What is Bipolar Disorder (manic depression)?

Bipolar Disorder is basically a mood disorder involving extreme swings of mood from depression to mania, (lows and highs). We can think of 'mood' as how we are feeling at any given point (happy, sad, frustrated, optimistic, etc ). It has been described as our 'emotional temperature'. Generally, we feel a particular way because of what is happening in our lives at that time. With mood disorders, however, mood becomes disconnected from our environment and appears to be outside of our direct control. With bipolar there is a problem around the regulation of mood. The brain mechanisms that normally regulate mood do not always function as they should. Of course, there can also be long periods of stability when we feel as we did prior to the onset of bipolar. During these times our emotions are within the usual range of experiences that anyone could identify with. Similarly, our behaviour also returns to that which friends recognize as reflecting our 'usual self'. Having said that, however, ...