Manic Depression or Bi-Polar Depression

BI-POLAR DISORDER AND MANIC-DEPRESSION ARE BOTH THE SAME DISEASE __________________________________________________

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THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO ALL WHO HAVE BI-POLAR DISORDER AND ALSO OTHER DEPRESSIONS. MY NAME IS NOEL CUSTER (MALE-BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY) AND I HAVE BEEN DEALING WITH BI-POLAR DISORDER (OR AS WE USED TO CALL IT "MANIC-DEPRESSION"), I SUPPOSE ALL MY LIFE, AND FOR MANY YEARS IT WAS NOT DIAGNOSED. MY FORM IS CALLED "MANIA BI-POLAR OR HIGH SIDE BI-POLAR". MY BROTHER, ALSO BI-POLAR AND I USED TO REFER TO THIS HIGH ON A SCALE OF 1 THRU 10 WITH THE HIGHS GOING SOMETIME OVER THE 10 TO 13 OR 14, WHICH WOULD BE EXTREME MANIA. FOR MANY, THAT WOULD SOUND GREAT RATHER THAN LOW DEPRESSION. BUT HOW ABOUT SO HIGH THAT YOUR BRAIN WOULD BE RACING NINETY MILES AN HOUR. OF COURSE, BEING NOT YET DIAGNOSED, I FOUND OUT EARLY IN LIFE, THAT ALCOHOL WAS A GREAT WAY TO COME DOWN. I WILL TALK MORE ABOUT THAT LATER! Please read more below.
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THANKS TO THE SUGGESTION OF A NICE LADY FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM, I HAVE STARTED A SUPPORT PAGE IN COMMUNITIES MSN:
http://communities.msn.com/manicdepressionandbipolardisordersupportpage
My E-Mail: noel_custer@hotmail.com
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This page also is for support and feed-back by E-Mail or with the Guest Sign-in for those troubled with this disease. Let's hear from you and talk about our lives' problems that this mental disease has caused us. Later, I will write about treatment and medication I have been under and the added problems I had because of HYPERACTIVE THYROID PROBLEMS. This was diagnosed when I was about 29 and the treatment (Iodine Radium Kill) left me with a HYPOACTIVE THYROID. Another interesting thing I have read is that Bi-Polar runs in the same family, and you guessed it-my brother was affected by Bi-Polar till his death a few years ago. We both had drinking problems.
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Let's hear from you soon using the E-Mail address below! Be sure to sign my Guest Sign-in and write a note or anything there (this way everyone can read it).
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DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS A SUPPORT ORGANIZATION FOR PEOPLE LIKE US: NATIONAL DMDA (NATIONAL DEPRESSIVE AND MANIC-DEPRESSIVE ASSOCIATION; THEIR OBJECTIVE BEING: Enriching lives through Education, Advocacy and Support.
Their address is:
730 N. Franklin Street
Suite 501
Chicago, Il. 60610-3526
USA Phone (312) 642-0049
Fax (312) 642-7243
Toll-Free Information Line 1(800)826-3632 (Ask about a local chapter in your area)
I hope that you will look into this, for support from a group can mean success or failure dealing with any illness. Look at the success of AA (Alcholic Anonymous), support for family and friends through Al-Anon, Al-Ateens and many other support groups for overeating, other mental illnesses, and you name it. They all use the same format of the AA that was formed in 1935, so with all the years of success, me being one of them, get involved with a group. Do this even if you have to drive to another close-by city or even form your own group. You will never get well sitting at home just taking medicine and just being with normal people, (not that we are abnormal, but you know what I mean). Association with people with the same problem you have is the idea I'm stressing so hard. Our National DMDA will send out a kit and all kinds of help to you to start a chapter in your town or city. If you feel you can't do it ask your doctor for help of someone who could. Let me say here, that we have not yet completely formed our chapter in Mobile, Alabama, the city where I live, but we are working on it. Up until now the closest city was Pensacola, Fla., some 60 miles from here. Please read below and learn more about this disease, including the technical terms and descriptions. At the end of the section below I will write about my life and how I was affected by three crippling diseases. Bi-Polar Disorder, Alcholism, and Hyper-active and Hypo-active Thyroid disease. Actually we are now talking about a "triple whammy".
