My Girlfriend can go from sweet and loving me, to wanting to leave me and totally ignor me. Back and forth. Does the bipolarness come and go that quickly or how long? One minute she's and angel and the next she's evil. Not just me, but her family members also. I really want to help her, even when she don't want to be helped. She knows there's a problem, but she thinks it's just with her men. But we all see differently. She's never been diagnosed, but the signs are there...? Help? Sorry. That must be really hard. She does need some sort of help!! You are right!!!From high to low. From euphoria to depression. From recklessness to listlessness. These are the extremes associated with bipolar disorder, which can be a serious and disabling mental illness. Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depression or manic-depressive illness 鈥?manic behavior is one extreme of this disorder and depression is the other.
Bipolar disorder often begins in adolescence or early adulthood and may persist throughout life. The causes of bipolar disorder are elusive, and there's no cure.
The flares of bipolar disorder may last for weeks or months, causing great disturbances in the lives of those affected, their friends and their families. Left untreated, the condition usually worsens. But bipolar disorder can be managed with medications and other therapies.
Signs and symptoms
Bipolar disorder is characterized by an alternating pattern of emotional highs (mania) and lows (depression). The intensity of the associated signs and symptoms varies. Bipolar disorder can range from a mild condition to a severe condition, and there may be periods of normal behavior.
Manic phase
For many people, signs and symptoms in the manic phase may include:
Feelings of euphoria, extreme optimism and inflated self-esteem
Rapid speech, racing thoughts, agitation and increased physical activity
Poor judgment
Recklessness or taking chances not normally taken
Difficulty sleeping
Tendency to be easily distracted
Inability to concentrate
Aggressive behavior
Depressive phase
In the depressive phase, signs and symptoms include:
Persistent feelings of sadness, anxiety, guilt or hopelessness
Disturbances in sleep and appetite
Fatigue and loss of interest in daily activities
Problems concentrating
Irritability
Chronic pain without a known cause
Recurring thoughts of suicide
Doctors and researchers don't know exactly what causes bipolar disorder. But a variety of biologic, genetic and environmental factors seem to be involved in causing and triggering episodes of this illness.
Evidence indicates that differences in the chemical messengers between nerve cells in the brain (neurotransmitters) occur in people who have bipolar disorder. In many cases, people with a bipolar disorder may have a genetic disposition for the disorder. The abnormality may be in genes that regulate neurotransmitters. However, not everyone with a family member who has bipolar disorder will develop the disease.
Factors that may contribute to or trigger episodes of bipolar disorder include drug abuse and stressful or psychologically traumatic events.
Bipolar disorder tends to run in families. A family history of depression appears to exist in 80 percent to 90 percent of cases of bipolar disorder. Researchers are attempting to identify genes that may make people susceptible to bipolar disorder.
*****People with bipolar disorder often don't recognize how impaired they are when experiencing a mood episode and how greatly the disorder is affecting their lives and the lives of others. Friends, family and primary care physicians are all important in recognizing possible signs of bipolar disorder and urging the person to seek professional help.
If a family member or friend shows signs of bipolar disorder, encourage that person to seek the care of a psychiatrist.*****
Your doctor may ask you or a family member who has accompanied you about your signs and symptoms and to describe apparent episodes of mania and depression. Diagnosis also involves ruling out other mental health conditions that may produce some symptoms similar to bipolar disorder. These may include other mood disorders, sometimes schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or borderline personality disorder.
You may also undergo tests to see if your mood swings are due to physical causes, such as:
Substance abuse. Abuse of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine may affect your moods.
Thyroid disorders. A blood test for thyroid function can determine whether you have a thyroid disorder, such as an underactive thyroid.
Your doctor may also ask about your use of medications, alcohol and recreational drugs and about your diet. Certain medications including corticosteroids, such as prednisone, and medications used to treat depression, anxiety and Parkinson's disease can cause mood swings. Abuse of alcohol and recreational drugs also can cause mood swings. Deficiency of vitamin B-12 may alter moods as well.
Other problems, such as anxiety disorder or alcoholism, may affect people with bipolar disorder. The length, severity and frequency of mood swings vary from person to person. In some people with bipolar disorder, there is rapid cycling with more frequent and shorter periods of mood disturbance.
It's also possible for mania and depression to be present at the same time. In this mixed state, people experience combinations of agitation, disturbances in sleep and appetite, suicidal thoughts and psychosis. Psychosis is a major mental disorder in which the personality is disorganized and contact with reality is impaired, often including auditory hallucinations and delusions 鈥?firmly held erroneous beliefs.
Bipolar disorder can have devastating effects on relationships as well as finances stemming from spending sprees during a manic episode or nearly complete isolation and withdrawal during a depressive phase.
