Bipolar disease is a typeof psychiatric condition which can severely affect the life of anyone sufferingfrom it, and the lives of those close to them. Mood plays a key role in bipolardisease as the condition presents itself in extreme mood swings. Those peoplewho have a diagnosis of bipolar disease often find that they experiencetremendous highs and crushing lows, which occur without any warning. Theseexaggerated moods are interspersed with times when the bipolar disease suffererfeels quite ?normal? and can function quite happily.
When the person with the bipolardisease diagnosis feels particularly happy, only intensively so, medicalprofessionals term this is being in a ?mania? period. This can last fromminutes to hours to even days and whilst the bipolar disease sufferer is in themiddle of one of these episodes they can experience hallucinations anddelusions. However this type of behaviour is at the more extreme end of the bipolardisease spectrum. On the flipside when a bipolar disease sufferer is feelinglow it is known as a ?depressive episode? and this can also last for some time.
It is easy to say whenhearing about bipolar disease, that everyone feels extreme highs and lowsduring their life and it is something that should be dealt with. However thisis easy to say if you are not someone with bipolar disease as these manic highsand depressive lows can actually affect the quality of life of sufferers.
For instance when someonewith bipolar disease is having a manic episode they can become very restless,their mind will race and they might exhibit strange behaviours. Many bipolardisease sufferers find that they do highly uncharacteristic things such asspend huge amounts of money or turn to drugs and alcohol. Delusion can alsotake hold and reality and fantasy can easily become blurred making it very hardto deal with someone in the middle of a bipolar disease episode.
When a bipolar diseasesufferer is going through a depressive episode they can feel an overwhelmingsense of guilt, sadness, anxiety, hopelessness and even anger. They might alsofind that they are unable to sleep and so may rely on sleeping pills, sexualactivity might take a back seat as their sex drive is lost and severe apathycan take hold. When a person is in the middle of any episodes it can bedistressing both for them and for those around them.
In certain cases when theperson with bipolar disease has very increased mania or depression they canbecome psychotic and this can be very serious indeed. Some people may evenrequire hospitalisation as they need specialist treatment to overcome the manicor depressive episode. Hospitalisation, however is only performed when there isa real concern about the wellbeing of the bipolar disease patient. Otherwiseprescription drugs are used to control the symptoms and episodes of bipolardisease and this works very well for many sufferers worldwide.