Atypical Bipolar Disorder – Describing Three Types Of Bipolar Disorder

Basically, there are several types of bipolar disorder depicted by the amount of suffering that you are going through. For instance, there are forms of bipolar disorder in which you may remain in one phase of the condition for whole years without switching, and others in which you could switch as often as four times between mania and depression within a single year. Some forms of bipolar disorder depend on social actions or activity, while others depend on the seasons.

Below are the three major types of bipolar disorder that there are.

Type I bipolar disorder – This is also referred to as classical bipolar disorder or bipolar disorder I. In this condition, you experience long spells of mania followed by long spells of depression. You could say that when you suffer from bipolar disorder I, you have equal spells of mania and depression. One form of the disease that falls in this category is the Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, in which you are affected by the seasons and they come and go. During winter, you are gloomy, sad and depressed; and during summer you are excited, bright and” well, excited.

Type II bipolar disorder – This can be simply shortened to bipolar disorder II, it is one in which the manic and depressive episodes are not equal. You often tend to suffer longer spells of depression when you have bipolar disorder II, and shorter spells of mania, in what professionals call a hypo manic episode. This type of bipolar disorder is closely related to cyclothymia, but they aren’t exactly the same thing.

Cyclothymia, you see has more of equal but mild forms of mania and depression characterizing it. You may consider it a precursor to full-blown bipolar disorder.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder aren’t so straightforward because you have to consider both the symptoms of mania, and those of depression otherwise you’d get them wrong. For instance, when you are depressive, you would eat too much, sleep too much (hypersomnia) or too little (insomnia), you would be in constant fatigue, and things that made you happy would mean nothing to you all of a sudden.

When you are manic in bipolar disorder, you are excessively and unreasonably happy, over energized, irritable, and often physically abusive. You will tend to be cantankerous too, and wasteful because of the pointless activities you would be engaging in.

In all forms and types of bipolar disorder, all of these symptoms are present but to varying degrees. Diagnosing a patient own your own is possible, but it is best done by a medical professional such as a psychologist, a psychiatrist, or a psychoanalyst. You see, there are lots of treatments and medications that can be used in helping bipolar disorder, but you cannot afford to have them applied wrongly.