Treatment
Medication and psychotherapy are the main treatments for bipolar disorder. Occasionally, doctors use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Medications
Most people with bipolar disorder take medication to regulate their moods. Lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid) has been widely used as a mood stabilizer and is generally the first line of treatment for manic episodes.
Anti-seizure medications, such as valproic acid (Depakene), divalproex (Depakote) and lamotrigine (Lamictal) are also widely used as mood regulators. Topiramate (Topamax), another anti-seizure medication, also is sometimes used to stabilize mood.
Sometimes, doctors also use antidepressant medications to treat the depression associated with bipolar disorder. These may include paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem), sertraline (Zoloft) or bupropion (Wellbutrin), among others. In other circumstances, doctors may use antipsychotic medications such as risperidone (Risperdal) or olanzapine (Zyprexa).
One medication, quetiapine (Seroquel), has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat both the manic and depressive episodes of bipolar disorder.
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), certain antipsychotic drugs may increase the risk of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. Therefore, the ADA recommends that doctors screen and regularly monitor people who take Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa for bipolar disorder.
You may need to take medications for several weeks before they reach their full effect.
Psychotherapy
This approach is often used simultaneously with medication. Your therapist will help you detect patterns leading up to episodes of bipolar disorder, trying to identify triggers for these episodes. These patterns might include your use of medications or anything that happens to you physically or emotionally. Psychotherapy helps provide strategies for managing stress and coping with uncertainties. This, along with basic education about the nature of the disorder, helps you understand why you may well need to keep taking medication over many years.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Doctors use this form of treatment mainly in people who have episodes of major depression associated with suicidal tendencies or in people whose medication has proved to be ineffective. In this treatment, electrodes are taped to your head. Then, while you're anesthetized and after you've received a muscle relaxant, a small amount of electrical current is passed through your brain for less than a second. This current produces a brain seizure, but because of the muscle relaxant, your body remains calm.
ECT profoundly affects brain metabolism and blood flow to various areas of the brain. How that correlates to easing depression remains unknown, but this therapy is often highly effective.
Coping with bipolar disorder can be difficult. Support groups can be a valuable part of a wider network of social support that includes health care professionals, family, friends and religious worship communities. Even if she does have it, how is that information going to help you hon? If you think she is "sick", talk to her about seeing a doctor and offer to go with her, even offer to pay for it. i get the highs but no lows any more. My mood can be really up or just normal. I miss the ups, i make people laugh more and i laugh more.
get her some professional help.I You can't help her. It's best that if she won't get help for her problem that you leave her. Otherwise she will only get worse because you are letting her get away with treating you badly.
http://www.recovery-man.com/coda/codepen...
http://www.recovery-man.com/coda/symptom...
http://www.soulselfhelp.on.ca/Codependan... Just don't wind her up when shes in a bad mood. My mum has bipolar and use to be an alcoholic because of it. She ended up stabbing my dad because he wound her up. From www.webmd.com:
"Not everyone with severe mood swings or a change in personality has bipolar disorder. Mood swings can be caused by other medical conditions that need to be diagnosed and treated properly. Medical diseases and medications that may have symptoms similar to bipolar disorder include the following:
Head trauma (blood clot or bleeding in the brain)
Thyroid problem (both underactive and overactive)
Systemic lupus erythematosus (a condition that may affect various body organs, including the brain)
Brain tumor
Epilepsy (seizures)
Neurosyphilis (a form of the sexually transmitted disease, syphilis, that has gone to the brain because it went untreated too long)
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome the ultimate result of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV)
Sodium imbalance (sodium, one of several elements found in body cells that is necessary for their proper function)
Diabetes mellitus (a disorder of, among other things, sugar processing in the body)
Certain medications that decrease the amount of serotonin or norepinephrine, such as some antihypertensive drugs and some preparations of steroids and birth control pills "
Dont' assume she has Bi-Polar. That is something only a doctor can diagnose adn it can be tricky to diagnose. YOu can read more about it @ http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/gu... if you'd like.
There are many more reasons than Bi Polar that she could be having such extreme mood swings, especially since they are frequent. There is a survey she can take onlien at that site that may help her find the right questions to ask her doctor in order to determine what is going on.
There is also two kinds of Bi Polar. You can find more information on the differences at that site as well. I personally think that mood swings (associated with Bipolar) is caused by surpressed emotions. You're girlfriend could be one of those people who think that they have no right to feel the way they do about people and things. This causes confuession and confuession causes mood swings. This my near expert opinion, as I am in Certified Life Coaching school. If she can truely grasp that she has the right to feel the way she feels about things and that no one has the right to tell her now to feel or how not to feel then she could have the confuession cleared up and thus the moodswings too. |
