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Bipolar Disorder

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Bipolar Disorder

PSY350: Physiological Psychology
Instructor: Claire Decristofaro

January 19, 2016

I have chosen to research and discuss Bipolar Disorder as my younger brother (31) wsa diagnosed with BD nearly ten years ago after an injury to the head. After he was diagnosed with BD, I began to put together his behavior over our life, and realized that the symptoms that my brother exhibited matched with BD. As far as I was aware, no one in our family had ever been diagnosed with Bipolar other than my brother, so I decided to reach out to my Aunt and found that we do have other family members that have this disorder as well. My Aunt’s brother and her daughter Nycol were diagnosed with BD; it appears that BD runs in our family and is genetic.

Bipolar Disorder (BD) is classified as a mood disorder; however it can also be classified as a psychotic disorder because Bipolar Disorder has psychotic symptoms (Wilson, 2013). Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes a person to experience unusual shifts in mood, activity levels, and energy; this affects a person's ability to carry out normal, everyday tasks (nimh.nih.gov). A person diagnosed with BD experiences extreme highs and lows. During a mania phase, known as a high, a person goes through many different emotions and may experience (help.org):

- Feelings of heightened energy

- Hyperactivity

- Require little sleep

- Creativity

- Euphoria

In a manic phase, a person can spin out of control by making impulsive and reckless choices that affect every aspect of their lives. A person experiencing mania may make rash and impulsive financial choices, impaired judgment and impulsiveness and unrealistic beliefs about their abilities.

The other side of a mania mood change is a depressive mood change; in this depressive

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