1) Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that leads to shifts in mood. It is commonly described as containing depressive or low states, as well as high or mania states (manic episodes).
2) During manic episodes, people experience extreme amounts of energy.
3) During depressive episodes, people experience feelings of sadness or indifference.
4) There are a couple subtypes of bipolar disorder. Usually, clinicians distinguish between Bipolar I and Bipolar II.
5) Bipolar I features episodes of mania/high and depression/low. Bipolar I is characterized by one or more manic episodes that lasts for at least seven days.
6) Bipolar II is defined by episodes of hypomania, or an unusually energetic state of mind that affects mood, thoughts, and behaviors that isn’t as high energy as a manic episode. Bipolar II still features depressive episodes, but the hypomanic episodes of bipolar II are not as severe as mania episodes of bipolar I. Hypomanic episodes may also be shorter in duration than manic episodes in bipolar I.
7) Approximately 10 million people in the U.S. have bipolar disorder. Men and women are equally impacted.
HELPFUL TERMS
Manic: a state of mind characterized by high energy, excitement, and feelings of euphoria sustained over a long period of time.
Hypomanic: a state of mind characterized by increased energy or activity level, mood or behavior over a period of time.
Mood stabilizers: medication one can take to stabilize their manic or hypomanic episodes.
Antidepressants: medications used to treat major depressive disorder, some anxiety disorders, and some chronic pain conditions by increasing the activity of chemicals called neurotransmitters found in the brain.
Peer specialist: a person who has personally experienced mental illness and is employed to assist others in their journeys of recovery.
For more information, please check out Deconstructing Stigma and their website:
https://deconstructingstigma.org/stories
FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER
Demi Lovato
“It's something that I have, it's not who I am. “
Carrie Fisher
“Bipolar disorder is a mood system that functions like the weather. It’s independent of the things that happen in your life. I have problems, but they don’t have me!”
Mariah Carey
“I was irritable and in constant fear of letting people down. It turns out that I was experiencing a form of mania. Eventually I would just hit a wall. I guess my depressive episodes were characterized by having very low energy. I would feel so lonely and sad — even guilty that I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing for my career.”
David Harbor
“I've been in psychoanalysis for four years, and I've been very stable for four years. And that's a direct correlation, whereas I've taken medication for like, 18 years, and I have not been very stable under simple medication. The medical model is something that's very popular nowadays, which is helpful in a certain way. But the social model of madness is something that we need to get more involved in. I think communities need to be stronger. Like, our empathy needs to be stronger.”
Buzz Aldrin
“I have a lot of frailties, a lot of shortcomings, but I am a much more productive person now than I ever was at the peak of my astronaut career.”
