Unipolar Disorder

This depressive mood disorders can be divided into bipolar and unipolar. Bipolar is usually marked by bipolar manic symptoms or the presence of both mania and depression episodes. Whereas, unipolar is characterized by depression only and its symptoms may include:

 Very dull, no energy, lazy and apathetic.

 Difficulty in sleeping, waking early and tired even after a long nights sleep.

 Always on their nerves.

 Feelings of utter despair, useless or hopeless of everything.

 Strong feelings of irritability and being always tired.

These disturbance is not caused by a direct physiological effects of illicit drugs abuse or of medication or a medical condition.

Bipolar Manic Depression

Bipolar depression is characterized by a disturbance in mood with varying degrees of:

 Long sadness and unexplained crying moments.

 Appetite and sleeping patterns significantly changes.

 Angry, worried, agitated, anxious and irritable.

 Indifference and pessimistic.

 No energy and always lethargic .

 Feelings of worthlessness and guilt.

 Unable to concentrate and indecisive.

 Unable to have pleasure in former hobbies.

 Being with other people becomes a headache.

 Physical pain and body pains hard to explain.

 Always thinking of death and suicide

These bipolar depressive feelings can be quite severe and may stay with the person for a long time. Daily chores can become very difficult, but mostly of the time patients may still be able to cope. For many bipolar individuals negative feelings of hopelessness can become very strong.

Bipolar Manic

The two characters of the disorder has given it the name bipolar disorder. This bipolar manic phase is marked by an abnormal severe irritable mood and lots of energy. Some other symptoms are grandiosity, unable to sleep, extravagance spending, and irrational judgment. Some patients may suffer long periods of bipolar, but bipolar manic-depressive illness is the highest suicide rate of any mental health disorder accounted for.

Bipolar Treatment – Anti-Psychotic Medication

The Two main bipolar mania symptoms are psychotic thoughts and behaviors, which comes with emotional responses, judgment errors and hard to communicate. To hold in check these thoughts and behaviors before it becomes uncontrollable, most doctors would prescribe bipolar treatment such as mood stabilizing medicines like Clorazil, Risperdal and Zyprexa. Some of these anti-psychotic medications help to control the opposite side of the bipolar depression.

Therapy – Family

Effective for bipolar patients – family focused therapy can help bipolar manic patients. Bipolar manic victims can cause a lot of problems in relationships among family members. With this type of therapy, all members of the family can give something to help control the patient’s behaviors by helping cutting down stimulus and boundaries. The main aim of this therapy is to help everyone notice the signs and learn how to better handle the symptom when it arrives.

The Use of ECT – Electroshock

Electroshock (ECT) was first introduced in the 30s, but due the bad publicity of ECT therapy, and the negative portrayals in movie, electroshock therapy frightened so many people after that and has come to be used as a last resort for bipolar treatment. Today, however, ECT has been refined and is becoming very popular.

Treating patients with ECT treatment is quite useful when:

1. Bipolar medication is not working.

2. There is an urgent needed to intervene, e.g. suicide risk or severe cases of psychosis.

3. The use of bipolar medication may be too risky, e.g. women who are pregnant.

With the use of modern ECT techniques, the risk of memory problems has been reduced significantly. The only drawback with this type of treatment is, it is quite expensive and often requires more treatments.

Anti Convulsant Drugs

• Valproate (Depakote): is and anti-convulsant medicine and used as a mood-stabilizer.

• Depakote: first approved in 1995 by the Food and Drug Aadministration (FDA) for treatment of mania. Doctors use this medicine on stubborn mania symptoms.

• Seroquel: brand name for Quetiapine was approved by the FDA to treat both bipolar mania and bipolar depression. The only problem with this medication is the side effects, which many people find difficult to tolerate.

• Prozac and Lexapro: increasingly unpopular because it is both dangerous, ineffective and can trigger bipolar mania symptoms.

Using diet – as  Bipolar Treatment

With the problem of fast foods and what have you in our food; diet and nutrition has been increasingly recognized as an effective way of treating bipolar depressive symptoms. You can discover for yourself the power of using diet for stabilizing moods and weights. Some proven natural supplements in managing bipolar depression symptoms are:

1. Fish oil: A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that – Omega-3 fatty acid which is found in fish oil, is good for treating bipolar depression.

2. Folic acid: For building white blood cells – These acids can be found in leafy vegetables, certain fruits, liver, liver products, baker's yeast and some breakfast cereals.

