|
I think sometimes people overlook other contributors to frequent and constant mood fluxuation. I believe we overlook many contributing factors to emotional turmoil and mood states. I don't believe it is all simply becasuse chemicals are gone awry and we have no control in the matter.
I 100% agree with this.
In the spirit of Anika's call for expressing opinions, albeit divergent from what may be other's opinions, this is at least at the moment, my feelings about bipolar disorder (as a disorder, in general).
First of all, I'm of the mind that mental illness in general is due to some sort of combination of brain stuff (chemicals, size of amygdala, communication between different parts of the brain, etc.), environmental influences (parenting, trauma, etc.) and genetics.
Secondly, if we think that this is all about chemicals roiling around our brains over which we have no control, then how is one to take responsibility for one's actions or seek to change them?
I think a fundamental question to think about (I'm not sure there's any good answer) is if one explodes on someone and belittles them (for example) if they have bipolar, is it not their 'fault' and guilt need not apply, and if one does the same thing, but does not have this diagnoses, are they then expected to feel guilty, apologize, and change their behavior?
I do believe people in general, and people with bipolar can get depressed with it not being a 'bipolar depression' due to things going on in life, or even how one is thinking and interpreting things in one's head. I think it is also possible to go through a period of insomnia, to go through a period of elevated energy and productiveness, without it being bipolar. This is one of the reasons why I, personally, think therapy is so important: to make distinctions, in part to get the help and make the changes needed based on what one is really struggling with at any given time. Obviously any of these things can be due to a bipolar episode as well.
I think bipolar is fundamentally a kind of mood dysregulation. People with other diagnoses can suffer from dysregulation, depression, insomnia, elevated energy, racing thoughts, psychosis, etc. So what is unique about bipolar disorder? That's a big question and people will have different answers. The only thing I can think of with regards to bipolar are two things (personal opinion): a constellation/grouping of certain symptoms occurring simultaneously, and the (prolonged) episodic nature of it.
For whatever reason, I don't know if anyone knows why, there are typically what all the literature calls 'normal' periods in between. This means that during these periods (i.e. weeks, months, years) they do not become dysregulated, they are not reactive to daily occurrences in environment and mind/thinking patterns. Which doesn't mean they feel perfectly well all the time or don't have other issues.
It stands to reason that you can be continuously dysregulated and reactive (for a whole *host* of reasons) and still have discrete episodes that are very different from the day to day stuff. But I think distinguishing between these two is extremely important: in one case you may need to increase medication, in these other cases, the treatment is vastly different and can respond to good therapy. I think bipolar episodes can also be helped by therapy.
Just my opinions on the matter.
|