosed, and during this time may have great difficulty functioning.

The vast majority of people diagnosed with suffer from depression. In fact, there is at least a 3 to 1 ratio of time spent depressed versus time spent in a normal mood or hypomanic or manic during the course of the bipolar I subtype of the illness. People with the bipolar II subtype remain depressed for substantially longer. Up to 37 times longer than bipolar I.

A 2003 study by Robert Hirschfeld, M.D., of the University of Texas, Galveston found bipolar patients fared worse in their depressions than unipolar patients.

In terms of disability, lost years of productivity and potential for suicide, bipolar depression is now recognized as the most insidious aspect of the illness.

Severe depression may be accompanied by symptoms of psychosis. These symptoms include hallucinations and delusions. They may also suffer from paranoid thoughts of being persecuted or monitored by some powerful entity such as the government or a hostile force.

Intense and unusual religious beliefs may also be present, such as patients’ strong insistence that they have a God-given role to play in the world, a great and historic mission to accomplish, or even that they possess supernatural powers. Delusions in a depression may be far more distressing, sometimes taking the form of intense guilt for supposed wrongs that the patient believes he or she has inflicted on others.

Treatment for Bipolar Disorder

Currently bipolar disorder cannot be cured but it can be managed. The emphasis of treatment is on effective management of the long-term course of the illness, which can involve treatment of emergent symptoms. Treatment methods include pharmacological and psychological techniques.

A variety of medications are used to treat bipolar disorder. Most people with bipolar disorder require combinations of medications.

Relapse of Bipolar Disorder

Even when on medication, some people may still experience weaker episodes or have a complete manic or depressive episode. The following behaviors can lead to depressive or manic relapse:

* Discontinuing or lowering one’s dose of medication without consulting one’s physician.

* Being under or over medicated. Generally, taking a lower dosage of a mood stabilizer can lead to relapse into mania. Taking a lower dosage of an antidepressant, may cause the patient to relapse into depression, while higher doses can cause destabilization into mixed-states or mania.

* Taking other psychotropic or recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, or heroin. These can cause the condition to worsen.

* An inconsistent sleep schedule can destabilize the illness. Too much sleep can lead to depression, while too little sleep can lead to mixed states or mania.

* Excessive amounts of caffeine can cause destabilization of mood toward irritability, dysphoria and mania.

* Inadequate stress management and poor lifestyle choices. If unmedicated, excessive stress can cause the individual to relapse. Medication raises the stress threshold somewhat, but too much stress still causes relapse.

Disclaimer

The information presented here should not be interpreted as medical advice. If you or someone you know is suffers from a bipolar disorder, please seek professional medical advice for the latest treatment options.

Permission is granted to reprint this article as long as no changes are made, and the entire resource box is included.