3. Inositol: member of the vitamin B complex and high concentration of inositol can be found in grains, beans, nuts and fruits.

Transcranial (TMS) magnetic stimulation.

Magnetic stimulation (TMS) is when strong magnetic pulses are induced with weak electric currents on specific parts of the human brain tissue. Not like the ECT method, patients always remain awake and alert because there is no use of anesthetic. The benefits of this type of treatment is, the magnetic pulses are not strong enough to cause seizures, and secondly memories are not lost.

Bipolar treatments for bipolar

When on a bipolar treatment always consult your doctor for anything, from changing your bipolar medication to even changing your doctor. There are lots of bipolar treatment available but what may work for some may not work for others. The word we always emphasize is be PATIENT and be HONEST with your medication.

Bipolar disorder symptoms which are psychotic can be present in bipolar one. It must be noted that when psychosis symptoms are present, it automatically rules out bipolar II disorder. But before we dwell into the finer detail of Psychotic symptoms, I think that it is important to define what psychosis is. It is the loss of contact with the truth, which includes delusions and hallucinations.

Psychosis

The symptoms of psychosis is mostly associated with bipolar mania, bipolar 1, schizoaffective and schizophrenia disorders. There are other conditions where this psychosis symptoms can be present and this includes  dementia, postpartum psychosis,  Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and depressive episodes. While this has not been proven, it is believed that the use of certain illicit drugs, like methamphetamine, can bring about a psychotic episode.

Hallucinations

Many people associate hallucinations (hearing inner voices or sounds that are not real) with schizophrenia. While visual hallucinations is quite a common type, it is usually not associated with bipolar. Hallucinations can be experienced by individuals with bipolar disorder symptoms especially when in a depressive or mania episode.

Delusions – pronounced = de-LOO-zhuns

When people are deluded because of bipolar they are simply believing in something that is in fact not true. Some types of delusions and their information may include:

·     Delusions of grandeur – believing that they are both famous and quite important and that they are a god.

·     Delusional jealousy – this jealousy arises in the belief that their partner are not faithful when in fact it is not the truth.

·     Paranoid or persecutory delusions – it is the belief that someone is following, spying and secretly listened to you.

·     Delusions of reference – Strongly thinking that proceeding events have a special meaning only for you.

·     Other "unusual" delusions – believing they are a lion, your partner is an cat, or that big giant worms make big tunnels for trains to go through.

·     Delusions are just one aspect of the psychotic features of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Also included are some other psychiatric and medical conditions.

The Link Between Bipolar and Psychosis

Usually the same psychotic symptoms that appears in bipolar I disorder can be found in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders.  It has been observed that physical illnesses that can imitate bipolar disorder symptoms do cause psychosis.

Catatonia

While catatonia is firstly a schizophrenia symptom of schizoaffective disorder, it can be noticed although rarely as a psychotic symptom of bipolar disorder symptom. A lot of people think of catatonia as catatonic stupor, where victims sits absolutely motionless and doesn't respond to anybody and anything. There are many symptoms and different forms of catatonia, which we will not try to go into detail.

Seek Help

If anyone you know is showing psychosis symptoms mentioned above, please do not hesitate to ask for help because it may be a mental health problem related to or not related to bipolar disorder symptoms. The very fact that the person is showing psychosis symptoms is good enough reason for us to do something fast because it is serious.

The word depression is the hindering of a person’s moods, marked by the different levels of their feelings of loneliness, sadness, disappointment, hopelessness, guilt and self-doubt. These depressive feelings can be quite severe and may continue for a long time. Daily functions may be hard, but most patients are able to cope with their depression. For those experiencing severe depression – hopelessness can become so intense that ending one’s life can occupy the person’s thoughts. These mood disorders or affective disorders occur in two flavors, namely “unipolar” and bipolar depression.

Unipolar Depression

Bipolar depression must be differentiated from unipolar depression. The most permanent feeling is the sense of anxiety, despair, being hopeless and useless in about everything. The mental disorder is not caused by the abuse of illicit drugs or medication. This unipolar depression only manifests depression and its symptoms are:

· Extreme lack of energy

· Disturbance in sleeping patterns

· Waking up early

· Difficulty in going to sleep

· Waking up tired even after long hours of sleep.

Severe Bipolar Depression

Bipolar is a serious disorder in the brain chemistry, causing severe mood, energy and functioning which shifts to high, low and back again. In very severe cases of bipolar depression, pain can be so great that patients are even scared they may not get out alive because the thoughts of suicide are constantly on their mind. For these people when in these mood stages, there is never a good day, remember the good times and sometimes in their pain they are praying to die. While depressed victims want to die most would not have a good reason to end their life.

