The nature side of bipolar disorder causes has always been seen in family histories. This, however, can be misleading. Families often pass behaviors on from one generation to the next, regardless of whether family members are natural relatives or adopted ones.

The scientific concept of correlation without causation may account for shared histories of bipolar disorder in biologically unrelated siblings. This concept is easy to grasp. For example, a man could state that all summer, every time he got a sunburn he ate fish. So, did the sunburn cause the man to eat fish? No, but the act of fishing both caused the man’s skin to burn and allowed him to catch a fish, which he then ate. In a similar way, bipolar disorder can occur in families without anything in one family member’s bipolar disorder causing the bipolar disorder of another.

Also, for whatever reason, people with bipolar disorder are often drawn to each other. In this case it is unclear whether the families formed come together because of their shared genetically similar predisposition towards bipolar disorder, or whether some members of the families are genetically more prone to bipolar disorder but the illness of some other members of the family becomes exaggerated more than it would in another environment.

Research into the genetic causes of bipolar disorder is often done using twin studies. It is assumed that twins will have environments that are as close as is possible. Identical twins are used to show the effects of genetics, since they will share the same genetic materials. Fraternal twins are used as a control group. While these twins share nearly identical environments with their twins, the fraternal twins have less genetic material in common.

It has been shown through these twin studies, and other studies where identical twins are compared to adopted siblings, that there does seem to be a genetic basis for bipolar disorder. Only one percent of the population has bipolar disorder. Fraternal twins, who share some genetic information, are 20 percent more likely to have the disease if one has it. The percentage for identical twins is even higher, at around 60 to 80 percent chance of one having it if the other does.

Environmental causes of bipolar disorder are more difficult to assess. Bipolar disorder has been proven to have a chemical basis in the brain, but the chemical reactions can be caused by any number of factors. A history of losses early in life can be a contributing factor, as can any major source of stress. Physical illnesses such as cancer and others can lead to a depressive state, which is then often followed by mania.

Neither genetics nor environment can fully explain the causes of bipolar disorder. Research is constantly being undertaken in both areas. In the meantime, the nature/nurture controversy is just beginning to heat up.

If fighting for normalcy is the answer, then a bipolar disorder diagnosis can make one aware of what one is fighting. Bipolar disorder can touch every aspect of a person’s life, so someone with a bipolar disorder diagnosis will need to be wary on all fronts.

First of all, if there is a bipolar disorder diagnosis then there must have been some sign of the disease. The more severe this manifestation is, the more likely one is to take notice. It is important, though, to treat the illness as soon as a bipolar disorder diagnosis is obtained.

Early treatment can often help prevent some of the more extreme manic highs and depressive lows of bipolar disorder. The earlier treatment is successfully begun, the less the devastating effects of the disease on the person with a bipolar disorder diagnosis.

Early treatment is helpful. The challenge is to keep someone interested in taking medications or engaging in talk therapy when there has been no crisis to set him or her on this path. Such a person needs to be convinced that their bipolar disorder diagnosis is accurate.

For others, the first signs of illness are so overwhelming they consider their bipolar disorder diagnosis to be a relief. For them, it is just good to know that there is a name for what is happening to them and that there are treatments.

For these people, it is extremely important to keep taking medications that are prescribed. This is a responsibility one has to oneself when he or she gets a bipolar disorder diagnosis. If the medication seems to be causing problems, it is important to contact the prescribing doctor to discuss the matter. If no satisfaction can be obtained, finding another doctor is even preferable to simply stopping the medications on one’s own.

Those with a bipolar disorder diagnosis usually are given the recommendation to take some form of counseling, or talk therapy. Some may balk at the notion that talking to a therapist can effect their disease. The truth is that these therapies have been shown to have a positive effect on those with bipolar disorder diagnosis.

There are other actions a person with a bipolar disorder diagnosis can take to help lessen their illness. These include the ways a person takes care of him or herself in day to day life. It may seem obvious that a person should eat and sleep in reasonable amounts and times, or do an adequate but reasonable amount of exercise. A person with a bipolar disorder diagnosis will probably find that these common acts do not come naturally. However, with some conscious effort they can begin to see some difference.

