Mental Help Net

Perspectives - Vol. 4, No. 1 - A Few Thoughts on Manic Depression

Margaret C. Rigsby Updated: Dec 1st 1998

You may call this an essay. You may call this a rant or even an article. Whatever you call it, all that I ask is that you try to keep an open mind.

I would like to give you a few facts that you may or may not know:

Manic depressive disorder, more recently known as bipolar disorder is according to the American Psychiatric Association, known as the most distinct and dramatic of the depressive or affective disorders.
This disorder usually strikes both men and women equally before the age of thirty-five.
One in one-hundred people will suffer from manic depressive disorder at sometime in their life. Scary thought, isnt it? Perhaps not if you dont know the symptoms. Briefly, it is a condition caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain which produces severe mood swings with cycles of normal to mania to depression.

(To review in greater detail more symptoms of this disorder, please visit this site: Joy Ikelman's Info on Bipolar Disorder.)

Theories and facts about causes:

Genetic backgrounds much like heart disease
Close relatives are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop depression or manic depression than the general population.
80 to 90 % have relatives who suffer from some form of depression.
If one parent has manic depression their child has a 12 to 15% risk of having a depressive disorder.
If both parents have the disorder this increases their childs risk to 25%!.
There are other studies which indicate that environmental factors probably contribute to or at least aggravate the disorder.
Still other studies suggests the imbalance in biochemistry often responding to certain hormones or steroids which indicate irregularities in hormone production and release.
Neurotransmitters, which are chemicals transmitting communication between brain cells, become imbalanced.
More studies suggest dream patterns in which the dream phase begins earlier than what is deemed normal.

Mental Illnesses are probably the most misdiagnosed of all illnesses because so little is known about the brain. If you think you or someone you care about suffers from bipolar disorder the first thing that should be done is that your general physician should give you a thorough physical examination to rule-out any other illnesses which could mimic bipolar disorder. These illnesses may include reactions to amphetamines or steroids, or may be liver disease, kidney disease, thyroid disease or even Multiple Sclerosis.

Among the Affective Disorders it is believed that bipolar disorder is one of the most treatable. Lithium is the drug of choice for treatment. There are now, however, many new drugs with less side effects on the market. The 90s was proclaimed "The Decade of the Brain" by the National Institute of Mental Health and many other mental health organizations. Only through anatomical donations and new breakthroughs with organ imaging procedures such as MRIs and PET scans has the brain been able to be studied.

Although bipolar disorder is said to be very treatable, often this disorder is combined with other illnesses such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficient Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, jsut to name a few. In these cases treatment is often a long process of trial and error. Just ask me, for twenty some-odd years I have been battling the demons in my head, which gets me to the crust of the title of this essay. Did you think it a ploy to draw you in?

I just got sicker and sicker until I could no longer think or concentrate even after I had just been given a promotion.

A few years ago there was a coworker who came to work one day and did not come back the next. Instead, he went home and put a bullet through his heart. I was not particularly close to him though I had known him for about thirteen years. I would hear people in the halls saying cruel and inexcusable things about him which angered me. Had he had a heart attack he would have been pitied.

I had always written articles for the company or the union paper and so I decided to write one about Mental Illness, the stigma, where you could get help, what to do if you suspected someone was going to commit suicide and most importantly, I came out of the closet with my own Mental Illnesses.

I was surprised in two ways; One: that I received calls from people I did not even know from all over the plant expressing their gratefulness at what I had done and even that it had helped some people. Two: I became the target for ridicule and backbiting and was even shunned by my own coworkers.

I weakened daily from the stress of the job, the people and a marriage gone very bad. I just got sicker and sicker until I could no longer think or concentrate even after I had just been given a promotion. It became inevitable that I would be taken off of my job by my psychiatrist. But that is just a little bit of my own personal history, I also raised two sons alone without help. I can attest to the part of the theory that "stress" has an effect on Mental Illness.

It doesnt have to happen to you! With proper diagnosis in the early stages, the newer medications, there is more hope now than ever before. That is why I am writing this, for you. At the end of this article I will leave you addresses, URLs and any other information I think will be useful to you.

Last statement, the reason I get mad as hell, is because people do not understand that this is a real medical illness, not an emotional one. When I hear pull yourself together, and other terms like that, I see red. I know how strong I am. If I were not strong, you would not be reading this now. Until my last breath I will fight for parity with the insurance companies, I will fight stigma against we who suffer.