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SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION:
1. Prolonged sadness or unexplained crying spells
2. Significant changes in appetite and sleep
patterns
3. Irritability, anger, worry, agitation, anxiety
4. Pessimism, indifference.
5. Loss of energy, persistent lethargy
6. Feelings of guilt, worthlessness
7. Inability to concentrate, indecisiveness
8. Inability to take pleasure in former
interests, social withdrawal
9. Unexplained aches and pains
10. Recurring thoughts of death or suicide
11. If the person or you are an adult or young person and can not settle down to a career choice or can not hold down a job-get help soon, if you have four or more of the above symptoms.
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SYMPTOMS OF MANIA:
1. Heightened mood, exaggerated optimism and
self confidence
2. Decreased need for sleep without experiencing
fatigue
3. Grandiose delusions, inflated sense of self-
importance
4. Excessive irritability, aggressive behavior
5. Increased physical and mental activity
6. Racing speech, flight of ideas, impulsiveness
7. Poor judgement, easily distracted
8. Reckless behavior such as spending sprees,
irratic driving, rash business decisions,
sexual encounters using poor judgement
9. In the most severe cases, hallucination
10. Career choices and holding down jobs are next to impossible as you may what to take over the company or at least think you can or know more than your boss and make bad work decisions.
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ANYONE EXPERIENCING FOUR OR MORE OF THE ABOVE SYMPTOMS OF EITHER OR BOTH DEPRESSION OR MANIA LASTING FOR LONGER THAN TWO WEEKS SHOULD SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP. FAMILY MEMBERS OR LOVED ONES PLEASE HELP SOON AS IN MOMENTS OF SEVERE MANIA OR DEPRESSION THERE IS THE DANGER OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OR SUICIDE.
(Please handle a person with bi-bolar or depression with kid groves and give them love and support because remember a person with this disease is not locked into a mental ward or home except in severe cases and can operate for many years just dealing with this disease and living with it until some major occurance happens in their lives such as a simple job problem, a break of a love life or problems there in, problems in college or career choices, a death of a loved one, or a problem that leads to police or legal matters. Personally, I feel that a person diagnosed with this disease should carry papers with him or is parents have them to keep this person from being locked up for some minor traffic, drug, or alcohol charge until bail is set. Because the shock of this could be enough to set of a episode that could be serious. The person may get into a fight in the jail ward and get himself hurt or hurt someone else. I had a good friend that was probaby an un-diagnosed person that was picked up for checks that he didn't have enough money to cover and at the time was drinking a fifth of whisky a day. He was arrested and went into a rage in the cell block after a fight. They put him in a solitary cell and he killed himself beating his head on the bars. God rest his soul, he was only 34 years of age. I was trying real hard to get him to come to AA meeting when this happened.
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BI-POLAR DISORDER IS DEFINED: A disorder in which the mood alternates beween two extreme poles (elation and depression). Also referred to as Manic-depression.
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MANIC IS DEFINED; Elated, showing excessive excitement.
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RADID FLIGHT OF IDEAS IS DEFINED: Rapid speech and topic changes, characteristic of manic behavior. This will drive a friend or loved absolutely crazy themselves because the talk is un-stopable.
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MAJOR DEPRESSION IS DEFINED: A severe depressive disorder in which the person may show loss of appetite, psychomoter behaviors, and impaired
reality testing.
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PSYCHOMOTOR RETARDATION IS DEFINED: Slowness in motor activity and (apparently) in thought.
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HYPOCHONDRIASIS IS DEFINED: (high-poecon-DRY-uh-sis). Persistent belief that one has a medical disorder despite lack of medical findings.
