Surviving John

Bipolar Disease is a mood disorder where the sufferers will experience bouts of serious depression and high mania. The disordered moods of the patient occur in cyclic patterns. Their moods will swing from an extremely high euphoria combined with some irritation to being hopeless and extremely sad. Between these two sides of mood swings, the person will feel completely normal and will not show any signs of suffering from erratic moods.

These periods of normal behavior only occur between bouts of erratic mood swings. This is a characteristic of Bipolar Disease. While we may view the person who has Bipolar Disorder as being mentally disturbed or somewhat crazy, the symptoms of the disease are very severe and in many cases they can be life threatening. People who are afflicted with Bipolar Disease find it disruptive and distressing to their lives.

As Bipolar Disorder has affected many well known artists, writers and musicians the illness, and its effects on the lives of its sufferers, has been trivialized. There are so many creatively talented people who live with Bipolar Disorder, that this disease is considered to be beneficial to the creativity. Therefore it is not taken very seriously.

Bipolar Disease which affect about 1% of adults during their life is a very serious mood disorder. The symptoms usually begin to appear during the teen years and early adulthood. They can reoccur throughout the personís life. The effects of Bipolar Disease can include alcohol abuse, drug abuse, unemployment and marital break-ups resulting in the deterioration of the quality of one’s life.

The symptoms of Bipolar Disease include both the depression symptoms and the manic depression symptoms. The depression symptoms are sadness, lack of interest in daily life activities, low self esteem, excessive sleep, difficulty focusing, insomnia, inability to concentrate, feeling worthless, thoughts of death or suicide, changes in appetite, aches and pains.

The manic symptoms are boundless energy, grandiose ideas, irrational behavior, feelings of self importance, difficulty concentrating, no sense of self preservation, talking very fast, fast developing ideas, excessive money spending, long periods without sleep, alcohol and drug abuse, loss of self control, loss of good judgment and a desire to engage in various risky activities without considering the consequences.

Since Bipolar disorder is a very serious and life threatening condition it should be treated as soon as possible. Should Bipolar disorder be left untreated it could lead to suicide. Therefore to prevent such a tragic event, medical treatment, which is a mixture of medication and therapy, should begin as soon as the disease has been diagnosed. Stop Bipolar Disease before it destroys your life.