Bipolar Disorder ( Bd ) - 1954 Words

Introduction Bipolar disorder (BD) is one of the biggest causes of disability in the world (National Institute of Mental Health). Also known as manic depression, bipolar disorder is a psychological disorder that causes drastic changes in the individual’s behaviour and mood. Bipolar disorder is a mix of high, elevated moods and low, depressive ones. During elevated moods, a person will feel more energetic, impulsive or have racing thoughts. During depressive moods, the person will have feelings of loneliness, worthlessness or suicide (NIMH). Bipolar doesn’t only alter a person’s mood, but also their behaviour; a few are changes in appetite and the disability to function properly at school, work or home. People with bipolar may also†¦show more content†¦Children are more easily affected with bipolar if they have parents who are also (DBSA). If only one parent has bipolar, each child has a â€Å"15-30%† risk of suffering from it and if both parents h ave bipolar, the risk increases to â€Å"50-75%† (DBSA). According to Statistics Canada graphs, from 2008 to 2011 there have been an increasing amount of people that suffer from bipolar and similar mood disorders. This amount has increased from 1.9 million (2008) to 2 million (2011) and of these, there are around twice as many females than males who have been diagnosed with some kind of mood disorder. The amount of children from the ages of 12 to 19 suffering from mood disorders has decreased from 2008, but again increased since 2009. Similar with the total population, there are around twice as many female children that suffer from mood disorders than male ones (Stat Can). Looking at both the psychological and sociological factors of bipolar disorder is important in order to understand what people are experiencing for them to develop the disorder and to be able to properly diagnose these people. Some psychological factors related to and affected by bipolar disorder are emotio nal stability, psychosocial functioning and personality. Bipolar