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Informationen zum Autor Roger Granet Klappentext Violent mood swings...suicidal feelings...unpredictable behavior... Is your life a roller coaster of highs and lows? Do your moods vacillate between profound sadness and euphoria? If so! you may be suffering from bipolar disorder! a complex illness that involves the mood centers of the brain and affects as many as two million Americans. Since bipolar disorder is often misdiagnosed as major depression! an accurate diagnosis is crucial to understanding and managing this often chronic condition. Now this sensitive! authoritative guide explains the challenging nature of bipolar disorder and how to get the right kind of treatment to minimize or prevent future episodes of this devastating illness. Find out: What causes bipolar disorder and who is at risk The symptoms of both manic and depressive episodes and their common triggers How to get the very specific kind of help you need and why early diagnosis is your best bet for successful treatment The latest facts on successfully managing bipolar disorder...why alternative therapies such as meditation and hypnotherapy can actually be dangerous to bipolar sufferers...plus news from the front lines of research Bipolar Disorder: Definitions and Overview It often feels as if we live in a world of endless contradictions. The more we work, the more money we make, yet ironically, the less time we have to enjoy it. Another classic example, according to Pentagon officials, is that the more bombs we build, the safer we will ostensibly be. How do we handle these and life's other fundamental contradictions? We pay attention to events around us, we continue with our daily tasks, and we simply hope for the best. When it comes to life's inherent contradictions, the world of mental illness is no exception, claiming as its own a disease that truly embodies the meaning of the word "opposite": The disease is bipolar disorder, formerly and more commonly known as manic-depressive illness. Bipolar disorder can be likened to the painted face of a circus clown: at once robustly joyous and at other times profoundly sad. The clown analogy, which is commonly used when describing bipolar disorder, is an apt one, but it does not begin to address the complexity of the illness. The disease is perhaps one of the most mysterious and understudied illnesses in the field of mental health. It is estimated that 11 to 15 million Americans suffer from some form of mood disorder, whether it be major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, or cyclothymic disorder. Of the afflicted, at least 2 million people, or 0.4 to 1.6 percent of the population in the United States, experience the "highs" and "lows" of bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is differentiated from other forms of depression by its periods of intense mania and/or hypomania. Sufferers experience black and hopeless moods of depression, but also euphoric feelings of hypomania and often psychotic periods of mania. In between episodes of depression and mania, patients may experience periods of balanced moods, where they feel relatively normal or "euthymic." A person may, for example, be manic for three to six months, euthymic for six months after that, and then depressed for six to nine months. As we come to understand more about this illness that takes its toll on spousal, familial, and other interpersonal relationships, we know that far more people have lived with bipolar disorder than was formerly thought. A devastating reality of bipolar disorder is that fewer than one-third of those who have the illness are ever treated for it. For a host of complex reasons, bipolar disorder is often misdiagnosed or simply goes undetected, sometimes at the expense of the sufferer's life. We do know that at least 15 percent of those who have bipolar disorder take their own lives, that men who suffe...