A bipolar disorder diagnosis can certainly seem to complicate one’s life. It can lead one to take medications, submit him or herself to talk therapy, and take the time and energy to regulate his or her own personal habits. On the other hand, all these concessions to the disease can help a person to live a much calmer and more fulfilling life than that person would had he or she never gotten their bipolar disorder diagnosis. In other words, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world.

There are many treatment options for bipolar disorder. The most common treatment for bipolar disorder includes a combination of medication and therapy. However, some patients are not candidates for medication treatment. Patients that have a history of drug abuse, for instance, should in most cases not be placed on medication for bipolar disorder, as the risk for abuse is too great. Additionally, patients may not have a case of bipolar disorder severe enough to warrant medication. Other patients may choose to avoid the route of medication until it becomes absolutely necessary.

In response to these special cases in which medication treatment is not a viable option for bipolar disorder, that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, was developed. CBT is a type of therapy that assists patients in recognizing triggers and causes for their manic and depressive states. The patient can then learn techniques to avoid these triggers, and cope with symptoms during episodes. Seventy percent of bipolar disorder type one patients that undergo CBT experience one or fewer episodes within four years of starting the CBT treatment.

There are two main goals that are met by using CBT as treatment for bipolar disorder. The first goal is to recognize manic episodes before they become uncontrollable, and consciously change how they react to the episode. The second goal is to learn techniques, reactions, thoughts, and behaviors that can help to offset depression. These goals are realized through various techniques and activities prescribed by the therapist. With CBT, the treatment of bipolar disorder rests with the patient, who is given homework in the form of exercises and reading, which helps them to understand their condition and learn methods to cope with it.

The first step to successful treatment of bipolar disorder through CBT is to develop a treatment contract with the patient. This is a treatment plan that the patient agrees to follow, and also involves the patient’s promise to complete all homework assignments and take any prescribed medication as directed. Because the success of CBT depends largely on the patient’s responsibility and desire to cope with bipolar disorder, this is an important first step to successful treatment.

The second step to successful treatment of bipolar disorder through CBT is to monitor and grade moods. This is done with various worksheets that the therapist gives the patient. The patient may record their mood for the day, how many hours they have slept, their level of anxiety, and their level of irritability. Those with type two bipolar disorder may need to record their mood two or more times per day, as their moods cycle more often.

Understanding the pattern to mood cycling can help the patient then undergo the next step to CBT treatment for bipolar disorder. This step of CBT for treatment of bipolar disorder requires the patient to do homework in the form of worksheets and reading that will help the patient to understand how their thoughts effect their emotions. By understanding these things, the patient will be able to then practice altering their thoughts in a rational way to make emotions more rational as well, decreasing the number and severity of depressive and manic episodes.

The next step to CBT treatment for bipolar disorder is to learn how to recognize triggers. Triggers are the thoughts, emotions, situations, times of year, events, or environments that set off a depressive or manic episode. By learning how to understand and recognize their triggers, the patient can then learn to avoid the triggers entirely, thereby decreasing the number and severity of depressive and manic episodes.

Overall, CBT is a viable and quite successful treatment for bipolar disorder, and can be a healthy alternative to medication in some cases. If you feel you may be a candidate for CBT, you should contact your doctor or therapist to discuss this and other bipolar disorder treatment options.

The second type, sometimes called rapid cycling bipolar, manifests itself as almost constant depression, with alternating periods of mania and severe depression that can often last a few hours or a few days before cycling to the next episode.

Depression symptoms include oversleeping, extreme sadness, feelings of worthlessness or despair, irritability, anger, and withdrawl. Manic symptoms include sleeplessness, increased energy levels, distractibility, racing thoughts, obsessive behaviors, and extreme happiness.

There are many treatment options for bipolar disorder. Most patients with bipolar disorder require a combination of medication and therapy or counseling for successful treatment of symptoms. However, minor cases of bipolar disorder may not require medication, but may require instead cognitive behavioral therapy. There are some cases, such as in patients with a history of drug abuse, where medication may be recommended but is not a viable treatment option. These cases typically also use cognitive behavioral therapy to assist patients in coping with their illness.

