Bipolar Disorder

Also called manic-depression, Bipolar is a mood disorder in which the individual’s mood swings between two phases: the lows (depression) and the highs (mania). The risk factors are family or personal history of bipolar mood disorder.

Features of bipolar include:

• Periods of severe depression

• Periods when the mood is much better than normal

• Rapid speech

• Little need for sleep

• Racing thoughts, trouble concentrating

• Anxiety

• Continuous high energy

• Overconfidence

• Delusions (often grandiose, sometimes paranoid)

• Impulsiveness, poor judgment, distractibility

• Grandiose thoughts, inflated sense of self-importance● In the most severe cases, delusions and hallucinations