Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
A mood disorder is the term given for a group of diagnoses in the DSM IV TR classification system where a disturbance in the person's emotional mood is hypothesised to be the main underlying feature.[1] The classification is known as mood (affective) disorders in ICD 10.
English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of affective disorder.[2] The term was then replaced by mood disorder, as the latter term refers to the underlying or longitudinal emotional state, whereas the former refers to the external expression observed by others.[1]
Two groups of mood disorders are broadly recognized; the division is based on whether the person has ever had a manic or hypomanic episode. Thus, there are depressive disorders, of which the best known and most researched is major depressive disorder commonly called clinical depression or major depression, and bipolar disorder, formerly known as "manic depression" and described by intermittent periods of manic and depressed episodes.
Bipolar disorders
* Bipolar disorder, a mood disorder formerly known as "manic depression" and described by alternating periods of mania and depression (and in some cases rapid cycling, mixed states, and psychotic symptoms). Subtypes include:
* Bipolar I is distinguished by the presence or history of one or more manic episodes or mixed episodes with or without major depressive episodes. A depressive episode is not required for the diagnosis of Bipolar I disorder, but depressive episodes are often part of the course of the illness.
* Bipolar II consisting of recurrent intermittent hypomanic and depressive episodes.
* Cyclothymia is a milder form of bipolar disorder, consisting of recurrent hypomanic and dysthymic episodes, but no full manic episodes or full major depressive episodes.
* Bipolar Disorder NOS, sometimes called "sub-threshold" bipolar, indicates that the patient suffers from some symptoms in the bipolar spectrum (e.g. manic and depressive symptoms) but does not fully qualify for any of the three formal bipolar DSM-IV diagnoses mentioned above.
It is estimated that roughly one percent of the adult population suffers from Bipolar I, roughly one percent of the adult population suffers from Bipolar II or Cyclothymia, and somewhere between two and five percent suffer from "sub-threshold" forms of bipolar disorder.
English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of affective disorder.[2] The term was then replaced by mood disorder, as the latter term refers to the underlying or longitudinal emotional state, whereas the former refers to the external expression observed by others.[1]
Two groups of mood disorders are broadly recognized; the division is based on whether the person has ever had a manic or hypomanic episode. Thus, there are depressive disorders, of which the best known and most researched is major depressive disorder commonly called clinical depression or major depression, and bipolar disorder, formerly known as "manic depression" and described by intermittent periods of manic and depressed episodes.
Bipolar disorders
* Bipolar disorder, a mood disorder formerly known as "manic depression" and described by alternating periods of mania and depression (and in some cases rapid cycling, mixed states, and psychotic symptoms). Subtypes include:
* Bipolar I is distinguished by the presence or history of one or more manic episodes or mixed episodes with or without major depressive episodes. A depressive episode is not required for the diagnosis of Bipolar I disorder, but depressive episodes are often part of the course of the illness.
* Bipolar II consisting of recurrent intermittent hypomanic and depressive episodes.
* Cyclothymia is a milder form of bipolar disorder, consisting of recurrent hypomanic and dysthymic episodes, but no full manic episodes or full major depressive episodes.
* Bipolar Disorder NOS, sometimes called "sub-threshold" bipolar, indicates that the patient suffers from some symptoms in the bipolar spectrum (e.g. manic and depressive symptoms) but does not fully qualify for any of the three formal bipolar DSM-IV diagnoses mentioned above.
It is estimated that roughly one percent of the adult population suffers from Bipolar I, roughly one percent of the adult population suffers from Bipolar II or Cyclothymia, and somewhere between two and five percent suffer from "sub-threshold" forms of bipolar disorder.
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I find myself going places in the car and not wanting to get out of the car. I come back home and I don't want to get out of the car. I think it's the only time I spend reflecting. Chronic tiredness from Long Covid plus the immunosupressing meds for my Crohn's is slowing me down but everything just seems a massive effort. I am dealing with the paperwork following my father's death but it's not...