Feelings of Hopelessness

While the feeling of hopelessness is part of depression, in severe cases, patients sometimes just don’t see much hope in their depression getting any better. With this lack of hope is the fear of not being able to come out of bipolar depression, which can lead ultimately to the idea that life is not worth living and ultimately end it all.

Bipolar Treatment

While many can lay claim to the effectiveness of bipolar treatment drugs, there are others who can also say that the use of bipolar medication not only gives side effects it makes bipolar depression worse. With no effect of medication and very low energy level, severe cases of bipolar depression can only remember or are preoccupied with their emotional pain.

Ray of Hope

While the future may look bleak for most of these severe cases of bipolar depressed victims, there is a ray of hope and it is their family. A family that is loving and supportive can do wonders to these patients. Bipolar treatments can only do so much, but where it fails it is the immediate families that can help the person continue on with life despite the odds.

Bipolar disorder is also known as bipolar manic depression affective disorder. This manic disorder is sometimes described as a category of moods with one or more abnormal moods. The three main bipolar categories are mania which comes under the raised or elevated moods, depression the opposite and hypomania the middle ground or the milder form. No one can pinpoint the real causes of this disease, but there are contributing factors like genes, environment, diet and lifestyle.

Bipolar Manic

Bipolar mania which is part of bipolar manic depression illness has some warning signs or red flags of incoming moods. It is good to know some of these manic symptoms so you can have an early diagnosis and these are:

• High levels of Energy.

• Not sleeping enough or unable to sleep

• Not tired even though they are doing too many things all at once.

• Full of big plans with increased activities.

•Very restlessness and uneasy

• Talkative and speech disruptions

Bipolar Depression

The Signs and symptoms of bipolar manic depression illness are usually shown in its low energy phases with negative emotions. These include consistent feelings of being sad, anxious, feelings of guilt, anger, isolated, or no hope. They can spend long hours of sleep, always tired, loss of appetite and no interest in enjoyable activities. Bipolar depression is usually referred to as the opposite of bipolar mania symptoms.

Hypo manic Moods

With mania on the high energy and depression on the low, hypomania is generally seen as a milder or moderate level of the mania episode. The main characteristics of hypomania are: being talkative with increased activities and less need for sleep. Those with hypomania show MANIA symptoms but a milder form. One of the main difficulties with diagnosing hypomania is it can be seen as mere happiness and secondly it is sitting on the borders of mania and depression.

Other Divisions

The manic and depressive episodes are separated by  "normal" mood periods , but in some victims these two symptoms, depression and mania may rapidly interchange, which is sometimes also known as “rapid cycling”. Severe manic moods can sometimes create psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. These bipolar manic disorder can be subdivided into bipolar disorder I, bipolar disorder II, cyclothymia , (short periods of hypomania and mild depression episodes), and other types. “Bipolar Spectrum,” or (BS) is based on mood disorders that show abnormally high mood. These are bipolar I symptoms, a full-blown manic episodes, short periods of hypomania and a mild depression (cyclothymia).

Bipolar Diagnosis

Bipolar manic depression disorder is much more common today than had been thought.  It is believed that only one third of those affected are diagnosed accurately. Especially with children, when doctors are making a diagnosis, it is important that they rule out other mental conditions first.

Medications and Difficulties

Difficulties in diagnosing a patient with bipolar manic depression symptoms are:

•Symptoms are similar to other mental illness – in some cases wrong medication is given.

•Not all medications will work – what works for some may not work for others.

•Because of each person’s makeup – some patients will have side effects.

Final Words

All medications must be taken strictly as prescribed. If at any time you as a victim of bipolar manic depression patient feel that the medication prescribed is not working or is too strong, please consult your doctor. It is extremely important that you a bipolar manic victim be patient with your bipolar medications, because many drugs take some time to work in your system.

Adolescent is that transitional stage of development between childhood and adulthood and represents the period of time during which a person experiences a variety of biological changes and encounters a number of emotional issues both in boys and in girls. Depending on the culture the ages range from 10 years (preteens) to nineteen years (young adult). According to (WHO), the World Health Organization, adolescence covers the period of life between 10 and 20 years of age. For the sake of adolescence bipolar we will be dividing these phases into three: early, mid and late adolescence.

