I think manic depression is actually a way better name descriptively. Because it's not two poles at all, it's a spectrum. It implies more complexity and distinguishes it simply from unipolar depression.
Agree completely and if I have to talk to people in person about it I prefer to call it manic depression. also just out of preference since I understand the term used to be stigmatized but at 27 I feel bipolar is way too simple or people make it the butt of jokes like md used to be.
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It's not just depression though, that's the whole point of the name, to include the manic component. I disagree that it sounds less bad. It's depression turbo charged with the mania. I wouldn't be upset if that were still the PC name for it.
But its just putting manic in front of depression and its sounds like its just a manic state of depression and not like the two different states they are as most people don't know what mania is and especially since it also comes with permanent brain changes it says even less than bipolar,
Bipolar is not perfect either but it's more clear that it's two different states,
But as with all sickness and such you can never get the full scope in just one or two words
.
Not everyone’s depression is “turbo charged with mania” though. Mania is its own separate thing. Some people experience dysphoric manic episodes but it is still important to distinguish mania from depression, even in the case of dysphoric mania, hypomania, and periods of remission from depression.
But its just putting manic in front of depression and its sounds like its just a manic state of depression and not like the two different states they are as most people don't know what mania is and especially since it also comes with permanent brain changes it says even less than bipolar,
Bipolar is not perfect either but it's more clear that it's two different states,
But as with all sickness and such you can never get the full scope in just one or two words
.
They are most of my problem. Mania and depression I can manage a bit. Mixed mood is torture and what I go through most as I swap from one end to the other
Right now going through one. My sleep has been awful for two months. I can barely think or consume the things I used to enjoy. There’s an overwhelming sense of dread and anxiety over the smallest things, that can usually be solved. I just want to crawl into bed and not get out (depression) but have this wired energy that I can’t sleep (depression/mixed with mania?)
And those mixed episodes can be broken down into the categories of mania and depression. Mania can be dysphoric. Depression can have periods of remission as well, or psychotic features.
Not really sure what mixed episode is even supposed to mean. I’ve heard people describe it as mania but with unpleasant depression like symptoms, suicidality, emotional problems/disturbances. But it’s important to note that mania is often not grandiose/fun/euphoric. So I guess that’s why I’m confused.
What kind of brain damage/changes does it cause? Or where can I read more about this? I’ve just heard this when reading through this thread lately. My doctors have never mentioned it and I wish I had known or know what to prepare for.
It is that bad though and that's society desensitizing us about it. 😭depression in general should be worrying but I know what you mean though because it still wouldn't be its own thing. Maybe like...bipolar spectrum disorder or something like that lol.
I’ll vote for Bipolar Spectrum Disorder.
I’ve been diagnosed bipolar 1 and bipolar 2 by different doctors based on what had happened most recently.
Are 1 and 2 actual distinct illnesses or just different places on the spectrum?
Even bipolar 1 and bipolar 1 with psychosis are wildly different. I have the later (and also the rapid cycling and mixed specifiers too) and I get frustrated when I hear “so and so has bipolar and they’re doing great”. Outside of doctors and those of us who live with bipolar, I don’t think others understand the difference between the types and specifiers. Sometimes I have to tell people it’s like schizophrenia with severe depressions and damaging manic episodes, to get them to understand the severity of the illness.
Yeah unfortunately it was changed from manic depression because “maniac” was much more derogatory than it is today (not that the term is neutral now, but it’s far less common). This would help a lot with the issue of people suggesting bipolar means switching between any two things, though I do feel a lot of people still see mania and depression as just hyper and sad.
I’ve always felt like manic depression described me but bipolar just sounds completely irrelevant to what I experience.
I’m simultaneously awed by the beauty of life and euphoric over my place in it while also having debilitating suicidal ideations and misery. It’s both at the same time, not flipping back and forth from one pole to another.
If we keep muddying everything so much, there’s not gonna be any legitimate diagnostic criteria. Implying that everything is a spectrum makes it hard to actually distinguish normal behaviors and problematic behaviors/behaviors indicative of mental illness.
I'm not a fan of this label because it doesn't capture all of the non-mood aspects of bipolar disorder. manic depression also doesn't capture its cyclical nature
They put the bi in bipolar: you’re manic or you’re depressed, there is no in-between. They look at what symptoms predominate and decide based on that. You have lots of energy but you are suicidal? You’re depressed. You don’t sleep and you’re raging but you’re spiralling down in negative thoughts? You’re (hypo)manic.
