Bipolar Disorder Treatment at Discovery Mood & Anxiety
Most mood disorders revolve around a persistent low mood. Bipolar disorder is a little different.
This mental health disorder features intense mood swings, from extreme highs to equally extreme lows. Both extremes can seriously impact daily functioning. In some cases, bipolar disorder can make daily life extremely hard and lead to even more serious issues.
As overwhelming as bipolar disorder is, it’s also treatable. Discovery Mood & Anxiety provides expert care for bipolar disorder, taking a highly personalized, measurement-based approach to treatment.
We’ll help you take your life back from bipolar disorder.
What Is Bipolar Disorder?
Formerly known as manic depression, bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that causes intense mood swings. These swings consist of highs – known as mania or hypomania, and lows, known as depression. They can occur occasionally or multiple times a year.
Researchers divide bipolar disorder into several types because there are some major differences in the mood swings people experience. Also, it’s important to remember that someone who’s struggling with bipolar disorder isn’t always experiencing mood swings – many people experience periods of normal mood known as euthymia.
What Are the Different Types of Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder isn’t the same for everyone. Some people experience milder mood swings or experience a manic phase that’s not as severe. Multiple factors, like genetics, environmental influences and others affect how severe a person’s symptoms are. In general, researchers group bipolar disorder into four types.
Bipolar I Disorder
If you have bipolar I disorder, you’ve experienced one or more manic episodes that came before or after depressive episodes. These manic episodes were marked by feelings of intense energy.
Many people experiencing a manic episode often feel happy and excited, but some people can also feel irritable or angry. In some cases, a manic phase can be so intense that it can make you lose touch with reality, which is called psychosis.
Bipolar II Disorder
This form of bipolar disorder is slightly different. To be diagnosed with bipolar II disorder, you’ve experienced at least one depressive episode and at least one episode of hypomania, which is a milder form of mania.
That’s not to say that bipolar II is a milder form of bipolar disorder. In fact, the chronic depression associated with bipolar II disorder often makes it more draining than bipolar I.
Cyclothymic Disorder
Also known as cyclothymia, cyclothymic disorder causes your moods to be chronically unstable. In general, being diagnosed with cyclothymic disorder means you’ve experienced mild depression and hypomania (mild mania) for at least two years.
Some people with cyclothymia experience short periods of normal moods, but these periods generally last for less than two months.
Other Types of Bipolar Disorder
Many other conditions can cause symptoms like bipolar disorder, including:
- Substance Abuse: Certain drugs and alcohol can cause effects similar to bipolar disorder.
- Cushing’s Disease: A hormone disorder caused by high levels of cortisol, Cushing’s disease can result in difficulties controlling emotions.
- Stroke: Many survivors of strokes experience emotional and behavioral changes after the event.
What Causes Bipolar Disorder?
Like other mental health disorders, the exact cause of bipolar disorder isn’t currently known. However, there seems to be a mix of factors in play that can cause bipolar disorder to develop:
- Genetic factors, such as having a family member who struggles with bipolar disorder
- Brain structure or chemical imbalances
- Environmental factors, such as experiencing trauma
- Physical health factors, such as having thyroid problems or Cushing’s disease
- Co-occurring conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, and more
- Gender (usually impacts females most) and age (appears in adolescence and early adulthood)
How Common Is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder isn’t a common disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), nearly 3% of US adults struggle with bipolar disorder each year. Additionally, NIMH estimates that around 4.4% of US adults experience a bipolar episode at least once during their lives.
NIMH also reports that most adults with bipolar disorder report more serious symptoms – they estimate that nearly 83% of people with bipolar disorder reported being seriously impaired by its symptoms.
What Are the Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder?
Manic Episode
Manic episodes revolve around feelings of intense high spirits, irritability, or both. When you’re in a manic phase, you feel like you can take on the world and have more energy than you usually have. While this sounds good, it isn’t – manic episodes tend to be extremely disruptive to regular functioning.