Early Adolescent Bipolar

There is evidence indicating that bipolar disorder which was diagnosed in childhood or early adolescence is different, possibly a more severe form of the illness in older or late adolescence. A case study on a 10 year old saw that the child’s difficult behaviors were first noted between the ages of 2 and 3, when he would yell and bang his head at day care. He would be hostile by hitting, kicking, biting others and thrash around in a tantrum over something very simple. He was enthusiastic most of the time being helpful and constantly on the move, but he would be furious over nothing within minutes. The physical symptoms were headaches, stomach problems, difficulty swallowing and frequent diarrhea.

Mid – Adolescent (13 – 15 or 16 years)

Very often we hear, “my boyfriend is bipolar and I'd appreciate some advice. He has been very emotional, one minute he is happy and the next he is sad. He has a hard time getting out his emotions and sharing them with me.” A person with bipolar needs to focus on controlling the illness through treatment rather than letting the illness control them. When the illness takes control they in turn try to control others in a relationship. This can be damaging to the other person who does not know what is happening in the mind. It is important to have a long-term daily bipolar medication and ongoing psychiatric care to maintain a good quality of life.

Late – Adolescent (about 16– 20 yrs)

Late adolescent bipolar symptoms are much closer to adult bipolar than to early adolescent or late childhood bipolar. While it is important to give your children the chance to express their personalities and bizarreness, you must always keep careful watch over your child’s friends. This is because they tend to act without thinking and don't always know what is good for them or the middle ground. A large percentage of bipolar adolescent experiment with drugs or  alcohol for self medication. These kids take illicit drugs or alcohol because they feel like their painful life is getting out of control. On the contrary, illicit drugs make bipolar worse.

Outlet

Bipolar individuals are often very talented and gifted people with talents expressed through writing, liberal arts, poetry, artwork, etc. You should encourage your bipolar child to express their talents in anything that they show interest in, like joining a band, orchestra, drama, outdoor sports, art lessons, or collecting something. This could be anything they can do and be proud of themselves for doing it. Finally use positive words and praise them for everything you can think of. It will sure boost their ego for doing something good or right.

Non bipolar individuals do not understand the different world bipolar patients live in. These people see the world in a very different way because the chemical signals in the brain are either sending the wrong signals or not at all. It can be compared to two people looking in on an accident, both individuals have seen the same accident, but differ in their perceptions and emotions.

Those with the condition are paranoid with life and have the notion that people cannot feel what they are going through and understand  a bipolar mood swing. Bipolar patients look at life from an ugly perspective they feel ugly and see themselves as looking ugly. Danger seems to be everywhere, colors look weird and they hate being in a  crowd with lots of  energy. The thought of feeling good can terrify them. Those living with a bipolar victim can offer a great support  by lending a listening ear. These victims can be your very own children, parents, cousins or other members of a nuclear family. You as a family can form the first bipolar support group to help them look at why they think the way they think, feel and what it is that makes them see the world as it is.

First Line of Support

Those living with a bipolar person must realize that they are the first people that must know what to do to support their relative who is a bipolar patient. There are two kinds of people we often come across, those who know they are sick and need help and others who cannot admit they are sick and so do not want to seek help. When bipolar medications is not working well, people will look for other alternative to make them better and so will ask anybody for help. You can help greatly as a friend or relative by spending time with them, talking and listening. By doing this, they begin to share their emotions and deepest thoughts – we don’t realize that they also want company.

Charting

Either as a parent or caregiver you as a bipolar supporter must first track the sick person’s day. Chart down their attitudes, moods and their behaviors and at what time of the day for this will be helpful especially if certain behaviors are happening at certain times of the day and for your sessions together. You must not rely on them to do this because they are not capable due to the short term memory problem.

Throwing Back

“Tracking” comes in handy when it comes to feedback sessions as it will allow you to tell them what happened and how they have reacted to certain situations. If they did something really good; it is important to convey how well they have handled the situation and also bring to their attention what they use to do before. Bipolar patients need to see what they are doing wrong and then CAREFULLY bring it to their attention, understanding the problem as a supporter and not aggravate the problem even more. If they are doing something right they need to know what it is and learn for themselves what they did, capitalize and continue doing it.

Giving Your Ears

Most people would rather talk offering suggestions than offering a listening ear. You as a bipolar supporter can just listen and ask questions to allow them to express  all that is in their mind. Even if you can’t help just listen and talk, for anybody that listens is a great help. You don’t have to have a direct clear answer; most people just want people to listen to them.

