Bipolar Disorder: Highs and Lows

Bipolar disorder is a sickness that involves a person going through personality extremes. A person with bipolar disorder keeps changing disposition as time passes. High and lows occur at a regular interval.

There are two main phases of bipolar disorder. Ther first is mania and the second is depression. There is a third stage called hypomania. This stage is shorter in comparison to the other two. People in the hypomania phase experience a magnified and sharper train of thought.

Mania involves a person becoming very hyper. A bipolar person in a state of mania will talk very loud, always keep busy and may seem very jittery to other people. This phase of the disorder can last for as long as three weeks for some patients. This time in the person's life can be very draining, but because of the state of mania, the person may not be able to feel the fatigue.

The other stage of bipolar disorder is where the fatigue from the mania starts to sink in. This phase is depression. In relation to the figure given earlier, a person that has experienced mania for three weeks can then experience a state of depression for a few months.

This depression will cause someone to be really down. This stage is the exact opposite of mania. While a person gets so high up in the sky in the state of mania, in depression that person can dig his or her body deep in the ground. This time of depression causes a person to be very reclusive and inactive. Once the state of depression ends, the person goes back to the mania. It is an endless cycle.

The time that it takes for people to go back and forth between mania and depression varies. There are cases when the shift is so gradual that it is barely even noticeable. There are other rare situations, though, of people that go through these range of emotions in only a day.

There are actually two levels of bipolar disorder. In level one, things are relatively peaceful in your mind. You just need minor treatment to be able to function properly. People that experience level two may show signs of schizophrenia and are harder to treat.

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