Santos 1

Lovella Santos

Instructor Judith McCann

English 1302.203

20 April 2022

The Negative Aspect of Bipolar Disorder (still thinking about the title)

Nowadays bipolar disorder is common in all ages. Although there are different types of

bipolar disorder, the most common are bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder. Bipolar disorder

is a manic depression that does not help the human mind. In fact it makes it lose its ability to feel

the right emotion in the moment. Although it is mostly common in scholars, bipolar disorder has

a negative effect in any person's mind that has been going for ages. Everyone in this world has

some symptoms of bipolar disorder, but like stated before bipolar disorder has its own set of

causes, symptoms, and treatments that have a detrimental impact on the person who has this

manic disease.

Background

According to Mason, “Mood is the changing expression of emotion and can be described

as a spectrum. The outermost ends of this spectrum highlight two states, the lowest low,

melancholia, and the highest high, mania” (1). In other words, bipolar disorder, also known as

manic depression illness, is a mental health condition that causes mood swings, which includes

emotional highs and lows. It has many symptoms some include struggle sleeping, loss of touch

in reality, depression, low motivation, loss of interest in daily activities, suicidal thoughts, and

much more. Bipolar disorder has many types; they range from bipolar I disorder, bipolar II

disorder, cyclothymic (cyclothymia) disorder, mixed bipolar, and rapid cycling bipolar. Bipolar

disorder is not curable but it can be treated with therapy or antipsychotics.

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Causes of Having Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder also known as manic depression is not noticeable but it has many

different causes that trigger the human mind. ……

According to Setness, “biologic and environmental factors are likely involved, bipolar disorder

appears to be strongly linked to heredity…. In other cases a traumatic event or tragic loss triggers

the episode”

Symptoms of having bipolar disorder

There are several symptoms of bipolar illness. As previously stated, some signs include

difficulty sleeping, a loss of touch with reality, depression, low motivation, a withdrawal from

social activities, suicidal thoughts, and far more but they all vary on the person.

“In the manic or hypnotic phase of the disorder, the affected person may feel extremely

optimistic and may believe he or she has superhuman abilities. This phase is often

accompanied by increased by increased activity, racing thoughts and speech, increased

interest in sex, agitation, restlessness, sleeplessness, inability to concentrate, irritability,

and poor judgement. The depressive phase may feature gloominess, guilt, anxiety,

difficulty thinking, hopelessness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, low self-esteem,

fatigue, loss of interestin otherwise enjoyable activities, suicidal thoughts, and

distractibility.” (Setness et.at, 2005)

All of these symptoms affect the patient on another level since they do not know how to act at

the exact moment. (have to add more) (do not know how to do the block quote have to figure

that out)

Treatments taken (???)

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Like mentioned before bipolar disorder is not curable, it is chronic long term disease but

it can be controlled (Setness et.al, 2005). One way of controlling it is by taking antipsychotic

medications. Antipsychotics also known as neuroleptics are used to help reduce psychotic

symptoms such as depression, anxiety, hallucinations and much more. They contain serotonin,

dopamine, and lithium (Crowley et.al, 2014). They are basically relaxatives that are used to

control bipolar episodes and are known to have high dosages. When given the treatment the

patient has to follow a strict agenda in which they have a small dosage of the medication because

many abuse the drug and overuse its content. Many doctors recommend such medications to

control the patients' episodes, but in reality they can lead to substance abuse (drug addiction) and

so therapy or peer consultation is mostly recommended. According to Hulvershorn, “SUDs

(substance use disorders) have been shown to be particularly associated with increased frequency

and duration of mood episodes, increased preoccupation with suicide, decreased treatment

compliance and more severe cognitive impairment in individuals with BD (bipolar disorder)”

(131). Although antipsychotics are helpful to reduce the manic symptoms/episodes they do affect

the patient in a negative way which could lead them to death. (have to add more)

Conclusion

All in all, bipolar disorder is considered to

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Work cited

Comsa, Monica, et al. "The relationship between sleep and depression and bipolar disorder in

children and young people." BJPsych Open, vol. 8, no. 1, 2022. ProQuest,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2021.1076.

Crowley, Matthew J., et al. “Prioritization of Research Addressing Antipsychotics for

Adolescents and Young Adults With Bipolar Disorder.” Annals of Internal Medicine, vol.

160, no. 7, Apr. 2014, pp. 492–98. EBSCOhost,

https://doi-org.tamiu.idm.oclc.org/10.7326/M13-2549.

Duffy, Mary E., et al. “Psychotic Symptoms and Suicidal Ideation in Child and Adolescent

Bipolar I Disorder.” Bipolar Disorders, vol. 21, no. 4, June 2019, pp. 342–49.

EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1111/bdi.12789.

Hulvershorn, Leslie A., et al. "Substance use disorders in adolescent and young adult relatives of

probands with bipolar disorder: What drives the increased risk?" Comprehensive

psychiatry, vol. 78, 2017, pp. 130-139. ProQuest,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2017.07.010

Karanti, Alina, et al. “Characteristics of Bipolar I and II Disorder: A Study of 8766 Individuals.”

Bipolar Disorders, vol. 22, no. 4, June 2020, pp. 392–400. EBSCOhost,

https://doi-org.tamiu.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/bdi.12867.

Mason, Brittany, et al. “Historical Underpinnings of Bipolar Disorder Diagnostic Criteria.”

Behavioral Sciences, vol. 6, no. 3, 2016, p. 14., https://doi.org/10.3390/bs6030014.

McAulay, Claire, et al. "Eating Disorders, Bipolar Disorders and Other Mood Disorders:

Complex and Under-Researched Relationships." Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 7,

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2019. ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/eating-

disorders-bipolar-other-mood-complex-under/docview/2293327978/se-2,

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40337-019-0262-2 .

Setness, Peter A. "Bipolar Disorder." Postgraduate Medicine, vol. 118, no. 6, 2005, pp. 47-48.

ProQuest,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/bipolar

-disorder/docview/203977463/se-2?accountid=7081 .

Zak, Nathalia, et al. “Mood Episodes Are Associated with Increased Cortical Thinning: A

Longitudinal Study of Bipolar Disorder Type II.” Bipolar Disorders, vol. 21, no. 6, Sept.

2019, pp. 525–38. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.tamiu.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/bdi.12771.