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THE ABOVE TERMS ARE USED TO DESCRIBE THIS DISEASE
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OVERVIEW OF DEPRESSIVE ILLNESSES AND ITS SYMPTOMS
Depressive and manic depressive illness are the two major types of depressive illness, also known as affective disorders, or mood disorder, because they primarily affect a person's mood. Different terms, respectively, include unipolar and bipolar disorder. You may have heard of other forms of depressive illness usch as dysthymia, a type of chronic moderate depression, or cyclothymia, a form of manic depression in which the cycle (mood swings) are not quite as severe. In this booklet, we will predominately discuss major depression disorder and manic depression, which encompasses symptoms of depression and mania or hyomania, a more moderate syndrome than full-blown mania.
It is estimated that over 17,4 million adults in the U.S. suffer from an affectivce disorder each year-that's one out of every severn people. If you are not affected now, chances are that at some point in your life, you yourself or someone you know will become affected. If you are a woman, you are twice as likely as a man to experience manic depression while m,anic depression occurs equally amonong sexes. Although these illnesses can opccur at any time, many have their onset within the 25--44 age range.
Where do these illnesses come from? Genetic, biochemical and environmental factor can each play a role in developement and progression. While we all experience occasional highs and lows, affective disorders are characterized by these extremes in intensity and durationm. Even at their most intense, the symptoms are often mistaken for other medical problems or dismissed as a reflecton of someone's personality, age social influence or background.
Research indicates that only one-third of those with major depression will get proper treatment, and two-thirds of those with any kind of affective disorder who do receive treatment will be misdiagnosed. These statistics reflect the insidiousness of the illness and the importance of both public and physician educatiuon. A lag in diagnosis and treatment could prove deadly, people with severe, untreated depression have a suicide rate as high as 15 percentage factor, the number one cause of suicide in the U.S. is untreated depression.
Don't be overwhelmed by these sobering statistics. Of all psychiatric illness, affective disorders are among the most responsive to treatment. If given proper care, approximately 80 percent of patients with major depression demonstrated signficant improvement and lead productive lives. Although the treatment success rate is not as high for bi-polar disorder, a substantial number experience a return to a higher quality of life.
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THE CAUSE OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS: IT'S NOT JUST IN YOUR HEAD
Research shows that some people may hbave a genetic predisposition to affective disorders. If someone in your family has had such an illness, that does not necessarily m,ean you will develope it, nor does it explain concllusively why you did. It does increase your chances of experiencing depression of an endogenous nature (biological involement basis). This is commonly referred to as clinical depression to distinguish it from short-term states of depressions of mood or unhappiness. Even if you don't have a genetic predisposition, your body chemistry can trigger the onset of a depressive disorder, due to the presence of another illness, altered health habits, substance abuse, or hormonal fluctuations.
Depression can also be triggered by distressing life events, resulting in reactive depression. Losses and repeat disillusionment, from death to disappointment in love, can cause anyone to feel depressed, especially if they have not developed effective coping skills. If these symptoms pesist for more than two weeks, maintaining or increase in intensity, this reactive depression may actually have evolved into a clinical depression.
Regardless of its cause, the presence of depressive or manic-depressive illness indicates an imbalance in the brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. In other words, the brains's electrical mood-regulating system is not working as it should. Proper treatment will vastly improve your level of functioning and can usually restore you to your "old self." Many people require long-term, evn life-long, maintenance treatment which significantly decreases the likelihood of recurrences
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MOOD DISORDERS are disorders characterized by disturbance in expressed emotions. The disruption generally of depression or elation. Most instances of depression are normal, or "run-of-the-mill". If you have failed an important test, if a business investment has been lost, or if your closest friend becomes ill, it is understandable and fitting for you to be depressed about it. It would be odd, in fact, if you were not affected by adversity.
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TRUTH OR FICTION REVISITED. It is not abnormal to feel depressed. It is normal--indeed, it is psychologically appropriate--for one to feel depressed when one's situation is depressing. As with anxiety disorders, feelings of depression are considered abnormal when they are magnified beyond one's circumstances or when there is no apparent reason for them.
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TYPES OF MOOD DISORDERS. In this section, we discuss two mood disorders: Major Depression and Bi-Polar.
