There are many types of mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and many more. You may have heard of bipolar disorder before. It is a mental disorder that affects your moods. A common misconception about bipolar disorder is that a person has frequent mood swings going from happy or positive to sad, angry, irritated, or other negative emotions almost without warning. But did you know that there are different types?
This time we are going to see the similarities and differences between bipolar 1 and bipolar 2 disorder.
The first type of bipolar disorder we're going to talk about is bipolar 1 disorder.
People with BP1 go through cycles of mania, depression, and normal moods. However, not everyone with BP1 experiences depressive episodes. Sometimes they just experience shifts between normal and manic moods. They can often feel like they’re riding a roller coaster. You're going up the first hill with all the adrenaline-induced emotions building up and when you get to the top, you feel like you're on top of the world.
What exactly is mania though?
Mania is defined as a distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive or irritable mood, and abnormally and persistently goal-directed behavior or energy. However, this is just a general definition. Not everyone with BP1 experiences mania the same way. If you have BP1 disorder and are having a manic episode, you may have lots of energy, feel wired, have racing thoughts, talk faster than usual, take part in risky behaviors needlessly, or have heightened intense centers such as smell or touch. A person without BP1 may experience these symptoms for various reasons. Maybe you had too much caffeine or sugar, or maybe you're just in a good energetic mood. The key differences are that manic episodes are usually very extreme out of the ordinary for the person experiencing them, and the episodes last for at least seven days.
Occasionally, some people with BP1 may experience psychosis while in a manic episode. Psychosis is easily understood as a loss of contact with reality. A person experiencing psychosis may have delusions, and hallucinations such as hearing voices or seeing things that aren't really there, talking incoherently, and saying things that don't seem to make sense to other people. If you're having a psychotic episode, you're probably not aware that you are or that anything is even wrong at all. Psychosis is a serious condition and usually requires emergency care. Depression is another extreme mood that a person with BP1 may experience and often immediately follows a manic episode. Just like the roller coaster example we used for mania, what goes up must come down. A person with BP1 will quickly go from feeling like they're on top of the world to speeding down the hill into a far more negative mood. Just like with mania, not everyone experiences depressive episodes the same way. If you're depressed, you may have mental and behavioral symptoms such as having little or no interest in doing the things you normally enjoy doing.
Hopelessness, intense sadness, irritability, or lack of concentration. Depressive episodes can also affect you physically, it may make it harder for you to fall or stay asleep, make you feel fatigued or make you lose your appetite.
Another type of bipolar disorder is bipolar 2 disorder. BP2 is similar to BP1, however, symptoms tend to be milder than those present in people with BP1. People with BP2 experience bouts of depression and normal moods, just like those with BP1. Rather than mania though, people with BP2 have hypomania.
What exactly is hypomania? Hypomania is often very similar to mania. If you experience hypomania, you'll more than likely have the same symptoms of mania, just in a milder form. This can include an increase in energy, racing thoughts, increased motivation to take on new projects, and others that we've previously talked about with manic symptoms. Hypomanic episodes don't usually cause extreme issues in your life as manic episodes do though. That's not to say that they can't be troublesome or disruptive. While people with BP1 usually experience more problems with manic episodes, people with BP2 tend to have more issues with depressive episodes than hypomanic episodes. Of course, everyone is different and these are just trends.
Bipolar 1 and bipolar 2 disorder have their similarities as well as their differences. While BP1 tends to deal with manic episodes and BP2 deals more with extreme depressive episodes, neither one is better or worse than the other. They simply affect you in a different way.
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