When your mood shifts to mania or hypomania (less extreme than mania), you may feel euphoric, full of energy or unusually irritable. These mood swings can affect sleep, energy, activity, judgment, behavior and the ability to think clearly.
The physical symptoms of bipolar disorder may include:
Heart palpitations. Increased pulse. High blood pressure. Increased or decreased sex drive.
Bipolar disorder can cause your mood to swing from an extreme high to an extreme low. Manic symptoms can include increased energy, excitement, impulsive behaviour, and agitation. Depressive symptoms can include lack of energy, feeling worthless, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts.
Effects on thinking and memory
Some people with bipolar disorder may find it harder to think, to reason, and to remember things. Changes in thinking that can occur as people go through the different phases include: changes in attention span and focus. racing thoughts during a high, or manic, phase.
They found that 12 risk genes for bipolar disorder were also linked to intelligence. In 75 % of these genes, bipolar disorder risk was associated with higher intelligence. In schizophrenia, there was also a genetic overlap with intelligence, but a higher proportion of the genes was associated with cognitive impairment.
Author: Jasper James. It has long been said that those with bipolar disorder are more creative than average. Famous bipolar individuals of the past include Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, and Winston Churchill.
People living with bipolar disorder should aim to get the recommended amount of sleep for their age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends more than seven hours per night for adults. 13 However, what's most important is sticking to a consistent sleep schedule.
Can People with Bipolar Disorder Work? People with bipolar disorder can work, but they may face challenges. Many mental health conditions can make it difficult for a person to carry out day-to-day responsibilities, especially in the workplace.
In bipolar disorder, structural brain abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex have been confirmed in postmortem studies60,61 and with structural MRI. For example, the subgenual portion of the anterior cingulate cortex was reduced in volume in patients with bipolar disorder with a family history of affective disorder.
Those with high functioning or acute bipolar disorder might have the ability to mask their symptoms in some cases — but hiding them doesn't mean that their symptoms are no longer present.
Because bipolar disorder can make you tired and irritable, your gastrointestinal system may be affected. You may experience things like abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Stomach problems can also lead to sweating and rapid breathing. Symptoms could bring you into a panic or produce a sense of doom.
A person with bipolar disorder will alternate between periods of mania (elevated mood) and periods of depression (feelings of intense sadness). In between these two extremes, a person will have periods of normal mood.
Many people with bipolar disorder may experience excessive daytime sleepiness, known as hypersomnia. Researchers are still unsure of the exact cause of hypersomnia in those with bipolar disorder. A doctor will often prescribe medication and suggest lifestyle changes to treat this sleep disturbance.
In patients with bipolar disorder, admissions for manic and depressive episodes frequently follow a seasonal pattern with the peaks during either autumn or winter, or autumn and spring [3,4].
Untreated, an episode of mania can last anywhere from a few days to several months. Most commonly, symptoms continue for a few weeks to a few months. Depression may follow shortly after, or not appear for weeks or months.
1. Mariah Carey. Singer, songwriter, actress and producer Mariah Carey has won too many awards to list. The iconic artist opened up in 2018 about her 2001 diagnosis of bipolar disorder, in which she was hospitalized for a physical and mental breakdown.
The authors reviewed 81 studies that noted positive characteristics in patients with bipolar and found a strong association with five qualities: spirituality, empathy, creativity, realism, and resilience.
Some individuals with bipolar see a link between their diagnosis and their high achievement—sometimes as a result of hypomania's enhanced energy and creativity levels and sometimes because of the degree of focus and self-management required to address symptoms and prevent or cope with mood swings.
But what is often not so apparent is the lesser-known side of a destructive manic episode: Dysphoric mania. Dysphoria in bipolar disorder is characterized by increased energy and activity, as seen in euphoria, but the mood is dominated by excessive and persistent irritability.