“Many people think that a person with bipolar disorder doesn't have any control over themselves or that they're unable to take care of themselves or function in society. This simply is not true,” says Ikaika King, who was diagnosed with bipolar II when he was 17.
Oral or parenteral benzodiazepines, alone or in combination with an antipsychotic, are recommended as first-line treatment for the termination of behavioral emergencies in mania.
Factors such as stress, poor sleep, and even seasonal changes can play a role in triggering your bipolar symptoms. Learn how you can reduce your risk of bipolar episodes and better manage your condition.
Bipolar Triggers and Warning Signs
Bipolar disorder features extreme shifts in mood that are unpredictable and often disruptive to daily functioning. Changes in sleep patterns, eating habits, emotions, and behaviors accompany the mood swings.
These mood episodes cause symptoms that last a week or two, or sometimes longer. During an episode, the symptoms last every day for most of the day. Feelings are intense and happen with changes in behavior, energy levels, or activity levels that are noticeable to others.
Coping with your symptoms of bipolar disorder on your own is possible — even if it can feel really challenging at times. Self-care is key in managing symptoms of bipolar disorder. You can do many things on a daily basis to cope with your condition and minimize any challenges that come up.
So why is bipolar disorder so difficult to treat? Because effective psychiatric and psychosocial adjustments are truly difficult to put into practice. We should all have enormous respect for the challenges faced by young individuals trying their best to live with bipolar disorder. It's certainly no cake walk.
A stressful circumstance or situation often triggers the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Examples of stressful triggers include: the breakdown of a relationship. physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness. People who have it go through unusual mood changes. They go from very happy, "up," and active to very sad and hopeless, "down," and inactive, and then back again. They often have normal moods in between.
Lamotrigine. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) may be the most effective mood stabilizer for depression in bipolar disorder, but is not as helpful for mania. The starting dose of lamotrigine should be very low and increased very slowly over four weeks or more.
Bipolar disorder is characterised by extreme mood swings. These can range from extreme highs (mania) to extreme lows (depression). Episodes of mania and depression often last for several days or longer.
Some experts believe that experiencing a lot of emotional distress as a child can cause bipolar disorder to develop. This could be because childhood trauma and distress can have a big effect on your ability to manage your emotions.
“When stressed, bipolar patients will often, out of desperation, reach for anything to calm themselves or take away the stress even for a moment. Drugs, binge-eating, or excessive shopping can be unhealthy coping mechanisms that can bring on mood episodes,” Dr. Israel says.
Bipolar disorder is frequently inherited, with genetic factors accounting for approximately 80% of the cause of the condition. Bipolar disorder is the most likely psychiatric disorder to be passed down from family. If one parent has bipolar disorder, there's a 10% chance that their child will develop the illness.
When you're experiencing stress, you're more likely to become depressed, manic/hypomanic, anxious, or angry. If you get sick with a stress-related illness, the illness can become an additional stressor and make you more vulnerable to relapse.
A lack of impulse control may be associated with certain neurological disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It may also be related to an intersecting group of conditions known as impulse control disorders (ICDs).
Impulsivity is a core feature in bipolar disorder. Although mood symptoms exacerbate impulsivity, self-reports of impulsivity are elevated even during euthymia.
The most prominent form of treatment would be cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). CBT is effective in treating impulse control disorders because the focus of the treatment exposes the relationship between thoughts and behaviors.