Name: From Mania to Depression: Living with Bipolar Disorder
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T15:07:47.000Z
Duration: 5 min 6 s
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Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

If your emotions are like an intense roller coaster, where you feel energized and invincible during the highs and exhausted and hopeless during the lows, you may have what's known as bipolar disorder.

A bipolar brain experiences severe fluctuations in mood, energy and ability to function.

It affects around 1 in 40 adults at some point in their lives and is often passed down through generations.

Previously also known as manic depression, it often goes hand in hand with other issues, like anxiety, which make it difficult to identify.

To learn more about it, let's look at Ben, a teenager with a deep love for music who is living with this neuroatypical trait.

Ben, like many other boys his age, goes to school, has a group of friends and plays music with his band.

One day, after coming back from practice, something changes.

During mania, Ben feels invincible and euphoric without a particular reason.

Thousands of thoughts are racing through his mind and just as many future plans, not all of them realistic.

He works tirelessly for days and hardly gets any sleep.

Full of excitement, he calls his friends and talks for hours, switching topics so fast that even he can't keep up.

After Ben impulsively buys lots of stuff with his mother's credit card, she confronts him, but instead of being remorseful, he gets furious.

Then, after a week, everything suddenly changes.

Now he feels exhausted and lays in bed all day.

When he does get up, he finds nothing worth living for.

Even the simple thought of getting dressed seems meaningless.

He also has no appetite and often skips meals.

Since Ben has also lost all interest in music, he doesn't show up for practice and later he feels guilty about it, telling himself he's a worthless friend.

This is when he feels the lowest and starts to have dark thoughts.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder look different in each case, which is why the condition is so difficult to diagnose and like all mental disorders, can only be defined on a spectrum.

Traditionally, three types are recognized, bipolar I, bipolar II and cyclothymia.

Bipolar I is characterized by intense manic episodes that can last a week or more and sometimes end with a trip to the hospital due to risky decisions.

These are followed by a depressive episode.

Bipolar II is characterized by less intense hypomanic episodes that can last three or four days, but deep depressive phases with dark ideas and self-harm.

Cyclothymia is characterized by mood swings between episodes of hypomania and mild depression.

While emotional changes of bipolar I and II can spread over weeks, the ups and downs of cyclothymia often happen spontaneously over shorter periods, even within the same day.

The condition is often treated with antipsychotics and mood stabilizers that dampen the intensity and frequency of the episodes.

The medications are often combined with psychotherapy or psychoeducation to help stabilize daily activities and reduce substance abuse and relapse.

People like Ben can often feel helpless when they are first diagnosed, but eventually may realize that they can live fulfilling lives, have families and have successful careers.

Some feel as if their atypical brain makes them more creative and choose to pursue a career in the arts.

Do you have or know someone with the disorder?

If so, what do you know about supporting those coping with it?

Tell us your experiences and thoughts in the comments below.

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