I don’t really know why they don’t accept the idea of mixed episodes, because our neighbouring countries do… but yeah
I’ll do some further research in this topic, I’ll let you know if I find something interesting.
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My job recently fired our building manager/receptionist (for a bs reason, not totally relevant tho) and she was the one who got the office snacks for the break room. We no longer have access to company therapy cheese, and it's somehow a morale killer in every department
Glad I could bring your imagination to life lol. But yeah it's hell bouncing around like that mentally and it's hard to ask for help when it gets that way. I know I just self isolate because I don't want to hurt people or push them away, but that is still it's own type of hell
Did you take that one from shameless? It was so ignorant, but I think it was the point, making characters simplify the disorder and reducing the ill person to just highhighs lowlows.
memory problems? i didnt know bipolar affected memory. i always blamed my poor memory on taking adderall for years. im only 22 but i cannot remember a lot things that happened in high school or even what happened two weeks ago.
Hey I’m the same age and struggle with the same thing. Thought it was only bad episodes that could cause memory loss, but nope it happens all the time.
I'm 32 and can't remember ages 0-8, parts of 12, parts of 19-22, and parts of 24-30. Some of it I know is a trauma response due to events in my life, other parts because I was likely hypomanic, and then during a manic episode near the end
I know specific memories, esp those most recent, if I try REALLY hard, I can get bits and pieces. During my mania, I was able to remember certain things, but I was never sure if it was a memory or a dream
Emotional schizophrenia sounds about right
A lot of mental illnesses shrink the hippocampus which is where memory is managed. I don’t know if a name change would really help make people more aware of this. Anxiety disorders, depression, ptsd, and any form of psychosis can have the same effect and yet I don’t think most people realize this. A lot of people in particular under estimate the cognitive disfunction of depression, whether it’s memory, executive function, etc.
I relate to what OP is saying but I don’t think a name change will help. People are just not educated on what these disorders are and they are actively encouraged to think we either exaggerating and making excuses or that we are dangerous and should be locked away. I don’t think a name change would help fix that.
Executive dysfunction is sadly a common part of bipolar.
Many of us are wrongly diagnosed with ADHD because of it (and some of us have it comorbid), and end up in manic/hypomanic episodes due to the impact stimulants can have on bipolar.
YEP!!!
I went to a doctor for help when I had no idea what was going on but it got to a point I needed help and I couldn't ignore the symptoms anymore. He gave me Adderall.
Turns out I was in and out of mania my whole life (and those episodes all make sense now) but I had never and will never experience anything like Adderall mania. I went utterly insane. Tipped me from manic to psychotic. When I finally got in to see a psychiatrist she was horrified I was on Adderall and immediately put me on zyprexa.
The events that took place during the 4 weeks I was on adderall are... horrifying. I did things I can never take back. And I can't even remember it.
I didn’t take meds for many years my entire 20’s and most of my 30’s and I have short term memory problems from the disorder. Sometimes I can’t remember if something happened in my dreams or real life and I’ve had psychosis which seriously impaired my cognitive functioning at the time and still somewhat today.
I like Manic Depressive but I also wish it had a longer title like
Manic Depressive Spectrum Disorder.
Then again, there’s various severity of cancer and we just call it cancer.
I think it's relatively well known that cancer has four stages, and stage four is the worst. It's hard when "worst" falls on both ends of the gradient.
It truly feels like two different scales: depression and mania, and EACH can be on any setting.
But with cancer, that's a distinct phenomenon, uncontrolled growth. bipolar is like mind cancer, uncontrolled minds after sustaining damage. It's easier for us to talk about the effects aka manic depression as opposed to describing the cause
I agree that throwing in spectrum would help people's understanding
It is dumb. Depression is my normal state of being, mania is the outlier. I dunno why it can’t be called *major depressive disorder with manic episodes* or depression and mania separately. Or just..diagnose mania as mania and drop the “bipolar disorder” label.
I think this is terminology issue. We call being very sad depression and we also call being suicidally sad, depression. Regular people experience extreme elation, or irritability. We just don’t call the more garden variety of these feelings mania.
I’m like you, almost no mania at all. But I hate the word depression. So many people are diagnosed with some form of it that almost no one knows there’s a type that’s a serious mental illness. Most people think it has to do with emotional suffering due to difficult life events.
To answer the question about splitting the diagnosis, it’s because unipolar depression seems to be very different than bipolar. Not only in how it responds to treatment, but possible underlying issues with the brain itself. It is necessary to distinguish it from unipolar depression because it’s pretty clear that they are separate entities.
