Bipolar 1 Disorder
How Is Bipolar 1 Disorder Different?
A bipolar 1 disorder is a special type of bipolar illness. In general, those afflicted with bipolar disorder, formerly referred to as manic-depressive illness, experience rapid mood swings. The swings oscillate between mania, or "highs", and depression, or "lows". Bipolar disorder is treatable, though not considered curable. The exact causes of bipolar disorder remain unknown.
Bipolar disorder is often categorized in terms of the frequency and intensity of the mood swing cycles. Rapid Cycling features several episodes of mood swings over a period of one year, usually 4 or more. A person said to be experiencing Ultra-rapid Cycling would be having mood swings of up to 4 or more per day. For some individuals, the pattern appears to be seasonal, though generally predicable. Women may experience postpartum bipolar episodes within a month of childbirth.
A bipolar 1 disorder is chiefly distinguished by the onset of one or more manic episodes. Occasionally when there is more than one manic episode, swings to a depressive episode may occur, but this need not be the case. The manic episode dominates, and can be very extreme, requiring hospitalization.
Symptoms associated with a manic episode can often appear to be positive in terms of behavior, but in the case of a bipolar 1 disorder, the symptoms are definitely abnormal. The patient tends to speed things up, in almost every thing from speech to activities. In other words, the patient, who once acted quite normally, is now going at 60 miles per hour. The patient will not only talk faster than normal, but may talk excessively, and when not talking, will appear to be often deep in thought.
A lack of sleep is a common trait, as the patient often has an attitude of great ambition, and may regard sleep as a waste of time. In addition to feeling ambitious, the patient usually has feelings of great confidence and self-esteem. During longer episodes of mania, there is often a tendency to take on tasks that cannot be reasonably expected to be accomplished, though the patient may feel quite capable of doing so.
In the more extreme episodes, a patient may hallucinate, and enter into a world where fact and fantasy become one and the same. The patient will suffer delusions of grandeur, often picturing himself as being in positions of great power or influence. The character in the play "Arsenic and Old Lace", who believed he was Teddy Roosevelt, would fit perfectly as one suffering extreme mania, although a somewhat harmless form in that particular case.
People who come to work suddenly feeling very confident, willing to take on new tasks, and are feeling good about themselves, are not necessarily suffering from a bipolar 1 disorder. They may be feeling that way for any number of reasons. It is the magnitude of the feelings, and a sense that truly abnormal behavior is being witnessed, that indicate the presence of symptoms of a bipolar disorder.