What is "bipolar disorder"?

What is "bipolar disorder"?

Christopher Reist (Academic Psychiatrist, Co-Author of “Psychiatry”) gives expert video advice on: What's the difference between "major depression" and "bipolar disorder"?; Is there anything I can do to avoid developing bipolar disorder? and more...

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that is characterized by episodes of both depression and an elevated mood that we term hypomania, or mania. Most people know what the depression stage of bipolar disorder is, and that's a pervasive sadness, accompanied by changes in sleep and appetite, and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. In contrast to this, mania and hypomania are characterized by feeling very good - almost euphoric. When people get into this stage of bipolar disorder, they tend to speak quickly, be very outwardly expressive and joke. People will comment that it's hard to get a word in because they're talking so fast. As the mood progresses to mania, the thought processes start to become somewhat disjointed. We call this racing thoughts, and flight of ideas, where the actual thoughts are very loosely connected, and the person is jumping from one thing to another.