In recent years, people's attention to mental health has gradually increased, and some psychological or mental diseases have gradually been understood. Bipolar disorder, as a common disease, is also well known. However, some people will have questions. Is it bipolar disorder caused by big mood swings? Can bipolar disorder still be treated?

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What is bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder, as its name implies, is a combination of mania and depression-patients will alternately experience depression, high mood and even irritability. From a professional point of view, bipolar disorder is an emotional mental illness, which refers to a mood disorder characterized by manic and hypomanic episodes and depressive episodes. During the illness, these two characteristics appear alternately.

When an individual is in a manic stage, it is mainly manifested as obvious and persistent emotional upsurge, thinking evasion and psychomotor excitement, just like the performance of a child shopkeeper who has eaten ginseng for thousands of years in Wulin Biography, as follows:

1. High spirits: individuals are often in high spirits, as if there are no worries in the world, and they are "optimists"; Self-expansion, blind self-confidence; Emotional reaction is unstable and irritable.

2. Thinking escape: the association process is accelerated, the thinking speed is fast, and many ideas jump around; I talk a lot and talk a lot. Personally, I feel "my head is open" and "my tongue is running away with my thoughts", but it is easy to get distracted and difficult to control.

3. Self-evaluation is too high: blind self-confidence, self-feeling, feeling omnipotent.

4. Psychomotor excitement: Patients have a wide range of interests, love to join in the fun, are helpful, take the initiative to get close to people, and feel at home with strangers, but they are thoughtless in doing things, such as shopping indiscriminately, and spend their salary in a few days.

5. Energetic: The patient is very energetic and always has endless energy; Sleep demand is reduced, even only half an hour a day.

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When an individual is depressed, on the contrary, it is manifested as: depression, lack of enthusiasm or interest in anything, depression, feeling useless, and even suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

So, to put it simply, a manic patient is like a car without brakes, while a depressive patient is like a car that breaks down.

Emotional fluctuation is big, is it bipolar disorder?

After seeing the symptoms of mania, some people find themselves in this state and often have mood swings. They can't help but ask, "Did I get bipolar disorder because of the big mood swings?" ? Of course not! The mood swings in bipolar disorder are very different from those in general:

1

Different duration

According to the diagnostic criteria of bipolar disorder, the mood fluctuation of bipolar disorder lasts at least one week (if it is serious enough to need hospitalization, it doesn't have to last for one week), while the mood fluctuation of ordinary people is short-lived.

2

The severity of mood swings varies.

Bipolar disorder has large emotional fluctuations and a large span of emotions. When he is high, he has unrestrained fun. When he is low, he is depressed and not interested in anything. But ordinary people have little mood swings and can control themselves.

three

Will it affect social function?

Emotional fluctuation of bipolar disorder will seriously affect work, social communication and interpersonal relationship, while general emotional fluctuation can still work and live normally without affecting social function.

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How should bipolar disorder be treated?

Mental illness is mostly caused by congenital (gene) and acquired (stress) factors, and bipolar disorder is no exception. There is a 5- 10% possibility that bipolar disorder will be passed on to future generations, and stress is an important factor leading to bipolar disorder. At present, for the treatment of bipolar disorder, patients usually need to take medicine to stabilize their emotions and cooperate with psychotherapy. At present, the commonly used therapies are:

1

Behavioral cognitive therapy

Behavioral cognitive therapy can make patients aware of the factors that cause their mood swings, so as to take measures to eliminate or avoid stressors before mood swings and help manage their emotions. At the same time, it can help patients change their cognitive process, correct unreasonable emotions and reduce negative emotions caused by stress.

2

Educational psychotherapy

Let patients know the related factors that induce diseases and the methods to control the deterioration of diseases, so as to reduce the frequency of diseases.

three

Improve interpersonal relationship

In the remission or recovery stage, improve the interpersonal relationship of patients, establish a good social support system, reduce emotional conflicts, and thus reduce the incidence.

In fact, many patients with bipolar disorder like their mild manic state very much. As the psychiatrist and doctor Nasir Gamai said, "Mania makes people more indomitable and creative, while depression makes people more pragmatic and empathetic." Therefore, the treatment of bipolar disorder is not only to control the onset, but also to find a balance between mania and depression.

Editor: Lu

(Expert: Sun Tao, national second-level psychological counselor, original initiator of popular science China micro-platform)