Manic Depressive Illness, also known as Bipolar Disorder, is not something that you experience once and then snap out of. It is with you all your life, can make your life an emotional roller coaster of hell, and is something you have to learn to live with.

As human beings, it’s normal for us to swing from happiness to sadness and back again depending on the circumstances. What separates this behavior from manic depressive illness is the intensity of the swings. It’s not unusual for the mood of a person with manic depressive illness to swing from giddy exhilaration to the deepest suicidal depression. It’s trying to control and live with those extremes that can make life very difficult

for these people.

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Chrissie is a carer. She looks after someone with bipolar manic depression. Life is hard. this is part of her story.

Despite all the known and recognised cases of this type of depression, the 1 in 25 people suffering include: Stephen Fry, the artist Van Gogh, the poet Coleridge and even Carrie the Princess Leila out of Star Wars (you may have watched Fry’s biographical documentary) at some stage in their lives, they took the brave step to get treatment - and yet many years of medical experience, cases and medicine used has only brought half acknowledgment. They have not brought about a cure for this rampant and as yet largely incurable condition.

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Manic depression, also known as Bipolar disorder is characterised by extreme fluctuations in mood ranging from periods of intense “highs” or mania to periods of severe depression or “lows”, however, in reality it is much more complex than that as there is no clear pattern and some can even experience mixed state bipolar, with a combination of both mania and depression.

There is also no known single cause of Bipolar and no way of predicting who will develop it although it does appear to be a tendency for it to run in families suggesting that genetics play a part. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Bipolar affects around one in one hundred adults, although it is possible that

these figures are on the low side as it is believed that many people with Bipolar will not seek help due to denial, misunderstanding and lack of knowledge surrounding the condition. It affects both men and women equally and usually begins in early adulthood but the way it manifests itself is anything but consistent. Episodes can be triggered by stressful events and physical illness or even nothing at all. So how do you know if you have Bipolar disorder?

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Bipolar disorder, or manic depression as some people call it, is a very frightening condition to live with. The symptoms of this disorder can be harsh, they can come and go rapidly and they can lead to mood swings that are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Bipolar depression is the particular swing that can present some of the most problems for those who suffer from the condition.

To understand bipolar depression, it’s a very good idea to have a basic grasp on this condition in its entirety. Those who suffer from this condition tend to endure very extreme mood swings. Manic behavior is on one end of the spectrum and depressive the other.

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Manic depression is a mental disorder that is also called manic depressive disorder. To some, it is known as bipolar disorder. Manic depression symptoms are known to be on the extreme sides of the spectrum. They are either on the high end or the low end. The high-end symptoms are known to be the manic symptoms while the low end is known as the “hypo” symptoms or the depressive symptoms.

This type of mental disorder is hard to spot because the patient may appear to be going well after an episode of depression. Unknown to people around him, he becomes sunny all of the sudden not because he has overcome depression; it is just that he shifted to mania,

the other symptom of his illness.

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