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This page is meant to provide a better undestanding of my
"Bipolar Type 2: Ultra Radian Cycling". This is like Manic/Depressive Disorder. The type 2 version means that my manic states aren't very euphoric and get too far out of control, whereas a type 1 can easily get out of control and need to be hospitalized to prevent further damage. About 0.5% of the population suffers from this disorder, and are often mis-diagnosed by their physician.
Bipolar Type 2
First, I'll talk about what Biploar Type 2 is. According to the
Study Guide to the DSM-IV
, which is the book that psychiatrits use to diagnose patients, the essential feature is a clinical course that is characterized by the occurance of one or more Major Depressive Episodes accompanied by at least one Hypomanic Episode.
Major Depressive Eppisodes
- Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, feeling sad or empty. In children this could be an irritable mood.
- Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day
- Significant weight loss or weight gain/apetite
- Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping too much)
- psychomotor agitation or retardation (problems with motor skills, moving around, things like that)
- fatigue or loss of energy neraly every day
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt (which may be delusionsal) nearly every day (not merely guilt about being sick)
- Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day
- Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation with or without a plan or an attempt.
Five or more of the above constitute for most doctors an episode of Major Depression. I often experience most of these symptoms.
Hypomania
Again, quoting from the
Study Guide to the DSM-IV, the criteria for Hypomania include the following:
- Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity and or irritability
- Decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested arter only 3 hours of sleep)
- More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
- Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
- Distractibility
- Increase in goal-direceted activity or psychomotor agitation
- Excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (like unrestrained shopping sprees, sexual indiscretions, foolish business investments, etc.)
I usually experience most of these except for being talking way too much when I am in a Hypomanic Episode.
Ultra-radian Cycling
This means that I shift moods from Hypmonia to Major Depression to "somewhat normal" sometimes as often as 3-4 times per day.
I experience all of these symptoms and have been experiencing them for a number of years. It makes it very difficult to make any plans because I don't know what mood I will be in. It also makes it hard for me to follow through with projects that I start. I can be all gung-ho at the start in the beginning, then get distracted and pulled down into depression and never follow through.
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