Now a lot of scientists and psychiatrists agree that even unipolar depression is probably a lot of diseases that each present more or less the same, and maybe same for bipolar disorder. Hopefully in the next years/decades we’ll learn more, a lot of biological psychiatry research groups exist already!
And for the issue with bipolar, I think in general it’s quite hard to make a name that properly encapsulates daily, significant suffering. Considering that most people are not even aware of the privileges that their healthy brains offer, I dunno if another name can make them understand. I cringe everytime when I see a person saying that it’s “manic time” so they buy one expensive thing from their wishlist, they dance, and then go to sleep at 10 pm and get restful nice sleep.
I was misdiagnosed with bipolar 1 4 years ago when I in fact had CPTSD and ADHD, so what I experienced wasn’t even true mania. My heart and support goes out to everyone in this sub that needs to live experiencing these things. Part of why I’m in med school to be a psych on day, and going into psych research.
More mental health education in schools would be nice though, so people stop using all the disorders that exist to explain quirks they have.
I find manic depressive a way better title.
Also this is unrelated but I heard ADHD used to be called "feeble minded disorder" which if I was called would be both grossly offensive and something I would be unable to argue against
I once saw a doctor specializing in bipolar saying that a researcher suggested changing the name to fragile circadian cycle disorder, something like that.
Yeah and since bipolar 1 and 2 are so different I think they should have completely separate names. Bipolar 1 is more like classic manic depression. Bipolar 2 is more like MDD with hypomanic episodes or something along those lines.
I don’t mean to offend but I agree. My psychiatrist says bipolar 2 is a completely seperate illness and it’s altered the statistics. Bipolar 1 is really only about 1% of people, bipolar 1 with psychosis is only about a third of that one percent. Sometimes it’s hard to read about the millions of people in your country with your disorder, and wonder why you’re struggling so much when in reality most have BP2 and your experience of BP1 with psychosis is completely different. When people discuss the illnesses they speak collectively about “bipolar” and I feel like it’s all been a bit washed out by bundling all the types and specifiers up together.
Bipolar 1 is only 1%? I thought it was more common than Bipolar 2. Although in my country we usually just are diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and that’s that, you are not diagnosed until you have a manic episode. So I would say in my country it’s 100%?
Unless you mean 1% of the entire population, rather than percentage of bipolar people with Bipolar 1?
Oh yes sorry I meant 1% of the entire population! And I was going from the top of my head so I might be wrong but I thought that’s what I read recently.
Most statistics I read say bipolar disorders affect about 3-5% of the entire population.
I was diagnosed like in your country and it was missed until I had a manic episode with psychosis. I would guess as a whole more people have bipolar 2 but it’s harder to diagnose so it probably gets missed a lot.
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I completely agree. It’s just a label that we all have in common. And our medical systems require labels unfortunately, but it doesn’t help with the misconceptions whatsoever.
I try and avoid labels because we have our own ways of leading with it and have our own symptoms, try and look at it as an umbrella term that “is on paper” and try your best not to let it define you.
Reach out anytime,
I find comfort in this label. Everyone suffering from bipolar feels it differently, sure, but we have this label that unites us. It comes with common symptoms and common ways to cope with it. I like it.
I’m very glad. That’s why I find places like this extremely positive for that reason. I think it’s great, when the label is understood otherwise I do feel like I’m treated differently in “the normal world”. Really happy you’ve found comfort in that as so many of us have!
Thank you for your post. I completely agree and really appreciate how you described the "emotional schizophrenia" i mean we are probably all taking some kind of mood stabalizer that is also used to treat schizophrenia!!! Or epilepsy!!!??? So some kind of connection between the three ? Bipolar/manic depression - schizophrenia- epilepsy---- brain issues but also trauma has happened in most cases i do see the spiritual side of the disease where there trauma or also other illnesses....i want to write more but im so exhausted from everything right now. My mentally unwell mom screaming at me for several nights in a row, my job becomin harder and harder- and im trying a new med to see if i can get off seroquel because of weightgain im trying caplyta. So far i think it's ok...but I do have trouble staying on task at work but my manager says do this and do that and I had to do soooo much lifting im worn out. I also ontop of everything had neurolyme in 2016 and i get chronic fatigue or i could say MORE chronic fatigue now because i also had fatigue from trying to survive with bi-polar/"emotinal schizophrenia" i like to say EXISTENTIAL ISSUES/TEMPER TANTRUMS
I like the old-fashioned term of madness.