Symptoms of a manic episode include:
- Speaking faster than normal and rapidly changing topics
- Having uncontrollable, racing thoughts
- Being easily distracted
- Needing less sleep than normal
- Engaging in increased activities, like taking on multiple projects at once
- Engaging in risky behavior, like driving recklessly
In some cases, manic episodes can be severe enough that a person becomes detached from reality, experiencing disordered thoughts and even hallucinations. This is called psychosis and can require hospitalization.
Finally, there are hypomanic episodes. While similar to the symptoms listed above, hypomania tends to be less severe, doesn’t last as long, and isn’t as disruptive as manic episodes.
Depressive Episode
A depressive episode resembles severe depression. Feelings of intense sadness, hopelessness and emotional numbness are common.
Symptoms of a depressive episode include:
- Feeling tired
- Sleep disturbances
- Changes in appetite; some people eat more during depressive phases, some lose their appetite for food
- Feeling restless
- Slowed speech and movement
- Problems with concentration
- Feelings of guilt or worthlessness
- Suicidal ideation
How Is Bipolar Disorder Diagnosed?
Currently, there are no medical tests that can determine if you have bipolar disorder. Instead, professionals use thorough evaluations that include:
- Physical Assessments: Lab tests can help rule out cases like thyroid problems and other physical issues that may be causing mood swings.
- Mental Health Assessments: Tracking your moods and thought patterns helps care providers nail down the source of your problems.
- Interviews: The more care providers know about your family and personal history, the better they are at understanding your challenges and needs.
These help care providers find patterns in your moods and behaviors that align with the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
There’s also another major way bipolar disorder is diagnosed: the length of the episodes. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the standard reference for mental disorders, gives a guideline for how long a person needs to experience the symptoms of bipolar disorder before a diagnosis is made:
- Manic Episodes: Manic episodes must last at least one week, and the symptoms must be a major change in a person’s usual behavior and be severe enough to cause problems at work or school.
- Depressive Episodes: Depressive episodes must last at least two weeks.
How Is Bipolar Disorder Treated?
As hopeless as bipolar disorder seems, it’s a condition that responds very well to treatment. Like other mental health disorders, it’s treated through different forms of care, addressing every need and challenge you face.
Medications
Talk Therapy
Talk therapy, or psychotherapy, is a useful and effective way to treat bipolar disorder. Basically, talk therapy is a conversation with a trained professional. During a session, you can safely talk about your feelings, behaviors, and thoughts that may create problems for you. By working together with your therapist, you’ll be able to understand yourself, take charge of your emotions, and learn how to thrive.
There’re different types of talk therapy, too:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy commonly used to treat a wide range of mental health conditions. CBT focuses on identifying and challenging distorted thinking patterns and core beliefs that contribute to irrational emotions and behaviors, which may lead to psychological distress and addiction.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) equips individuals with practical tools to manage intense emotions and reduce interpersonal conflict. It emphasizes both the pursuit of change and the importance of accepting oneself as they are.
- Group Therapy: Group therapy helps treat bipolar disorder by providing emotional support, reducing isolation, teaching coping skills, and reinforcing healthy routines. It complements medication and individual therapy by fostering connection and shared learning.
Measurement-Based Care
When you advance through care at Discovery Mood & Anxiety, your needs and priorities change. Our unique measurement-based care approach helps us design programs aimed at meeting your needs at every stage of manageing a mental health condition.
Measurement-based care works like this: first, we carefully examine 27 distinct personal wellness factors. These include your mental and physical health, social influences, history, and more. Next, we keep track of these factors as you thrive under our care, giving us careful insights into your progress and changing needs.
This personalized care ensures the work you did with us lasts a lifetime.
Levels of Care
At Discovery Mood & Anxiety, we make use of different levels of care. Some are extremely intensive, designed to help someone in crisis be safe and healthy while being treated. Others are less intensive, addressing critical needs through a part-time program:
- Residential Treatment: Residential treatment helps treat bipolar disorder by providing intensive, structured support in a safe environment, combining medication management, therapy, and lifestyle stabilization to reduce symptoms and prevent relapse.