There are many bipolar recovery success stories with complete remission that we hear around. But, unfortunately there are many more that are still looking for the right bipolar medicine or combination of prescribed drugs to cure them. Finding an effective treatment can be a very challenging process for many. This is because allergies, bad reactions or the complete failure of bipolar medication drugs are known to exist.

Adjusting to Medication

Because bipolar is a complicated illness, medication adjustments can be very tough for doctors. Many Bipolar sufferers while on drugs get stable for a period but then the body rejects the drug and they have to start all over again. Unfortunately this is the tough reality for many people on prescribed drugs.

Some Common Drugs and what they do

Lithium: Lithium alters the flow of sodium through nerve system and cells in the body muscle. It is this sodium that affects the human excitation or mania episodes. While lithium is quite a cheap drug, about $20 per month many patients have opted for other expensive drugs because of its side effects. Lots of people have linked lithium to kidney disease but that has to be verified.

Lamictal or Lamotrigine: market name for Lamotrigine, no one really knows how it works but some believe that it is a channel blocker, blocking sodium from entering the body. Lamictal is a good drug but can be quite expensive around $250.00 per month. Most bipolar patients tolerate this drug quite well with no experience of side effects. Because of this it has been suggested that lamotrigine has a different mechanism of action from others like lithium.

Chlorpromazine: comes under the class of drugs called phenothiazines. Its main work is to change the chemical actions in the brain. It is used to treat psychotic disorders like bipolar.

Depakote: Valproic acid, also known as divalproex increases the amount of amino acid (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and alters the properties of voltage sodium dependent channels. This acid is associated with the transmission of nerve impulses in the central nervous system. For those who have problems with lithium this is another best option.

Risperdal (PDR):  under the trade name Risperdal, Risperidone is an antipsychotic drug used for treatment of schizophrenia in adolescent mixed and mania episodes.

Seroquel:  prevents communication between nerves of the brain by blocking the chemicals that nerves use for reaching each other.  It is a drug licensed for treating bipolar mania.

Zyprexa: under the generic name olanzapine no one really knows exactly how this medicine works. It is believed that it changes certain actions of some chemicals within the brain. It is used for mania depression in bipolar disorder.

Simple Warning

When taking your medication in tablet form do not crush, chew, or break it up for it must be taken whole because the medicine  must be released slowly into the body. Breaking the pill can cause too much of the drug being released all one once in the human body.

Perseverance

If there is one word of encouragement for those with bipolar, it would be this: PERSEVERE and 100% medication compliant. Make sure you are up to date with all your appointments and keep pushing even when you are faced with setbacks, exhausted and just want to give up. Be a passive patient and proactive in your own treatment.

Good News

Bipolar disorder CAN be conquered and this has been proven by many.

Drug Therapy Treatment

The most common way bipolar disorder is treated is through the use of prescription psychiatric drugs. The most common prescribed drugs include antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication, mood stabilizers, and ant-psychotic drugs. These prescriptions will allow the problems of depression and mania to be kept in check. As a result, the various symptoms that spawn out of bipolar disorder can be kept in check. And, of course, this means the problems caused by these symptoms will be minimized.

It is important to note that a psychiatrist will need to rely on patient feedback in order to ascertain whether or not the combination's of drugs that have been prescribed are working properly. Patients need to log the positives and negatives they have noticed after taking the prescriptions. Upon reporting such information to the psychiatrist, a decision can be made as to whether or not to increase or decrease a dosage; change or substitute a prescription; or discontinue the use of prescriptions completely.

Psychotherapy and Counseling Treatment

Counseling and psychotherapy involves discussing your condition with a qualified mental health care professional. However, there are significant differences between the two. For some, one approach is better than the other. Then, there are those that will utilize both methods. But, in order to select a particular approach, one needs to know the difference between the two.

Counseling

Counseling mainly deals with advice. Problems associated with a condition are worked out through talking about them. The counselor may then give advice on how to deal with these problems with the hope that they will become less of a problem.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is much more involved and complex. This process deals with actual behavioral modification with the intention of removing the condition. This is a radical departure from counseling which generally seeks to mainly deal with the condition. Once again, one approach is not better than the other. They are simple different approaches that all have their own unique value.

A Word on Treatment

One thing that needs to be clearly understood is that there are no “quick fixes” for dealing with bipolar disorder. Any and all forms of treatment will take time to achieve long lasting successful results. Bipolar disorder is a complex condition. As such, one needs to be patient and approach the successes of treatment in realistic and incremental manner.