Bipolar disorder may not be as common as other mental health issues, such as anxiety, but of the 2.8% of the population in the United States who has the condition, 83% are considered severe.
Everyone experiences highs and lows in life, but the term “bipolar” has been used to describe those who swing back and forth to the extreme. While there’s some truth to this when it comes to what a bipolar disorder truly is, it doesn’t paint the full picture.
At the Institute for Advanced Psychiatry, Dr. Diana Ghelber is a board-certified general psychiatrist who has extensive training in a wide range of mental health disorders, including bipolar disorder.
Here’s a look at this complex mental health issue and some of the warning signs that bipolar disorder may be present.
Bipolar disorder affects about 2.6% of the population over the age of 18 in the United States, or 5.7 million adults. In brief, bipolar disorder describes a condition in which you experience extreme and unusual shifts in mood, which affects your:
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there are three main types of bipolar disorder:
With this type of the condition, you experience a manic episode that lasts for seven days or more. These manic episodes are usually severe enough to require hospitalization. The manic episodes are often accompanied by depressive periods that last at least two weeks.
If you experience a pattern of manic and depressive episodes, where the manic episodes aren’t severe enough for hospitalization, this is typically labelled Bipolar II disorder.
This type of bipolar disorder is characterized by symptoms of hypomania and depression that last for two years or more (one year in children), but aren’t severe enough to meet the diagnostic criteria of a hypomanic or depressive episode.
As you can see, it can be very tricky to figure out whether bipolar disorder is present, which is why you need the expert guidance of a trained psychiatrist like Dr. Ghelber.
If you suspect you or a loved one is showing signs of bipolar disorder, early and expert diagnosis is key. Dr. Ghelber understands the many variations of the mental illness and performs an extensive evaluation before embarking on a treatment plan.
If she finds that your problems are likely tied back to bipolar disorder, she tailors a treatment plan to fit your unique needs. Typically, this includes:
This last treatment is one worth underscoring as it’s helpful for those who don’t respond to medications or therapy. TMS was cleared by the FDA to address depression, and it’s a technique in which we deliver magnetic impulses into your brain to stimulate the areas associated with depression.
If you’d like to learn more about bipolar disorder, please don’t hesitate to contact our office in Fort Worth, Texas, to set up a consultation.
You Might Also Enjoy...
Bipolar disorder may not be as common as other mental health issues, such as anxiety, but of the 2.8% of the population in the United States who has the condition, 83% are considered severe.
Up to two-thirds of people who are treated for depression with medications may not experience adequate relief with the first medication. Thankfully, there are other solutions for depression, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
There’s a good deal of misinformation about obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is a complex anxiety disorder that affects between 1% and 2% of the population in the United States. Here’s what you should know.
Overwhelming sadness, that hopeless feeling, waning interest in your life — these are the hallmarks of major depressive disorder, but the mental health issue can lead to other, less talked about, symptoms.
Living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be much like a prison as the condition can affect almost every aspect of your life. If you want to break free, there are solutions and we discuss those here.
You have depression and you’ve tried to climb out of the hole with different medications, to no avail. This is called treatment-resistant depression, and we urge you not to lose hope as there are other options.