Celexa is an anti-depressant, commonly used with bipolar patients. Celexa, or citalopram, is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI. This family of medications has the effect of balancing serotonin levels in the brain, which are thought to be responsible for mood stabilization.

Celexa is most successful as a treatment for unipolar depression and bipolar disorder type two patients. This is because it is an anti-depressant. Serotonin, the chemical in the brain that balances moods and particularly controls strong emotions, often presents imbalances in the form of depression. Celexa corrects these imbalances, giving the patient relief from depression.

Celexa is most successful as a treatment for bipolar disorder type one patients when used in combination with a mood stabilizer. As an anti-depressant, Celexa alone causes bipolar disorder type one patients to swing into a manic episode. Used in combination with a mood stabilizer or anti-psychotic, however, can allow for a balance of moods to take place, ending rapid or raging mood cycling.

Celexa has several possible minor side effects when used for treatment of bipolar disorder. Common side effects include drowsiness, cotton mouth, nausea, and trouble sleeping. Less common side effects include abdominal pain, anxiety, gas, headache, heartburn, increased sweating, pain in muscles or joints, increases or decreases in weight, weakness, and vomiting. If these side effects persist or become unbearable, you should contact your doctor.

Celexa can also have several possible major side effects when used for treatment of bipolar disorder. Common major side effects include a decrease in sexual desire or ability. Less common major side effects include agitation, confusion, blurred vision, fever, increase in urinal frequency, lack of emotion, decreased memory, skin rashes, and trouble breathing. If you experience any of these side effects you should contact your doctor immediately.

Friends, family and patients with bipolar disorder should keep in mind that even when using anti-depressants such as Celexa, suicide, suicide threats, and suicide attempts can still occur. Always be aware of the signs that can lead to suicide so that medical treatment can be found before an attempt is made.

Bipolar disorder should, in all cases, be treated with a combination of Celexa, or other medications, in conjunction with therapy or counseling. Bipolar disorder patients are encouraged to take active part in their treatment plans. Additionally bipolar patients should not attempt to self medicate or treat symptoms with medication alone. If you show symptoms of bipolar disorder, you should contact your doctor about Celexa and other treatment options.

Since there are two distinct parts of bipolar disorder, there are also two separate sets of symptoms of bipolar disorder. These symptoms of bipolar disorder many times reflect opposites from the manic to the depressive sides of the illness.

The most obvious of the opposites in the symptoms of bipolar disorder is level of energy and activity. In depression, the person will feel a loss of energy and suffer from fatigue. That person may even appear to be slow. On the other hand, the manic person will have an increased level of energy and much more than usual activity.

Degree of self-esteem is another of the symptoms of bipolar disorder. A depressed person feels unworthy or is guilt-ridden. A manic, though, is so full of him- or herself that he or she has unreasonable ideas of him- or herself or even delusions of grandeur.

This loss of self-esteem may be what leads the depressed person to be indecisive, and overblown self importance that urges the manic to become reckless. Neither the depressed person nor the manic one sees these decision-making processes as symptoms of bipolar disorder. But that is exactly what they are.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder differ from the depressive to the manic mostly because the general themes are different. In depression, everything is slow, dull, small, introverted, and hopeless. In mania, things are overblown, huge, fast, outgoing, and full of impossible dreams.

Some symptoms of bipolar disorder seem, on the surface, to be similar. For example, The poor concentration of the depressed person may appear similar to the distraction of the manic person. They both, in fact, have trouble holding a thought in their heads. This happens for different reasons, though. The depressed person has fewer thoughts but just cannot focus on any, while the manic person has excessive thought and goes rapidly from one to the next.

Sleep cycles vary in both depressed people and manic people. This is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder which cause trouble for both. The depressed person may not care whether he or she sleeps or not, sometimes sleeping for long periods and sometimes not bothering to go to bed. The manic person will most surely feel little or no need for sleep. He or she may go without sleep for days.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder which vary the most from depressives to manics happen at the far ends of the spectrum. A person who is extremely depressed is likely to think dark thoughts about death, suicide, and even plans to commit suicide. The person who is manic enough can have strange thoughts such as delusions, and bizarre perceptions such as auditory and visual hallucinations.

