Bipolar Disorder (Research Paper Sample)

Student’s Name Professor Institution Date Bipolar Disorder Bipolar disorder is a severe disorder of human brain which causes a person to unusually, rapidly, and instantaneously shift his abilities to function, mood, and energy. It is differentiated with the routine and daily ups and downs, almost everybody face, because of the severity of its symptoms. The symptoms used to be so frequent and intense that they can destroy the relationships, and damage the performance of a person at the workplace or in academics, and sometimes even led towards suicidal ideation. It does not imply that this is untreatable and cannot be managed as there happen to be patients of Bipolar disorder who are leading productive and dynamic lives. As the name indicates, it consists of two opposite situations happening to a person recurrently one after another, including mania and depression. The patients of bipolar disorder might be depressed today and might behave like an extremely overconfident maniac tomorrow. That is why it is also considered as a manic-depressive disorder. In the United States, almost 5.7 million of the adult population are the victim of Bipolar disorder which mostly develops during the periods of late adolescence and early adulthood. It’s very rare to experience its symptoms during childhood, and it is difficult to even recognize it as a disorder or mental illness because most probably, people consider it like the intense episodes of mood swings. It is mostly a lifetime psychological disorder and needs to be treated and managed carefully to lead a productive and healthy life (Carr, 2001). Bipolar disorder brings unendurable pain and sufferings in the lives of its victims, and they experience a rollercoaster of extreme emotions and feelings in a real sense. It disables the ability of its patients to think rationally and also drags them towards the suicide. Patients with bipolar disorder suffer from mood episodes which are the severe and intense emotional states and happen repeatedly. These mood episodes evidently change the mood and behavior of a person drastically and an overly excited state, also called mania, can turn into, a hopeless and deplorable state also called depressive episode. Extreme changes in energy levels, behaviors, sleep, activities, and mood happen with the change of mood episodes. Sometimes, the patients also experience normal moods for a short duration in between the episodes of mania and depression (Butcher, Hooley, & Mineka, 2014). The symptoms of a maniac episode include extreme irritability, inability to concentrate and be attentive, loss of sleep, high levels of energy, restlessness, and activity, fast thinking and talking jumping abruptly from one idea to another, poor judgment, extraordinarily joyful or euphoric mood, elated self-esteem, extreme self-confidence in one’s abilities, and inability to identify and accept that something is wrong. If a manic episode occurs with at least three or more symptoms for the most part of the day, for nearly every day, for a week or longer, then it is given a proper diagnosis. The symptoms of a depressive episode include feeling low or pessimistic, extreme and lasting anxiety and sadness, loss of interest and happiness in activities once enjoyed or were favorite, feelings of worthlessness, self-blame, deficient levels of energy, persistent fatigue, inability to concentrate and remember, drastic and severe changes in appetite and sleep, suicidal ideation, and body pains with no physical reason. If at least five or more of the depressive symptoms occur for the most part of the day, for almost every day, for two weeks or more, then a depressive episode is properly diagnosed (Mitchell, 2013). It sometimes happens that patients also suffer from psychotic symptoms like hallucinations and delusions during these mood episodes of mania and depression. The occurrence of these psychotic symptoms indicate the intensity of the mood episode. For instance, during a manic episode, the patient might experience delusions of grandiosity and consider himself as president of a multinational organization or even the president of the country; while during a depressive episode, the patient might experience delusions of worthlessness or guilt. Patients with bipolar disorder, suffering from psychotic symptoms at a given time, are sometimes incorrectly diagnosed as people with schizophrenia, which is another extreme mental disorder. Bipolar disorder (BD) is undoubtedly a devastating and chronic mental situation, including clearly different and individual period of depression and mania, and prevails among males and females on equal rates. There is a great support found from research studies about the heritable nature of bipolar disorder which implies that it runs in the families and if parents have been its victims, there are greater chances for the kids to suffer later in their lives from it. The kids of parents, who have been suffering from bipolar disorder, have reportedly shown high levels of dimensional psychopathology which implies that they face great risks to fall victims to other severe mental disorders as well, later in their lives. Simultaneously, for the high-risk individuals to these mental illnesses, the family environment has been considered to play a crucial and significant role in their upbringing and shaping of personalities and a lot of research has supported the significance of family environment. A research study conducted to find out the relationship between psychopathology, high risk status for mental illnesses, and family environment including bonding of parents and cohesion, has found that weak connection between parents and their kids and low parental warmth becomes the independent risk factors a...