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Wow, it's the middle of the week already!Today is our 11 year anniversary, so we're going out to a nice dinner. I'm losing a lot of sleep these days, hence a wonky schedule and uncomfortable feelings. But I know it will pass, eventually.I hope all of you have a peaceful day, and may good things come your way!
I don't feel "cool". With all my saner friends there's no glamor (beyond the silly kind) to my illness..it's not cool, it's tragic.
There must be some term for that too.
That's not a disease that's a media demographic!!!
On the phone to Simon Cowell right now
"Simon, yes..ok, no..heeeeyyy guess what, I've found you a new audience boy, new reality talent freak show..no, it it doesn't involve Sharon Osborne..look..no..have you taken your meds yet? No? ok go and take them and we can run the numbers, better still gotta go, get you people to ring your people and ring my people, ok, tchauzino!!!!!"
That's how quality TV is made boys and girls.(and Sheds)
I don't think that the pathologizing of "normal" (ie: non-mentally ill) behavior helps anyone. If "all of the sudden" 24% of people have "bipolar"- where they didn't before- that seems dangerous. A restructuring of what we consider normal, healthy behavior. Increased chance for social control ("you are a little happy for 2 days? Here, have a lamictal.")
It's dangerous stuff, agree totally.
So- to open a different line of conversation, *why* does it seem that there is a branch of society in which so-called mental illness (not "really" the mentally ill, but a peculiar brand of pseudo mental illness) *does* seem trendy? ie; the types of people who would *want* to be diagnosed with one of these milder versions of, say, "soft bipolar." Enough "mental illness" to warrant the label, but not enough to be "sick."
I've never really understood that psychology. Why embrace the label- when logic tells you to run away from it? (My logic, anyway...)
*if interested, below is a paragraph about change in rates, as a result of change in diagnostic criteria, from book chapter. Just a lot of statistics.*
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV-TR (DSM-IV) estimates the prevalence of bipolar-I disorder to be between .4-1.6%, and the prevalence of bipolar-II disorder to be approximately .5% (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 382-404).
If we fast-forward 100 years from the time Kraepelin first used the term manic-depressive insanity, and only 15 years from the time bipolar-II disorder was introduced into the DSM-IV in 1994 (American Psychiatric Association), estimates of the prevalence of disorders on the bipolar spectrum have risen dramatically. Leading bipolar researchers have recently estimated that the population incidence of bipolar-II disorder alone may be as high as 10.9% (Angst et al., 2003, p. 139). The occurrence of subthreshold variants on the bipolar spectrum, less clinically significant than bipolar-II, have been estimated at 9.4% (Angst et al., 2003, p. 139). Some researchers place the total community presence of most forms of bipolar illness as high as 24.2% (Angst et al., 2003, p.139). Secondary analyses of the US National Epidemiological Catchment Area Survey of Mental Disorders (ECA) provide evidence that subthreshold cases on the bipolar spectrum are at least four times more prevalent than diagnoses based purely on DSM-IV criteria (Judd & Akiskal, 2003, p. 127). Some bipolar researchers who argue for a revision of the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorders suggest that, under the proposed criteria, up to 30% of patients currently diagnosed with major depressive disorder are actually misdiagnosed bipolar-II patients (Benazzi, 2006, p. 26). Another study found that 61% of outpatients seeking treatment for depression actually met the proposed revised criteria for bipolar-II disorder (Benazzi & Akiskal, 2003, p. 35).
I bite my lip and let them carry on.
I do find it insulting because they don't even know what it's like to actually become ill ...really mentally ill.I asked once about if they saw professional people about it.Or meds.
Then they recoil and say ' I talked myself out of it'.Like they are better than ill people.
When really they know nuuuthinkkk.
Lightweights.
My ' s' key is fukt
From Videodrame
"The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television. "
Convenient. How nice for them. *rolls eyes*
But when Shirley is on it pulls me in.