Bipolar Disorder: It's Not Just Mood Swings

Have you ever known someone who goes through intense periods of happiness to depression within seconds? Or maybe your loved one also experiences times where they can forget something that happened only a few days ago but then will instantly remember it a week or so later? Maybe someone you know is highly intelligent and speaks extremely fast but gets easily side tracked. Did you ever wonder what can cause this to happen? I have a friend who is exactly like I have explained and more. One of the diagnosis's for these happenings is called Bipolar Disorder.

Bipolar Disorder is described as a sustained experience of unusually intense periods of mania (where the person often describes themselves as feeling high or superior), hypomania (where the person is persistent and pervasive or in an irritable mood), or mixed states (in this case where symptoms previously stated occur simultaneously), and alternating with periods of clinical depression (a state in which one suffers from intense sadness that it has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and daily living) or euthymic moods (one in which the person is not depressed and seems to be extremely happy). These mood problems vary in severity and can cause a higher than average risk of suicide. Those with bipolar are three times more likely to commit suicide than those who are suffering from any type of major depression.