Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that interferes with your ability to function, disrupts your life, and in some cases, leads to hospitalization. But you don’t need to face it alone when you can get exceptional care from our providers at Ease Psychiatry. The team helps you stabilize your symptoms and maintain your quality of life with medication management and talk therapy. Don’t wait to schedule an in-person or telemedicine appointment. Call the office in Duncanville, Texas, Vancouver, Washington and Dike, Iowa or use the online booking feature today.
request an appointmentWhat is bipolar disorder?
Bipolar disorder was once called manic depression, which describes the condition’s mood swings between high-energy mania and low-energy depression. However, there are different types of bipolar, and the severity of your mood swings varies in each type.
Bipolar I disorder
Bipolar I disorder is like the original manic depression, with episodes of serious mania and major depression.
Manic episodes last at least one week, affect your ability to function, and often cause such severe symptoms that you need hospitalization. Most people have a neutral or stable period between their mood swings.
Bipolar II disorder
Bipolar II disorder causes periods of hypomania and major depression. Hypomania has the same symptoms as mania, but they’re less severe. People usually keep up with their daily responsibilities during a period of hypomania.
Cyclothymic disorder
Cyclothymic disorder causes mood swings that occur more frequently than the other two types. In many cases, you don’t have stable periods between the swings. However, your symptoms are less severe than hypomania and major depression.
What symptoms occur due to bipolar disorder?
During a manic episode, you may:
- Feel very energetic or irritable
- Have excessive physical energy
- Need less sleep
- Talk rapidly
- Experience racing thoughts
- Have an exaggerated feeling of importance
- Engage in risky behaviors (driving while drinking or overspending)
Severe episodes of mania can also cause delusions and hallucinations. Delusions refer to believing something is true or real when it’s not. Hallucinations occur when you see, hear, feel, or smell something that isn’t there.
During a depressive episode, you may:
- Feel sad, hopeless, and worthless
- Have low energy and lethargy
- Find it hard to concentrate
- Withdraw from family and friends
- Lose interest in your favorite activities
- Sleep more or less
- Eat more or less
- Think about suicide
Bipolar depression may also cause headaches, an upset stomach, muscle pain, and other physical symptoms.
How is bipolar disorder treated?
Mood-stabilizing medications are essential for this lifelong disorder. These medications prevent swings between mania and depression.
Therapy is also an important part of your treatment because it helps you manage other aspects of bipolar disorder. For example, you can learn to recognize the signs of a pending mood swing and the steps you can take to maintain stability.
Bipolar disorder disrupts many areas of your life. Talk therapy helps you deal with these challenges, whether you need to learn skills to control your emotions, rebuild damaged relationships, or reduce stress.
You can count on compassionate care for bipolar disorder at Ease Psychiatry. To schedule an appointment, call the office or book an appointment online today.