Bipolar Disorder

women bipolar disorder

NO OFFENSE POLL/SURVEY: Are the majority of women born with bipolar disorder?

Laurita > its called Lycanthropy, besides I'm angry in both forms... I really don't have an off day (or night).

no. only the ones whose opinions and moods change with the sway of the wind. if one's mood changes depending on how they feel they measure up to their favourite celebrity, it would explain why they act like that.

Alex's Battle With Bipolar Disorder

Everywhere she went, Alex Fontaine was the life of the party. There was never a dull moment with her around. But between periods of silliness, she experienced bouts of deep depression. As she grew older and found it difficult to settle down and hold a job, she knew something was wrong. She later learned she has bipolar disorder.

“From an early age, my behavior was pretty extreme. I was sent to a convent school to be educated by nuns, but I didn't take kindly to the strict regime and soon became the class clown. I once changed the church hymn numbers to 666, put a dunce's cap on the head of a statue of St Joseph and stole the altar wine,” she told Becky Shaves of the Daily Mail, Britain’s second biggest-selling daily newspaper.

“Like all bipolar people, I'd be very up and then, a few weeks later, find myself so depressed and anxious that I couldn't get out of bed. When the mania starts, you feel like a child on Christmas morning - multiplied by five. You have endless energy, wonderful enthusiasm and huge confidence in yourself. But it can't last - the brain's batteries become exhausted and you then tip into a profound low,” she added.

Bipolar disorder is a common mental illness that affects 222 million people worldwide or between three and four percent of the world’s adult population. This mood disorder that is also known as manic depression or manic-depressive illness affects both men and women and is the sixth leading cause of disabilities worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Patients with bipolar disorder have alternating episodes of emotional highs (mania) and lows (depression). Attacks can be mild or severe and the mood swings can lasts for weeks or months, affecting the lives of the patient’s family and friends.

Mania is generally characterized by a distinct period of an elevated, expansive or irritable mood state. Patients usually experience an increase in energy and a decreased need for sleep. Speech may be pressured with racing thoughts. Attention span is low and a person in a manic state may be easily distracted.

In the depressive phase, the patient may experience sadness, hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, guilt, fatigue, loss of interest in daily activities, irritability, and chronic pain without a known cause.

“Sometimes, severe episodes of mania or depression include symptoms of psychosis (or psychotic symptoms). Common psychotic symptoms are hallucinations (hearing, seeing, or otherwise sensing the presence of things not actually there) and delusions (false, strongly held beliefs not influenced by logical reasoning or explained by a person’s usual cultural concepts),” according to the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

The goods news is that the condition can be treated with the right medicines. These “mood stabilizers” can help patients control the disease if they are taken religiously. This is what happened to Fontaine who at 39 is now a successful businesswoman in London.

“I know I'll always be bipolar, but the positive side of my disorder is that I lead a rich and interesting existence. I meet lots of new people, travel often and am open to all sorts of experiences. No one could accuse me of being boring or too safe. Today, I've accepted who I am and love my life. I hope that for others in my situation, I am proof that a diagnosis of bipolar disorder need not be the end of the world,” she said.

If you have any of the above symptoms, seek medical help. To enhance your memory and support healthy brain function, take Neurovar. For more information on this powerful supplement, go to http://www.neurovar.com/.

About the Author

Sharon Bell is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premiere online news magazine http://www.healthnfitnesszone.com.

Madness List Price: $20.00 Average Rating:

An astonishing dispatch from inside the belly of bipolar disorder, reflecting major new insightsWhen Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet have the piece of shattering knowledge that would finally make sense of the chaos of her life. At age twenty-four, Hornbacher was diagnosed with Type I rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe form of bipolar disorder.In Madness, in her trademark wry and utterly self-revealing voice, Hornbacher tells her new story. Through scenes of astonishing visceral and emotional power, she takes us inside her own desperate attempts to counteract violently careening mood swings by self-starvation, substance abuse, numbing sex, and self-mutilation. How Hornbacher fights her way up from a madness that all but destroys her, and what it is like to live in a difficult and sometimes beautiful life and marriage -- where bipolar always beckons -- is at the center of this brave and heart-stopping memoir.Madness delivers the revelation that Hornbacher is not alone: millions of people in America today are struggling with a variety of disorders that may disguise their bipolar disease. And Hornbacher's fiercely self-aware portrait of her own bipolar as early as age four will powerfully change, too, the current debate on whether bipolar in children actually exists.Ten years after Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind, this storm of a memoir will revolutionize our understanding of bipolar disorder.-

Detour : My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D List Price: $14.00 Sale Price: $1.11 Used From: $0.01 Average Rating:

By all appearances, Lizzie Simon was perfect. She had an Ivy League education, lots of friends, a loving family, and a dazzling career as a theater producer by the age of twenty-three. But that wasn't enough: Lizzie still felt alone in the world, and largely misunderstood. Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager, she longed to meet others like herself; she wanted to hear the experiences of those who managed to move past their manic-depression and lead normal lives. So Lizzie hits the road, hoping to find "a herd of her own." Along the way she finds romance and madness, survivors and sufferers, and, somewhere between the lanes, herself. Part road trip, part love story, Detour is a fast-paced, enduring memoir that demystifies mental illness while it embraces the universally human struggle to become whole.

Schizophrenia, Causes, Symptoms, Signs, Diagnosis and Treatments List Price: $3.99 Average Rating:

A detailed booklet that describes Schizophrenia, symptoms, causes, and treatments, with information on getting help and coping. This booklet is also for family and friends that are looking for further understanding of schizophrenia. You will learn in this Booklet: What is schizophrenia? What are the symptoms of schizophrenia? When does it start and who gets it? Are people with schizophrenia violent? What about suicide? What causes schizophrenia? How is schizophrenia treated? What is the role of the patient’s support system? What is the outlook for the future? How can a person participate in schizophrenia research? You will also learn descriptions and solutions to these common terms: about schizophrenia bipolar schizophrenia catatonic schizophrenia childhood schizophrenia children schizophrenia disorganized schizophrenia paranoid schizophrenia paranoid schizophrenic people with schizophrenia schizophrenia schizophrenia causes schizophrenia disorder schizophrenia people schizophrenia research schizophrenia symptoms schizophrenia treatment schizophrenia types schizophrenic symptoms of schizophrenia the schizophrenia what is schizophrenia