Bipolar Affective Disorder

What is Bipolar Affective Disorder?

Graphic showing a manic woman and an agitated woman

WHAT IS BIPOLAR AFFECTIVE DISORDER?

Bipolar affective disorder (also known as bipolar), is a mood disorder where a person can experience extreme changes in their mood, going between being manic, hypomanic, or depressed. These feelings can last for weeks or months at a time.

Sometimes, bipolar disorder is broken down into different types. These are:

Bipolar disorder 1 - a person has had at least one manic episode, lasting longer than a week; sometimes with depressive episodes

Bipolar disorder 2 - a person has experienced at least one depressive episode and symptoms of hypomania for at least 4 days

Cyclothymia - a person has experienced both hypomanic and depressive episodes over 2 or more years

Rapid cycling bipolar - a person with bipolar disorder experiences depressive, manic, hypomanic, or mixed episodes 4 or more times in a year.

Common Experiences

Manic episodes are a common experience among those with bipolar. These episodes are described as extreme, emotional highs, where a person might feel intense happiness or excitement. Manic episodes can have a massive impact on a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day tasks or to attend work or school. People experiencing manic/hypomanic episodes are at higher risk of engaging in more dangerous behaviours.

When a person is manic, they may experience extreme emotional highs where they feel intense happiness or excitement. Manic episodes can have a large impact on your daily life as being manic can lead a person to carry out more impulsive or risky behaviours than what they would normally do.

Hamypomaina is very similar to mania where a person feels the same intense emotions, however, they might not be as severe. Hypomania also only lasts for a couple of days and is less disruptive to a person's life.

Mania

Manic episodes are described as extreme, emotional highs, where a person might feel intense happiness or excitement. Manic episodes can have a massive impact on a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day tasks or to attend work or school. People experiencing manic/hypomanic episodes are at higher risk of engaging in more dangerous behaviours.

When a person is manic, they may experience extreme emotional highs where they feel intense happiness or excitement. Manic episodes can have a large impact on your daily life as being manic can lead a person to carry out more impulsive or risky behaviours than what they would normally do.

Hypomania

Hamypomaina is very similar to mania where a person feels the same intense emotions, however, they might not be as severe. Hypomania also only lasts for a couple of days and is less disruptive to a person's life.

MIXED EPISODES

It is also possible for a person with bipolar disorder to experience mixed episodes. Mixed episodes are when a person with bipolar disorder feels low and high either at the same time or very close together and can include experiences of mania and hypomania.

For example, someone experiencing a mixed episode might feel like they are full of energy and can’t sit still (symptoms of mania), whilst also feeling very upset and hopeless (symptoms of depression).

Graphic of a heart with an EKG sign in the middle along with cogs spinning to the right of the heart.

Graphic of a depressed woman reading a letter and a heart with an EKG sign.

DEPRESSION AND BIPOLAR

Depressive episodes involve feeling very low in mood and are a common experience in those with bipolar. A person experiencing a depressive episode may not be able to carry out tasks they usually do every day, like having a shower or bath, cooking meals, carrying out household chores, and going to work/ or school.

rELATED Experiences

Sometimes, people with bipolar can experience psychotic symptoms whilst they are in a manic/hypomanic episode. These could be:

Paranoia – feeling that you are unsafe, threatened or at risk of harm in some way, without any evidence of why you feel this way

Hallucinations – seeing, hearing, smelling, or tasting things that are not real

Delusions – holding beliefs that are not true

If you feel like you are struggling with anything you have read or any other aspect of mental health, then there are services out there that can help. If you need to talk to someone you can sign up here for our peer coaching service.