If you live with a mood disorder (depression or bipolar disorder), a traumatic event can disrupt your routine and impact your therapy. It may even trigger an episode of mania or a deepening of depression.
There isn't one single or clear-cut reason that someone may become hypomanic or manic. It seems to be a combination of long-term and short-term factors, which differ from person to person. These are some possible causes of hypomania or mania: High levels of stress.
While most bipolar disorder triggers revolve around a negative event, meeting goals and positive events can also be triggers of bipolar disorder. Winning an event, getting a promotion, or starting a new relationship can all trigger a manic episode.
4 Given similarities between bipolar disorder and partial seizures, intense emotions may be considered a trigger for mania since these emotions also precipitate seizures.
In many cases, a major life change or stressful event, such as losing a loved one or having severe financial troubles, can trigger a bipolar episode. How an individual copes with stress can also affect how bipolar disorder progresses.
A bipolar depression crash is usually the emotional fallout of a hypomanic or manic episode. It can also occur when something triggers bipolar depression or as a result of chemical or hormonal changes in the brain.
The phrase “bipolar meltdown” could refer to a bipolar person having a manic episode or being in a depressed state. These conditions could cause them to lose control of their emotions and have trouble managing them.
Negative and Positive Life Events
In the same sense, positive life events such as goal attainment, falling in love, or winning an award, can also trigger an episode of mania.
Living with bipolar disorder
A person with bipolar disorder may be unaware they're in the manic phase. After the episode is over, they may be shocked at their behaviour. But at the time, they may believe other people are being negative or unhelpful.
Risk factors
Factors that may increase the risk of developing bipolar disorder or act as a trigger for the first episode include: Having a first-degree relative, such as a parent or sibling, with bipolar disorder. Periods of high stress, such as the death of a loved one or other traumatic event. Drug or alcohol abuse.
Insomnia, a common anxiety disorder symptom, is a significant trigger for manic episodes. Many children with bipolar disorder also suffer from at least one co-occurring anxiety disorder. The age of onset for an anxiety disorder often precedes the age of onset for bipolar disorder.
Breakups can be brutal—and can easily trigger bipolar symptoms. The end of a relationship often ushers in dark feelings like abandonment, guilt, and rejection. Even if the relationship was toxic and getting out was the right decision, there may be a sense of failure or self-blame.
Evidence from different functional neuroimaging studies suggest that there is a reduced activity of right ventromedial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices and an increased activity of left amygdala, left anterior cingulate cortex, and left basal ganglia in mania.
Early signs (called “prodromal symptoms”) that you're getting ready to have a manic episode can last weeks to months. If you're not already receiving treatment, episodes of bipolar-related mania can last between three and six months. With effective treatment, a manic episode usually improves within about three months.
To help prevent a manic episode, avoid triggers such as caffeine, alcohol or drug use, and stress. Exercise, eat a balanced diet, get a good night's sleep, and keep a consistent schedule. This can help reduce minor mood swings that can lead to more severe episodes of mania.
The results showed that manic episodes led to decreased volume in certain areas of the brain. Bipolar disorder has been linked to various structural brain changes, including most notably progressive grey matter loss in the brain's frontal regions.
Feelings. During a manic or hypomanic episode, you might feel: Happy, joyful or a sense of wellbeing. Very excited or uncontrollably excited.
Kraepelin, however, divided the “manic states” into four forms—hypomania, acute mania, delusional mania, and delirious mania—and noted that his observation revealed “the occurrence of gradual transitions between all the various states.” In a similar vein, Carlson and Goodwin, in their elegant paper of 1973, divided a ...
There are three stages of mania: hypomania, acute mania and delirious mania. Classifications of mania are mixed states, hypomania and associated disorders. Mania can occur in cycles over several weeks or months with no predictable triggers.
Cyclothymia symptoms alternate between emotional highs and lows. The highs of cyclothymia include symptoms of an elevated mood (hypomanic symptoms). The lows consist of mild or moderate depressive symptoms. Cyclothymia symptoms are similar to those of bipolar I or II disorder, but they're less severe.
Some experts believe that experiencing a lot of emotional distress as a child can cause bipolar disorder to develop. This could be because childhood trauma and distress can have a big effect on your ability to manage your emotions. This can include experiences like: Neglect.
Anger and irritability are common symptoms of bipolar disorder. While anger is a normal response that many people feel at moments in their life, a person with bipolar disorder will be more vulnerable to impulsive and often irrational outbursts.
Some people who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder will experience episodes of psychosis during mania or depression. These episodes cause hallucinations, delusions, disordered thinking, and a lack of awareness of reality.