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MAJOR DEPRESSION. Depression is the "common cold" of psychological problems, perhaps affecting upward of 10% of us at any given time (Alloy and other, 1990) People with run-of-the-mill depression may feel sad, blue, or "down in the dumps". They may complain of lack of energy, loss of interest in other people and usually enjoyable activities, pessimism, crying, and thoughts of suicide. These feelings tend to be more intense among people with major depression. People with major depression may also show poor appetite and serious weight loss, agitation or psychomotor retardation, inability to concentrate and make decisions, complaints of "not caring" anymore, and suicide attempts.
Persons with major depression may also show faulty
perception of reality--so called psychotic behaviors. Psychotic behaviors include imagined wrongdoings, even ideas that one is rotting in disease. There may also be hallucinations such as the Devil administering just punishment or of strange bodily sensations.
__________________________________________________BI-POLAR DISORDER. In BI-POLAR DISORDER, formerly known as MANIC-DEPRESSION,there are mood swings from elation to depression. These cycles seem to be unrelated to external events. In the elated, or manic phase, people may show excessive excitement or silliness, carrying jokes too far. They may show poor judgement, sometimes destroying property, and be argumentative. People may avoid them, finding them abrasive. Manic people often speak rapidly ("pressured speech")and jump from topic to topic, showing rapid flight of ideas. It is hard to get a word in edgewise. They may make extremely large contributions to charity or give away expensive possessions. They may appear to be big spenders, often not having the resources to back the spending. They may not be able to sit still or to sleep restfully. Depression is the other side of the coin. People with bi-polar depression often sleep more than usual and are lethargic. People with major (or unipolar) depression are more likely to have insomnia, also exhibit social withdrawal and irritability. Some people with bi-polar disorder attempt suicide on the way down from elated phase. They will do almost anything to escape the depths of depression that lie ahead.
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THEORETICAL VIEWS: Depression is an appropriate reaction to losses and unpleasant events. Problems such as marital discord, physical discomfort, incompetence, and failure or pressure at work all contribute to feelings of depression. We tend to be more depressed by things we bring upon ourselves, such as academic problems, finanical problems, unwanted pregnancy, conflict with the law, arguments, and fights (Hammen & Mayol, 1982; Simons and others, 1993). Employed mothers are frequently depressed by the difficulty of finding adequate child care (Ross 1993). Many people recover from depression less readily than orders, however. People who remain depressed have lower self-esteem(aAndrews & Brown, 1993), are less likely to be able to solve social problems (Marx and others, 1992; Nezu and Ronan, 1985), and have less social support (Asarnow and others, 1987; Pagel and Becker, 1987). Women are more likely than men to be diagnosed with depression especially single mothers that have lower socioeconomic status than men in our society and that depression and other psychological disorders have traditionally been more common among poor people. Capable,
hard-working women are likely to become depressed when they see how society limits their opportunities (Rothbart & Ahadi, 1994).
PSYCHODYNAMIC VIEWS. Pyschoanalysts suggest various explantions for depression. In one, people at risk for depression are overly concerned about hurting others' feelings or losing their approval. As a result, they hold in rather than express feelings of anger. Anger becomes turned inward and is experienced as misery and self-hatred. From the psychodynamic perspective, bi-polar disorder may be seen as alternating dominance for the personality by the superego and the ego. In the depressive phase of the disorder, the superego dominates, flooding the individual with exaggerated ideas of wrongdoing and associated feelings of guilt and worthlessness. After a while. the ego defends itself by rebounding and asserting supremacy, accounting for the elation and self-confidence that in part characterize the manic phase. Later, in response to the excessive display of ego, feelings of guilt return, again plunging the person into depression.