If a person is truly bipolar, he or she will display some, if not all, of the symptoms of bipolar disorder on both the depressed and manic sides of the line. Because this illness is so serious and can have life changing consequences for the person with it, it is important to recognize the symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Borderline personality disorder is actually less common and less known than bipolar. Borderline personality disorder accounts for only about twenty percent of hospitalizations for mental illness each year, while bipolar accounts for about fifty percent of hospitalizations. Borderline personality disorder is most common in young women, whereas bipolar is equally common in both men and women, as well as all age groups.

Borderline personality disorder and bipolar patients both experience mood swings that may involve violent outbursts, depression, or anxiety. However, while bipolar patients typically cycle through these moods over a period of weeks or months, borderline personality disorder patients may have bursts of these moods lasting only a few hours or a day.

Borderline personality disorder patients also undergo periods of having no idea who they are in terms of personality, likes, dislikes, and preferences. They may change long term goals frequently, and have trouble sticking to any one activity. Acting with impulsiveness, going on major unaffordable shopping sprees, excessive eating, or engaging in risky sexual relationships can also be experienced. These are also symptoms of mania in bipolar patients.

Borderline personality disorder patients may also undergo periods of worthlessness, feeling mistreated or misunderstood, and emptiness. These symptoms coincide with symptoms of depression in bipolar patients.

Another symptom of borderline personality disorder involves how they deal with relationships. Relationships are often viewed in extremes. Either the patient is totally in love or hates with a passion. A patient may be completely in love one minute, then hate someone totally due to a small conflict or situation. Fears of abandonment often lead to suicide threats, rejection, and depression in the patient. These relationship issues can also be found in bipolar patients.

Treatments of borderline personality disorder and bipolar are also similar. A combination of therapy and medication is typically preferred by the psychiatrist. Cognitive behavioral therapy, while successfully implemented with bipolar patients, was originally developed for use with borderline personality disorder. Various medications can also be prescribed for either mental illness with successful results.

Like bipolar disorder, little is known about the actual causes of borderline personality disorder. There is a lot of controversy about genetics versus environment in this area. However, it appears through research that, while bipolar is definitely hereditary and biological in nature, borderline personality disorder is more likely to be a result of environment and situational stimuli.

As you can see, many similarities exist between bipolar and borderline personality disorder. It can often be quite difficult to distinguish one illness from the other, even for doctors and psychologists. If you suffer any of the symptoms discussed here, it is important to obtain the assistance and diagnosis of a licensed professional for appropriate diagnosis and treatment of your symptoms. You should never attempt self diagnosis and treatment for symptoms such as those associated with bipolar and borderline personality disorder without the help of a psychiatrist or psychologist. Doing so may cause your symptoms to worsen, and make treatment less successful in the future.

Within the last five years there have been several substantial breakthroughs in research toward finding the true biological cause of bipolar affective disorder. This research has lead to the development of several new bipolar affective disorder medications. A few of the more popular latest medications for bipolar affective disorder are described below.

Abilify, or Aripiprazole, is an atypical anti-psychotic. It was approved for treatment of manic and mixed bipolar disorder episodes in 2004, and further approved as a maintenance medication for bipolar disorder in 2005. While most anti-psychotic medications work by shutting down dopamine receptors in the brain, Abilify works by making the dopamine receptors behave more normally. This stabilization makes this latest medication the ideal treatment for bipolar affective disorder.

Celexa is an antidepressant that has been around for several years. However, it has been used with increasingly more frequency in the last few years for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder. This is due to the fact that Celexa has proven to be more selective than other anti-depressants. This essentially means that with Celexa, fewer bipolar patients need a mood stabilizer to prevent the antidepressant from sending them zooming into a manic episode. It has been extremely successful as a maintenance medication for bipolar affective disorder.

