by Jennifer Lawson

Created on: November 20, 2008

Running the Obstacle Course of Mental Illness-Bipolar Disorder

I've chosen to write this article, regarding the debate of whether or not a woman diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder are capable of being good mothers, without a draft, because I am very passionate about this subject for many reasons. One, I have dealt with mental, anxiety, mood, and even emotional disorders as long as I can remember. Being bipolar is only the newest in a long line of diagnoses.

I think that the first thing that we need to treat regarding Bipolar Disorder is public awareness. There is a lot of stigma attached to even the word bipolar and holding onto and leaning on that stigma is a lot easier and safer than really getting informed. There are a ton of resources on the net, one of my first resources on Bipolar Disorder can be found here http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/guide/bipolar- disorder-forms-this page is loaded with information regarding three, yes three types of Bipolar Disorder, their symptoms, treatments, prognosis and possibilities. There are a lot of "if you do this" and "when you feel like this", sort of this that are important in being functional with this disorder, any type you or yours may carry. I have also seen many cases of all three types.

I keep mentioning three types so I'll quickly tell you briefly the differences. They all carry episodes of cycling mania and depression. We typically only hear about the first-Bipolar I, which is characterized by extreme mood swings or cycling. The mania can be extreme enough that people will act outside of what we can imagine, this are so bold and necessary to the patient that they can be major enough to create life changes or feeling grandiose enough to feel invincible, and the depression can be extreme enough to put one in bed for days or weeks to the point of contemplating or following through with suicide. This is the "big one" you hear about where a devoted mother will take all the money out of the family account and run off to Vegas to gamble till it's gone or a father leaves his family for months to travel the country and pick up hookers at every rest stop.

Bipolar II is one I hadn't heard of until there was talk of me possibly being diagnosed with it. Bipolar II is slightly milder and the manic times are usually marked with goal oriented tasks and being ultra productive or taking on a lot or even too many tasks and then of course when the tasks become impossible to complete as our brain tells us we should be able to

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