Bipolar Disorder Symptoms & Treatment
ipolar depression is different than many forms of depression. With a bipolar disorder, a person experiences mania. Mania allows an individual to experience an extreme high that more than likely will impair judgment. Bipolar disorder will affect a person their entire life, but with the right treatment plan, a person can cope with bipolar depression as long as they completely understand this illness.
Bipolar depression usually begins in adolescence or early adulthood. However, at this early stage, it is usually not seen as a psychological problem because it is sporadic. Individuals that have this disorder will have unique patterns to their mood cycles.
These cycles will combine both depression and mania. Once the unique patterns of cycles are identified, treatment can begin. But, until a person’s cycles are seen as being true bipolar disorder, a person can suffer for years needlessly.
Bipolar Disorder in Children
Ever noticed sudden and extreme mood swings in your child? Does he often show high levels of excitement and activity only to be unusually irritable and irrationally angry or enraged the next minute? Are your child’s tantrums exceptionally long and easily provoked?
If you answer yes to all three questions, your child may have a condition known as a bipolar disorder or manic-depression. It is a brain disorder that causes frequent and extreme behavior changes in a person. Until, recently children have not been known to acquire or develop bipolar disorders but several doctors agree that children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD may actually be experiencing the early symptoms of a full-blown bipolar disorder. While considered a very serious condition, this genetically acquired brain disorder is treatable. With early detection and proper diagnosis, monitoring and medication, children with bipolar disorders can lead normal and productive lives.
Symptom of Bipolar Disorder
A person with bipolar disorder usually goes through spells of mania followed by spells of depression. These periods of happiness and sadness are not normal bouts of happiness and sadness that everyone experiences from time to time. Instead, these episodes are intense and may be categorized as severe mood swings. Symptoms of mania are associated with - rapid speech and thoughts, amplified energy, sleep deprivation, elevated mood and inflated confidence, increased physical and mental activity, unwarranted irritability, aggressive behavior, impatience and poor judgment, irresponsible behavior like over spending, making rash decisions, erratic driving, difficulty concentrating and an inflated sense of self-importance.
In adults the phase of mania or depression can last for weeks or months. In children and adolescents, these episodes can be for a shorter period, and a child or teenager can n go back and forth between mania and depression throughout the day. Episodes of mania or depression may happen irregularly and follow a changeable pattern or they may be linked with a manic episode following a period of depression, or vice versa.
Treatment
Failure to diagnose and treat this disorder can prove fatal. Sometimes undiagnosed bipolar disorder patient end up in a psychiatric hospital or residential treatment centers and may attempt suicide. Children and teens with bipolar disorder do not usually show the same patterns of behavior as adults who have a similar condition. A mental health professional has to observe a teen’s behavior carefully before making a diagnosis. For treatment of this disorder a complete history of the person’s past and present experiences is very essential.
Medication and psychotherapy are known to be effective treatments for bipolar disorder. Occasionally, doctors may also use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Psychotherapy is often used simultaneously with medications. Detecting the patterns leading up to episodes of bipolar disorder and trying to identify triggers for these episodes is very important. Patterns may include use of medications or anything that happens physically or emotionally.
Rich jammes
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/bipolar-disorder-symptoms-treatment-621403.html
October 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
What are the symptoms and treatment of bipolar disorder?
and can u mix medication with alchol?
thanks
October 6th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Honestly I"m not sure what the symptoms of Bipolar disorder is but if your taking medication and you drink you could tend to cause more harm then if you didn’t.. read your medicine bottles and ask a doctor would be the best advice i can give you
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October 6th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Symptoms - An extreme cycling of moods. Two basic types are manic and depressed. When most bipolar people are manic they feel as if they can do anything! they can save the world, spend all kinds of money, do illegal things and not get caught, etc. Depressed is a deep depression, cant get out of bed depression. And the cycle just goes on and on.
I am taking Lamictol in the morning and Seroquil at night. The combo works wonderfully. I still cycle but its not near as extreme. I was going thru jobs and relationships like they were nothing. If you think you might be bipolar go talk to a psychiatrist and get checked out. It’s not the end of the world if you are! I drink with the meds. I cant remember if they told me not to! I do get pretty tipsy after only a couple though if i take them too fast.
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October 6th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
You can read about the symptoms of bipolar disorder here: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bipolar-disorder/DS00356/DSECTION=symptoms
Treatment is often any combination of anticonvulsants, antipsychotics and antidepressants. Therapy is a good idea in conjunction with medication.
It’s a bad, bad idea to drink with these medications. Many of them allow you to get drunk more easily. Once, when I was on Abilify (aripiprazole - an antipsychotic) I went for a night out and had my normal amount of alcohol and ended up completely childlike and helpless, confused and crying and having to be taken home. NOT a good idea.
Also, many of these medications are bad for your liver. Combining them with alcohol makes you at high risk for liver damage.
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October 6th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
There are plenty of treatments available for bipolar disorder and as with any drug it’s advised not to combine medications with alcohol.
There are several mood stabilizers that can be used in bipolar disorder such as Lithium, Depakote, Tegretol, Trileptal, and Lamictal.
For bipolar mania there are several other drugs that can be tried such as Zyprexa, Risperdal, Invega, Seroquel, Geodon, and Abilify.
For bipolar depression one of the courses of action would be to combine a mood stabilizer with an antidepressant, and be watched for signs of mania.
When I get manic I get very agitated and irritable. I yell, scream, holler at almost anybody for no particular reason. I once even yelled at my doctor one time during my manic state. Then I get to the point where I become psychotic and maybe see things climbing on the wall or bugs crawling around on the floor, or I more often mistake something I saw as something else.
Depression in bipolar disorder is similar to depression in non-bipolar people. This can cause a person to see the doctor during a depressive phase and the doctor thinks they have depression and gives a patient an antidepressant and it sets them off into a manic or mixed state. A mixed state is when you have both symptoms of mania and depression concurrently.
Many people with bipolar disorder have to take more than one medication. That’s because each medication they take works in different ways so each medication will treat a different aspect of the person’s bipolar symptoms. I take the antipsychotic Zyprexa Zydis as a mood stabilizer and it helps me very much. I know if I take the Zyprexa Zydis each night it will help prevent the ups and downs I use to have before starting the medication.
There are also life style adjustments that can be done to help with bipolar disorder. One of the main things that can be done is keeping to a regular sleep schedule and a routine to follow though out the day.
Best of luck,
Andy…
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