I chose to research bipolar disorder because it's a very odd and yet intriguing disorder. It's really mind boggling to find a person who at one second is calm and controlled and the next second is in a totally different mood. Mood swings are understandable but these swings go up and beyond the limits that any person would consider normal. I have friends that have mood swings but they don't go to the extremes of the spectrum in a matter of seconds. They might tend to get angry at little things and their whole mood might become defensive at little annoyances, but they"ll never go from a state of tremendous anger to a state of depression and despair in a very short period of time. I also chose this topic because of the biological basis. As a biology major I"m very interested in different alternatives to treating such a disorder or even if to consider this as such.
Bipolar disorder is characterized by both serious types of mania and depression. In the manic episode the person is overly hyperactive, "high" and irritable, and wildly optimistic. In the depression mood state the person is sad and hopeless. At other times the person is in his/her normal mood state and he/she is just acting like any normal person. The different from normal mood states of bipolar disorder can be severe and life threatening. The manic episode causes the person to become overly confident in themselves. This clearly can cause serious problems. For example, a person might spend all their money at any sporadic moment just because they have the urge to buy. But the view of bipolar disorder over the years has been tainted by false assumptions. Because there are many artists, musicians and writers who have suffered from bipolar disorder many think that the disorder is in some way beneficial for artistic creativity. The exact opposite is true to those who have the disorder. To them it is extremely stressful and troublesome.