Bipolar disorder is ‘roller coaster of emotion’

I clearly fall into the category of people who start to daydream, hum or otherwise distract myself when someone points out that today is a designated “day.” I completely missed Boss’s Day a couple of weeks ago. I think I missed Grandparents Day some time ago. I remembered Columbus Day because I got the day off.

However, in spite of my not being a “day” person, one day recently caught my eye. During Mental Health Awareness Week early in October, I was looking at the Web site for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

I noticed that the Thursday of that week was Bipolar Awareness Day. I doubted that the card and gift people had anything to do with this one, so I read the piece on the Web site and gave the matter some thought.

When I first studied bipolar disorder during my graduate training, it actually sounded a little like an exciting adventure. But once I actually met a few people with bipolar disorder, the glamour went away.

Oh, there were the famous people who had bipolar disorder. Vincent Van Gogh. Patty Duke. Virginia Wolf. But the people I met with bipolar disorder had lives that were really broken apart.

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that involves extreme mood swings lasting anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Rather than the normal ups and downs that most of us experience, these mood swings are extreme.

During the manic phase, people with bipolar disorder have an intensity and level of energy that soon exhausts others around them. Often sleeping only a couple of hours per night, people in a manic mood swing are usually irritable, pressured and jump from one idea to another in rapid succession.

Impulse buying, sexual preoccupation or engaging in high risk business ventures may occur at a time when a person’s ability to objectively weigh the consequences of his or her actions is limited.

Many times, a period of mania is followed by a period of extreme depression. Classic signs of depression include feeling sad and despondent, with little energy or drive. Sleep increases and the depressed person tends to isolate from others. Thoughts of suicide or preoccupation with guilt or death are common.

This roller coaster of emotion soon begins to take its toll on the person with bipolar disorder and those around them. In spite of the turmoil it creates, one of the most startling facts about bipolar disorder is that the majority of people with this problem do not receive any type of professional evaluation or treatment.

We estimate that for every person who seeks help for bipolar disorder, two people with the disorder receive no diagnosis or treatment. Imagine the public outrage if only one of every three people with other diseases, such as cancer, received proper diagnosis and treatment.

So, I think I’ll try to keep Bipolar Awareness Day on my calendar. I’m not sure exactly how to acknowledge it. Maybe I can encourage one person with bipolar disorder to visit a mental health professional for counseling or be evaluated for medication which helps manage the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Chipping away at the 4 million-plus people with bipolar disorder who receive no treatment sounds like a good way to celebrate the day.

Psychologist Dr. David Prescott is the director of psychology services and clinical research at The Acadia Hospital. He writes a monthly column as part of Acadia’s Because Your Mental Health Matters Campaign.