Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes unusual shifts in mood that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression) that affects the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.
Symptoms
- Bipolar I disorder. This type is diagnosed when a person experiences a manic episode.
- Bipolar II disorder. This type is diagnosed if you had at least one major depressive episode and hypomanic episode but never had a manic episode.
- Cyclothymic disorder. This type is diagnosed if you’ve had at least two years of many periods of hypomania symptoms and periods of depressive symptoms.
Symptoms of Bipolar I Disorder Manic Episode
When a person is emotionally high or irritable most of the day for most days of the week and experiences at least three of the following changes in behavior:
- Decreased need for sleep
- Increased or faster speech
- Quickly changing ideas or topics when speaking
- Distractibility
- Increased activity
- Increased risky behavior
Hypomanic Episode
The symptoms are characterized by less severe manic symptoms that last only four days in a row.
Major Depressive Episode
This is a period of at least two weeks in which a person has at least five of the following symptoms:
- Intense sadness
- Loss of interest in activities they once enjoyed
- Fatigue
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
- Increased or decreased sleep
- Restlessness
- Slowed speech or movement
- Increased or decreased appetite
- Difficulty concentrating
- Frequent thoughts of death or suicide
Cyclothymic Disorder
People with cyclothymia experience mood swings but less severe symptoms than the other two types.
- Many periods of hypomanic and depressive symptoms, which are not considered hypomanic or depressive episodes, for at least two years
- During the two years, the mood swings have lasted for at least half the time and have never stopped for more than two months.
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