by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: October 22, 2010

Bipolar is more of a mood disorder  than a disease, and relates more to personality impairment than an all out mental illness.  Extremes of energy levels dictate whether the victim will be high in the clouds with euphoria or down in the trenches with such depressed states of mine, getting out of bed is a major achievement.  It is mostly thought of as a inherited condition and genes have been located that show distinctive areas of probable bipolar connections.

Since this condition is, in essence, a personality disorder, it is hard to accurately diagnose a true bipolar illness from the normal ups and downs of living. Everyone has levels of high and low energy and some measure of elation and depression. The difference is that normal human beings, if these exist -  and many astute, cognitively reasoning  bipolar victims believe they don't - how can these be distinguished from the abnormal mood conditions?

They can't be distinguished by the average onlooker. But there are differences as any one of its victims will tell you.  The average person with its day to day mood swing pendulum that does not vary to the degree that it does in a true bipolar episode, is likewise either slightly up or slightly down, depending on their thinking, or on their energy levels. In nearly the same way as the victim acts normally in-between episodes.

Notice the word nearly, because even though a sufferer has had a reprieve, he is still living with the altered mood mechanism that may not take much to throw the chemical switch out of kilter. If they have learned their lessons well and are cognitively able to understand their illness, they can clearly distinguish between the relative normalcy between the have's and have nots - those with the affliction and those not. They are on their guards not to allow themselves to become overwhelmed by too much of  this, or too much of that.

Their mood swings do not quietly dissipate soon after the triggering mechanism is turned off, but continues on. An illustration: A normal person is invited out to a party, goes, and has  a good time, wishes they could continue on with the gaiety and elevated excitement, but as their energy level diminish, maybe or maybe not enhanced or decreased by their alcohol consumption, they become tired, go home and go to sleep.

A bi-polar person, on the other hand will be having a wonderful time, will be the last one to leave, will go home but will still in high energy and will stay

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>