Crises can be sudden and last a few weeks, as he said Kim Kardashian when she was still living with her ex-husband Kanye West, suffering from bipolar disorder. And they are characterized by great mood swings, like those reported by the actress and singer Selena Gomez30, who discovered he was bipolar just two years ago.
At the base of bipolar disorder they seem to act various factors: genetic, biological and environmental. In fact, it is more common in those who have a family member with the same condition, although research suggests that too imbalances in neurotransmitters or hormones that act on the brain can play a central role in the disease.
Life eventscome abuse, stress mentalea “significant loss” or another traumatic eventthey can also trigger an initial episode of bipolarism in a particularly sensitive person.
Symptoms of bipolar disorder
Among all the more or less evident symptoms that characterize bipolar disorder, the main one is the succession of continuous mood swings. This is then flanked by gods changes in energy levelsin sleep-related habitsin ability to concentrate and in other behavioral characteristics that can have a very negative impact on a person’s work, relationships and other aspects of life.
Generally, most people experience mood swings at certain times, but those related to bipolar disorder are more intense and can also occur alongside other specific symptoms. Some people with bipolarity, in fact, experiment forms of psychosiswhich can include delusions, hallucinations and paranoia.
According to theInternational Bipolar AssociationHowever, symptoms vary from individual to individual and while for some people, a bipolar episode may last several months or years, others may experience “highs” and “lows” simultaneously or in rapid succession. Those affected, however, tend to alternate depressive phases (bipolar depression), in which he is particularly sad and apathetic, a manic and arousal phases in which, on the contrary, he feels euphoricbut at the same time also irritable, hyperactive, with some difficulty in controlling impulses and a propensity for dangerous behaviors, such as driving at high speed, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual promiscuity.
Contrary to what one might be led to believe, the likelihood of aggressive behavior or violent in bipolar patients during the manic phases is rather low. The patient with bipolar disorder turns out harmless in most cases. This is also demonstrated by a study carried out by the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and directed by psychiatrists Raffaella Zanardi and Cristina Colombo, director of the Mood Disorders Center of San Raffaele Turro.
The group of clinical researchers followed for 12 months 151 subjects with bipolar disorder. And the results of their study showed that the perception of bipolar patients such as violent people be the fruit of one social stigma more than a clinical reality.
How to distinguish between teenage mood swings and bipolar disorder
In media, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder arrives around the age of 25but symptoms can appear already during adolescence (as well as in mature age).
Going through emotional ups and downs, sometimes even acting in an objectively irrational way, can happen to everyone when you are experiencing a critical moment. However, it can actually be difficult to distinguish between momentary erratic behavior and a true personality disorder. And the thing becomes particularly complicated during adolescenceWhen mood instability is a hallmark of age. How do you orient yourself then in these cases? And what are the unmistakable signs to watch out for?