Bi-Polar Disorder
I have been diagnosed as having Bipolar Disorder, type I.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bipolar disorder “causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks”.
“An overly joyful or overexcited state is called a manic episode, and an extremely sad or hopeless state is called a depressive episode. Sometimes, a mood episode includes symptoms of both mania and depression. This is called a mixed state. People with bipolar disorder also may be explosive and irritable during a mood episode.¹”.
At any given time, in any given day I can be laughing and then crying in the space of minutes. I go from cleaning & accomplishing lots of tasks to sleeping for days on end. I can turn angry &/or violent quickly with little provocation.
Bipolar disorder is a chronic, lifelong medical condition (I like to say that my brain is wired differently than yours *grin*). It must be carefully managed. Many bipolar patients have difficulties staying on their medications, preferring “the manic” state to the medications. The medications have a variety of unpleasant side-effects.