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Now I will talk a little about the Medications that I have taken: When I first believe that this disease took hold of me as when I was mabe 32 and I believe it had something to do with my trouble that I had with Hyper-Active Thyoride disease because when so first started occuring I was so nervious and felt out of control, I used to describe the feeling like this: I could hold my hand out and I could hold it still, but I told the Doctor that my inside was shaking all in my stomach. I was so nervious that he put me on 25 mg of Thorizine 4 times a day to calm me down. I started loosing weight and I mean fast and in the hospital I had all types of test them thinking that I had cancer or dibeties. By the was with the Thorizine you would think that I would be a zombie as this is what they give mental patients when they act up on the ward. After having three or four diabeties test and almost a week later they finially did a head scan and showed the over active thyroid and this is when they started giving me a drug called Leverothyroxin to help control my thyroid till they could operate or do as I had the Radium-Idione kill to the thyroid. Of course the kill left me Hypo-Active (under-active) and I have to have a blood test every six months to check the level. By the way, I have pitures that after this all occured I went down from normal weight of around l75 or 180 to l25 and I looked like a refugee. Gradually the medicine and time bought me back to my "old self". There were many times that I had these same feeling that I described above and as I learlned the best way to come ddown from the high was to drink two, three or more beers or a few shot of whisky and then I sometimes didn't know how to stop and then I found that I was a full blown alcoholic and I guess the first time that I really had trouble out of drinking (no DUI or time missed from work--although I'm sure my performance was affected) was my marriage was seriously in trouble from my late drinking hours and their were the other women that came to my life because of the drinking. This is when at age 35 or 36, I first went to an AA meeting, but the reason that I went was to get back in the house as I had been out most of the week-end. At that time in my life this was my second marriage and I had married a high school friend, that had a 7 year old son that I later addopted, and we had 2 sons. I said that I went to AA to get back in the house as she had given me a choice, do something about your drinking or we are history. I brought a member home with me to prove that I was sincere. My first marriage was to a girl that I met while in the Marines and we had two girls and lived together for 4 or 5 years. Lets see now that I think about it that marriage ended by my getting in trouble with checks ,overdrafts and her finding out about a girl that I was seeing in another State, while traveling with my work. I was drinking and partying then, I just try to block the memory out. These were the days that I know for sure that I was having much trouble with manic-depression and trying hard to control it with alcohol knowing that it would been me down from the high.
Manic-Depressive Illness In Teens
Teenagers with manic-depressive illness have an ongoing combination of extremely high (manic) and low (depressed) moods. Highs may alternate with lows, or the person may feel both extremes at close to the same time. Professionals also refer to manic-deppressive illness as bi-polar mood disorder.
Manic-depressive illness usually stasdrts in adult life, before the age of 35. Although rare in young children, it does occur in teenagers. This illness can affect anyone. However, if one or both parents have manic-depressive illness, the chances are greater that their children will develop the disorder.
Manic-depressive illness may begin either with manic or depressive symptoms.
The manic symptoms include:
.severe changes in mood compared to others of the same age and background-either unusually happy or silly, or very irritable;
.unrealistic highs in self-esteem-forexample, a teenager who feels specially connected to God;
.great energy increase and the ability to go with little or no sleep for days without feeling tired;
.increased talking-the adolescent talks too much, too fast, changes topic too quickly, and cannot be interrupted (flight of ideas);
.distractibility-the teen's attention moves constantly from one thing to next;
.high risk-taking behavior, such as jumping off a roof with the belief that this will not cause injury.
The depressive symptoms include:
.persistent sadness, frequent crying, depression;
.loss of enjoyment in favorite activities;
.frequent complaints of physical illnesses such as headaches or stomach aches;
.low energy level, poor concentration, complaints of boredom; and
.major change in eating or sleeping patterns, such as oversleeping or overeating.
Some of these signs are similar to those that occur in teenagers with other problems such as drug abuse, delinquency, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or even schizophrenia. The diagnosis can only be made with careful observation over an extended period of time. A thorough evaluation by a child and adolescent psychiatrist can be helpful in identifying the problems, of manic-depressive or other, and starting specific treatment.
Teenagers with manic-depressive illness can be effectively treated. Effective treatment for manic-depressive illness usually includes education of the patient and the family about the illness, medication such as lithium, and psychotherapy. Lithium often reduces the number of manic episodes, and also helps to prevent depression. Psycotherapy helps the teenager understand himself or herself and improve relationships.

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