Geodon is an anti-psychotic that works as a mood stabilizer in bipolar affective disorder patients. The most exciting thing about this latest mood stabilizer medication is that it is not associated with weight gain. It works in much the same way as Zyprexa, which has been proven to be a very successful medication for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder. However, unlike Zyprexa, side effects are fewer, milder, and do not include weight gain!

Wellbutrin, also sold as Zyban, was originally developed as a medication to help people stop smoking, in which it has been quite successful. In recent years, however, it has been discovered, quite by accident, that it is even more successful as an antidepressant when used as a medication for bipolar affective disorder. Chemically, it is unrelated to any other antidepressant, and it is unknown why it works so well with bipolar patients. One advantage to Wellbutrin is that it is a weight stable medication, meaning that patients will typically not see weight gain or weight loss.

As technology and research progresses, more effective medications for bipolar affective disorder are bound to be developed. Successful treatment of bipolar affective disorder is the goal of many researchers, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Discuss treatment options with your doctor often, and keep track of the latest developments in medications for bipolar affective disorder, so that you can appreciate the benefits of successful treatment for your bipolar affective disorder.

It is a tricky diagnosis to say the least. Bipolar disorder in children often appears similar to ADHD, or as simply rambunctious childhood behavior. Young children may cycle fast, meaning that they go from a depressed state to a manic state and back, etc. very quickly, often within weeks or even days.

Suicide attempts often happen on the spur of the moment, with little or no warning. This is different than in most adults where the depression is often long-lasting and suicide attempts may be well thought-out. For this reason it is imperative that children with the disorder be treated successfully.

Bipolar disorder in children often presents in mania. In the younger children this is often likely to come with hallucinations, both auditory and visual. It may seem that these would be difficult to distinguish from a healthy imagination. Sometimes, in fact, it is. Many times, though, the visions and voices are more disturbing and threatening than a healthy child would imagine.

Teens with bipolar disorder are, for the most part, similar in their symptoms to adults. A major complicating factor with teens is the use of drugs and alcohol. As with adults, this practice of trying to use street drugs and alcohol to control mood swings, is called ’self-medicating.’ It is a dangerous business and often masks the symptoms of the disorder. Bipolar disorder in children should always be considered when drugs are being used by them, if only to rule it out.

Bipolar disorder in children who are older, such as teenagers, is still different from the adult disorder in that the person with the disorder is still a minor. This leads to situations where the older child has an adversarial relationship with authorities and is therefore hard to convince that treatment is a good thing.

There are some ways to cut down on the confusion. Speaking with the child’s teachers gives an outside opinion of how the child is doing day-to-day. Also, this shows how the child fares in a different setting from the home environment. Bipolar disorder in children, if it is masquerading as some other form of disorder or behavior, is more likely to be found out if more people are alert to its symptoms.

Getting a second opinion is also very important, since so many doctors disagree on bipolar disorder in children. Once the second opinion is obtained, the family can make a more informed decision as to what the problem is and how to proceed. Doctors may not all agree on bipolar disorder in children, but a second opinion should help to clarify the situation. The parent or guardian can listen carefully and determine if the doctor’s explanation sounds accurate. Then, ultimately, it is the parents’ job to make the call. Misdiagnosis and wrong treatment would be unthinkable, but if bipolar disorder in children is the correct diagnosis, it is surely better to accept it.

The most common disorder to be thought of as one of the bipolar disorders is bipolar I. This encompasses all those who suffer from alternating manic and depressed states. Those with bipolar I go from having the highest opinion of themselves to having little regard for their own well being. They go from periods of fast and outlandish activity to times of desperation and thoughts of death.

Of all the bipolar disorders, bipolar I is perhaps the most difficult to treat. Mood stabilizers such as lithium or anticonvulsants are useful. If depression, or especially mania, turns into psychosis, an antipsychotic medication is called for to bring the patient back to reality.

The difficulty comes in treating simple depression in bipolar I. An antidepressant would seem to be in order but, for the person who may become manic, it may be dangerous. It could start a cycle of rapid changes from depression to mania and back again in relatively short order. In the bipolar disorders this problem is most prevalent in bipolar I.

