Dramatic Shifts in Mood, Energy, and Activity Levels And Other Problems Caused by Bipolar Disorder

Whether you are a college student, a new mom, a retired football player, or a famous celebrity, everyone gets blues at some points of their lives. Its normal to have occasional ups and downs when unfortunate events happens and to be joyful when better things occurs, but it’s not normal to have severe or persistent disturbances of mood; it could be mood disorder. Some symptoms of mood disorder are feeling of guilts, worthlessness, unexplained pains and aches, or prolong sadness or unexplained crying spell. I’ve chose to focus on two major forms of mood disorder: major depression (also called major depressive disorder or MDD) and bipolar disorder (sometimes called manic depression) .

Fortunately, these both disorders are treatable by medical professions, but most people would rather bear it on their own than to get the help they need because of the fear associated with stigma. Many people suffer depression in silence out of ignorance or shame, and most of the time they ended up ending their lives according to DBSA (depression and bipolar support alliance). Mood disorders are physical illness, too, similar as diabetes, headache, and joint pains. There are still many people who think mood disorders are “all in you head” and they can be “ get rid of it in a snap of fingers”. Just like diabetes, headache or joint pains, you cannot just shaken off mood disorders such as major depression, bipolar or any other sort of mood disorders.

An estimated 16.2 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 6.7% of all U.S. adults (NIMH). There are numerous ways to get help if you are struggling with any kind of depression such as live chat with medical doctors, help lines, etc. But not all reach out for help because they may feel asking for help is admission of weakness. In the United States, only about 57 percent of people who had major depression disorder in the past year received professional mental health care or other service ( Nevid 507). If you have depression, you are not alone, and it is treatable if you open up for help. Women are more likely to get treatment than men (Wolfe). Some professionals who can help are primary care physicians, mental Health professionals, certified peer specialists, or psychiatrists.

According to PY 201 book, depression accounts for more years lost to disability than any other condition, including heart disease and cancer (Smith, 2015). Women are more likely to develop major depression than men. People who are suffering from major depression mayapper to be slow in moving, thinking, and sometimes even in speech, and they has a negative self-image always such as I am a failure, it’s all my fault, nothing good has happened to me nor it will ever happen (Mental Health First AID USA). Not every people who is depressed experiences the same symptoms, symptoms may vary from individual to individual.

Bipolar has dramatic shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels. It has both highs (mania: extremely excited and energetic) and lows (depression) unlike major depression. People going through bipolar disorder experiences period of unusually intense emotions and behaviors as well as changes in sleep patterns and activity levels (HIMH). Symptoms can cause unpredictable changes in mood and behavior such as the person has no hope or will of living in one, extremely sad, or has no interest in anything that used to the most enjoyable activities for them before in one episode. And other time all of a sudden he/she Feel very “up,” “high,” or elated with very high energy level.

Sometimes a mood episode includes symptoms of both manic and depressive symptoms. This is called an episode with mixed features (NIMH). They won’t seek help when they are in the episode of mania, most of the time they ask for help when they are depressed.

Approximately 2.8 percent of US adults experience bipolar disorder in any given year. Depression experienced by bipolar diagnosed are quite similar as major depression. The symptoms are similar most of the times. According to NIMH, 4.4 percentage of U.S. experiences bipolar disorder in some point of their lives. When people are in mania episode, they may be talkative, inflated self-esteem, less need for sleep, high energy, but they are opposite when they undergo depression period.

Same as other diagnoses, mood disorder are believed to have both environmental and biological causes (Nevid 506). If there is someone in you family who have gone through or going through mood disorder then your likelihood of experiencing them, but traumatic life event s are also plays great role in developing mood disorders including substance abuse can be the cause behind your disorder.

People who have mental illness such as mood disorders didn’t wished to have them same as cancer victims didn’t wanted to have cancers. As I said previously, mental illness are physical illness too. Mental illness are brain-related problems and just like legs, hearts, and eyes brain is part of your body. In some culture people still treat people with mental illness poorly. Stigma about mental health should end because everyone experience some sort of mental health problem in some point of their lives according to studies.

This is CDC (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) data on suicide by age group in 2015. “Mental health disorders (particularly depression and substance abuse) are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide.” (WHO)In 2013, suicide took lives of 41,149 wonderful souls, who left behind friends, families, whole communities scarred by them ( Mental Health First AID USA 24). If they had received help on time, their lives would have been saved and that many would have not been departed from us in a single year. Mental illness could affect everyone including you and your loved ones. So instead of making false assumption and judgement about people who are suffering from mental illness, help them to get help on and stand with them. By helping them you can decrease the number of suicides. There are numerous ways to help them by providing practical help, by giving the person hope for recovery, by offering consistent emotional support and understand, by encouraging to gel appropriate professional help.