Does having a mood change (happy to angry as an example) make a person bipolar? I was told by a co-worker that he believes this is the case and that he heard from a therapist that everyone is bipolar to some extent.
Well being diagnosed bipolar i assure you it is a normal thing to go from angry to happy or happy to angry at times. I think from my pov that when somebody is having a bad day and isnt in the best of moods or if something upset someone people are quick to throw that bipolar label on ppl and its so ridiculous!!! I cant speak for anybody but myself and bipolar to me is the extreme highs and lows. For example the depression is so bad that i dont leave my house for days, i dont eat and all i want to do is sleep, it takes me to this very dark miserable place and i shut everybody out of my life that i love because i just want to be alone! Then there is the mania part where you feel like you can do absolutely ANYTHING and its ok because its YOU and dont ppl kno who you are?? You feel like you run the world and are the most important person on the planet and you have these wonderful ideas of doing great things and making a difference in the world all by yourself but none of your ideas are even close to reality but you feel like you can do any and everything! Go out an spend money like ur rich and worry abt the bill that was supposed to be paid later , its as though you got it all figured out and nobody can tell u different! For me i always got hyper sexual and would have sex with random men just because i can my thought process at that time is very damaged to say the least but for some reason its part of being bipolar, then when your coming down from that “mania high” and your looking at life more realistic you look back on things you did while manic and feel like a piece of shit! Its like being a completely different person when ur manic and frankly its pretty scarey!! Thank god for medication that has stopped those episodes from happening an am finally have your feet planted so you have some feelings of stability and dont worry as much as to when the next mania episode will hit and what crazy absurd things you will end up repeating! Bipolar is far more complex then just switching moods from happy to upset or visa versa, i also do not believe everybody is bipolar to some extent, thats just my opinion and my experience being bipolar…..
How do you cope with psychosis?
Antipsychotics.There is no other answer to this question.Psychosis by definition implies a break from reality. And delusion, which is a major part of psychosis, is defined as “in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, you continue to hold that false belief to be true.”Therefore talking a patient out of psychosis is nearly impossible.Antipsychotics work very well.Sometimes when I get consulted, I get frustrated when the patients are clearly psychotic but the primary care physicians are not willing to call it. instead the patients get loaded up on all sorts of benzo’s such as Xanax, Klonipin, Ativan, Valium, etc. And trust me, benzo’s don’t work for psychosis.So I get these consultations about patients coming in with “anxiety” and within 5–10 minutes I already know it is psychosis and the solution is Risperdal, Zyprexa, Abilify, etc.If you get on the right antipsychotic at the right dose, within 3–4 days you should feel a lot better.I understand that primary care docs are not comfortable with antipsychotics but if the patient is clearly psychotic (“not anxious”), low dose Risperdal or Abilify or Zyprexa can at least be started until the patients arrive at the psychiatrist’s office.