Dual diagnosis is another of the bipolar disorders. This is the combination of any bipolar disorder with alcohol and/or drug abuse. Most often, the abuse, in this case, of alcohol or drugs comes after the onset of one of the bipolar disorders.

These substances are used by the person with bipolar disorder to alleviate the symptoms of the illness. A stimulant may seem to help a person to overcome depression, and a depressant, such as alcohol may be thought to lessen the over activity of mania, for example. In reality, the abuse of drugs and/or alcohol only makes the episodes more severe in the end. This is not an answer for those with bipolar disorders.

Less obvious, but also considered one of the bipolar disorders, is MDD, or major depression. People with MDD spend most of the time that they are ill being depressed. They may have minor and short manic episodes, but the depression dominates. For these people, life is grim, unsatisfying, and perhaps seems unbearable. Episodes of depression for these people may last for months or sometimes years.

Treatment for these people is usually less complicated. They may respond well to antidepressants, talk therapy, and even to something as simple as exercise. There is less chance of triggering a manic episode, so treatment is less risky in these bipolar disorders.

There are many bipolar disorders. There are also many ways to treat these bipolar disorders. The trick is to match a disorder to the correct treatment and to encourage the patient to follow that treatment to the best of his or her ability. Having words to describe the different bipolar disorders makes it that much easier for the doctors and others to do their parts.

Although first recognized in the second century A.D., bipolar disorder has struggled as a diagnosis to become accepted. Bipolar disorder treatment up to and through the 1960’s, if any, was usually comprised of either locking the patient away or leaving him or her to fend for him or herself.

In the 1970’s manic-depression, as it was then called, began to become seen as an accepted diagnosis and therefore, bipolar disorder treatment began in earnest. At that time, laws were enacted and standards set to help those who sought bipolar disorder treatment.

In bipolar disorder treatment, the first thought may be the use of medications. They are, actually, a powerful tool in the management of the disorder. One only needs look at the vast array of medications that is available to see that medication has been extensively used in bipolar disorder treatment.

Lithium carbonate was the first major breakthrough in the medications for bipolar disorder treatment. It belongs to a class of medications called ‘mood stabilizers’. These medications help to prevent or ease manic episodes. They also help to ward off the extremes of depression, such as suicide.

Bipolar disorder treatment may also include the use of other mood stabilizers that were originally used as anticonvulsants. These have been shown to have a great effect on mood. Some of these, such as valproic acid and carbamazepine, are tried and true. Lamotrigine, gabapentin, and topiramate have also been used for this purpose but not conclusively proven effective.

Caution must be taken in the use of antidepressant therapy as a part of bipolar disorder treatment. Mood stabilizers are usually tried first, because antidepressants can trigger manic episodes or rapid-cycling. If an antidepressant must be used, there are certain ones which are less likely to cause these problems. One of these is bupropion.

The treatment of psychotic symptoms has evolved quickly in modern times. At first, there were powerful anti-psychotics. The first of these were said to put the mind in a ‘mental strait-jacket’. They virtually stopped all thought. They also had an intense side effects known as tardive dyskinesia. This causes permanent neurological damages. Researchers, then were trying to find alternatives that would cause less, or even no, damage in bipolar disorder treatment.

Other anti-psychotics were tried, and found to have fewer neurological effects. The newest of these medications are actually relatively safe when used as prescribed. They are also very helpful in bipolar disorder treatment both in psychotic episodes and even in simple mania. Some of the newer ones are risperidone and olanzapine.

Talk therapy is also used in bipolar disorder treatment. It can be useful to help a person to recognize and deal with symptoms of the disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help a person to identify destructive patterns of thinking and behavior, and help him or her to act in ways that will have a positive influence on his or her disease process.

Other types of talk therapy are used in bipolar disorder treatment to help a person to deal with the devastating consequences of the illness and to explore the history of that person’s disease. Talk therapy has been used successfully in bipolar disorder treatment.

All of these components constitute a lifelong process. Medication and talk therapy can contribute to effective bipolar disorder treatment today. No one knows what science will bring to bipolar disorder treatment in the future.