- Partial Hospitalization Treatment: Partial hospitalization treatment, also known as partial hospitalization programs (PHPs), helps treat bipolar disorder by offering intensive, structured care during the day while allowing individuals to return home in the evenings. This level of treatment bridges the gap between inpatient hospitalization and traditional outpatient therapy.
- Intensive Outpatient Treatment: Intensive outpatient treatment, also known as intensive outpatient programs (IOP), helps treat bipolar disorder by offering structured, therapeutic support several times a week, in-person or online, while allowing individuals to maintain their daily routines. They’re ideal for people who need more care than weekly therapy but don’t require hospitalization.
Aftercare
Our aftercare program plays a crucial role in treating bipolar disorder by supporting long-term stability, preventing relapses, and helping individuals transition from intensive treatment back into daily life. It also provides continuity of care and reinforces the skills learned during inpatient or outpatient treatment.
Then there’s Discovery 365™, our cutting-edge post-treatment platform. Using proprietary facial recognition technology, it’s able to alert you when you need extra support, connecting you with resources and more.
Because at Discovery Mood & Anxiety, nothing is more important than the rest of your life.
How Can I Help a Loved One with Bipolar Disorder?
You can help a loved one with bipolar disorder by educating yourself, offering consistent emotional support, encouraging treatment, and setting healthy boundaries. Your role is to be a compassionate ally while also caring for your own well-being. Here’s a detailed guide to supporting someone with bipolar disorder:
- Learn About Bipolar Disorder: Please educate yourself on bipolar disorder and its symptoms, triggers, and treatment options. Understanding this condition helps you respond with empathy rather than frustration.
- Recognize Mood Swings: Learn the warning signs of mania and depression, such as changes in sleep, energy, speech or spending habits. Early intervention can prevent full-blown episodes.
- Have a Plan: Try to work with your loved one and build up a crisis plan with trusted contacts, steps to take if things get rough, and mode. Also, know when to notify emergency services if you have to.
- Set (and Stick to) Boundaries: Be careful you don’t sacrifice your own health and wellbeing – helping your loved one is an honorable thing to do, but you need to take care of yourself. Seek support if you think you need it.
- Communicate Kindly: Listen actively without judgment. Validate their feelings and avoid minimizing their experience. Avoid phrases like “just think positive.” Instead, say things like “That sounds really hard. How can I support you today?”
- Support Their Treatment: Encourage them to stick with medication and therapy, even when they feel well. Help with practical tasks like scheduling appointments or picking up prescriptions. If they resist treatment, gently express concern and suggest seeing a doctor together.
What Happens if Bipolar Disorder Isn’t Treated?
In short, bipolar disorder gets worse if it’s untreated. Both manic and depressive episodes get worse. For some, this results in rapid cycling, where mood swings become more frequent.
Left untreated, bipolar disorder can affect a person’s ability to function normally, leading to job loss and even legal trouble. Untreated bipolar disorder often has physical effects, too, leading to sleeping problems, weight gain and a decline in physical activity.
When manic episodes get more intense, they can become extremely disruptive, increasing the risk of impulsive (and potentially dangerous) behavior. There’s also an increased risk of psychosis, too.
Depressive episodes, meanwhile, become far more intense. A review of suicide risk research for people with bipolar disorder found:
- Up to 20% of people struggling with bipolar disorder commit suicide
- The suicide rate is 10 to 30 times higher for people with bipolar disorder
- Up to 60% of people with bipolar disorder attempt suicide at least once during their lives
Getting treated for bipolar disorder is absolutely critical. It’s a disorder that, while serious, responds well to treatment.
Bipolar Disorder Treatment at Discovery Mood & Anxiety
It’s easy to see why bipolar disorder can feel so disruptive. The mood swings are so intense, it’s like there’s someone else in control. It robs you of your relationships, your joy in life…and in some cases, your career.
It doesn’t have to be that way. With the right help, you’ll be able to regain control of your life, gain a true understanding of yourself and your emotions, and learn how to manage your triggers and symptoms for a lifetime.
Discovery Mood & Anxiety offers expert care for bipolar disorder and:
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Clinically Reviewed by
Matthew Ruble, MD
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