Symptoms And Treatment Of Bipolar Disorder - 1572 Words

Introduction Bipolar disorder has had a large history full of misunderstandings, wrongful treatments and stigma surrounding the illness. Bipolar, formerly called manic depression causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania) and lows (depression). (Mayo 1998) When you become depressed you may feel sad, vulnerable and anxious. When you experience mania you will become overly joyful or full of energy, making the crash back to depression that much harder. According to A Short History of Bipolar Disorder (2012) the terms used for the bipolar extremes (manic and melancholy) both have ancient greek origins. Melancholy (depression) from melas meaning black and mania relating to the word passion. The relationship between†¦show more content†¦The discovery Falret made not only changed the course of history, but also proved Aretaeus hypothesis to be true. This is when Jean- Pierre Falret discussed the possibility of the disorder being passed down from parent to child through gen etics.Throughout Falret’s research he realized their was a strong presence of bipolar disorder symptoms, such as mood swings within families. Falret’s discovery of the link between genetics and bipolar disorder is still believed today by modern physicians. The review of the selected literature will focus on characteristics of bipolar, the definition of bipolar and the educational or social problems dealing with bipolar disorder. BODY As previously stated, bipolar disorder has had a long history without much understanding. Bipolar is a disorder that includes recurring condition including mood swings between the highs of mania and the lows of depression. To best understand bipolar disorder it is detrimental to understand symptoms and characteristics of mania and depression. Mania is not a disorder with in itself, but a very important factor in bipolar disorder. The definition of a manic episode according to Psych Central (2014) is a period of at least a week where a person experiences an elevated, expansive or unusually irritable mood, as well as notably persistent goal oriented activity is present. Examples of this are an inflated sense of self esteem, decreased need for sleep or becoming more social. On the other side of the mood