Bipolar Disorder
By Noah Darnell
Description
Bipolar Disorder is a psychological abnormality that causes affected persons to experience extreme mood swings, called mood episodes, periodically. The two categories of mood episodes are Manic episodes, characterized by extreme happiness, excitedness, or anxiety, and Depressive episodes, characterized by extreme sadness or loneliness.
Symptoms
Bipolar Disorder patients experience declines in interpersonal relationships due to the mood episodes that they experience. As a depressive episode can make someone intensely sad, or a manic episode can make someone extremely angry, people with bipolar disorder often find it hard to develop relationships with other people. Although some cases are not incredibly severe, mood episodes can still change one's patterns of thinking.
Treatment
Many people who are bipolar choose not to spend their money on expensive medications, and prefer to go to psychotherapy instead. Psychotherapy can be used to treat many kinds of abnormal behaviors, and can teach Bipolar Disorder patients to control their mood swings or feel when a mood episode is approaching, allowing them to seek help before the mood sets in.