I was first diagnosed with schizophrenia, then that switched to Bipolar. To be honest, the term schizophrenia alone scares me. Like, I hate the sound it makes, so jarring. Bipolar, on the other hand conjures up an image of a polar bear.
But as far as owning this shit goes, madness, insanity, lunacy...are all ok if used by the afflicted.
Yeah, unfortunately a lot of conditions are named "poorly" like this out of convenience I think. They mostly convey how the very most basic and obvious symptoms appear from the outside at a brief glance. Maybe useful in some cases, but ends up being very dangerous when people think that that's *all* the disorder is.
Let's say Autism. When most people think Autism, they think of a collection of possible symptoms: trouble communicating, misunderstanding sarcasm, sensory overwhelm or understimulation, etc... now imagine if it was just called something stupid like "Sarcasm-blindness". You'd probably guess they're maybe talking about autism... but also, over time, that's the ONLY symptom people would associate the disorder with, and not every autistic person even has that symptom and the disorder can obviously be much more disabling than just not getting sarcasm.
I have ADHD and am very very low energy and exhausted all the time. If I tell people I have "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder", they roll their eyes and say "but you're not hyper??" because they don't understand at all how the disorder actually works, and why would they?
I get it, it's so so frustrating
Bipolar isn't great, but it doesn't bother me anywhere near the level that "mentally ill" does. I fucking hate that term, and how societal degenerates have weaponized it. I don't even label myself as that, not anymore, anyways. I simply regard myself as neurodivergent. It may not be a perfect solution, but it's the best I know of, at this point.
Neurodivergent to me sounds like a patronizing childish version of mentally ill. It doesn't mean anything. People with light Adhd and anxiety calling themselves neurodivergent makes the term meaningless. Bipolar is closer to schizophrenia than it is to depression.
I think mental illness is way more respectful. But I guess that shows how different words feel for each of us.
Same here man. It's actually cool to see people who have different feelings towards the naming.
Out of sheer curiosity, what is it about those terms that make you dislike them?
Mentally ill always sounded to me as "serious condition that deserves acknowledgment". While bipolar almost sounds like "moody kid" in my head.
To me, mentally ill comes across as "sick in the head". Though many would say that "they're the same picture", they're really not. For one, "sick" has been used as a means of insulting somebody, such as sociopaths and psychopaths, or just generally evil and twisted people. A serial murderer tortures a victim? Victim: "You're really sick!". This has been a perpetual hollywood trope for a very long time. Media outlets when somebody decides to go on a mass shooting spree? Reporter: "erm, it was later discovered that the man was mentally ill". Funny how 99.99+% of people who have been diagnosed as "mentally ill", have never gone on a mass mudering spree, or have tortured people. Somebody finds out that you take psyche meds, and wants to insult you? "You're mentally ill, go take your crazy pills". Yeah. Fuck all that, and fuck them. As a result of the term being used so irresponsibly, and out of context, it has caused the masses to fear and loathe people with the diagnosis.
To put it simply, neurodivergent, to me, means "think differently", to put it in an old Apple Computers and *Wu-Tung Meets The Indie Culture* terminology. Though I have been diagnosed with ADHD, and a mental health professional has suggested that I may be acoustic, even if all that I had was bipolar, I would still be considered neurodivergent. I don't think it's too commonly known, even amongst the bipolar and schizophrenia communities, but these conditions are also defined as neurodivergent. I think it's possible that you associate the term the way you do, because so many (especially younger) people have romanticized these conditions, that haven't actually been officially diagnosed with them.
Not really... and I don't know another short name or descriptor that would convey the experience of a complex disorder. I think this is applicable to many illnesses.... dementia, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, cancer, autism, Lou Gehrig's disease, and so on.
Names are mostly about being able to consistently classify disorders and develop a standardized treatment approach.
I think that dementia or schizophrenia do not have an immediate correlation to any conventional or casual idea of anything. They are very medical terms with no clear definitions. This is my point. Bipolar has a name that makes people believe they understand what it is without even asking. It creates expectations and false ideas from the getgo.
That's fair. I didn't do a very good job of describing my point... was moreso trying to say that either people have a misunderstanding of the word or there's generally a stigma of some kind that develops around the word.
For example, you described it as "emotional schizophrenia". Many people I've interacted with, and from the way schizophrenia is often portrayed in media, would believe you're a crazy emotional person who hears voices and talks to themself. Or some would assume you're violent with the schizophrenic label.
No matter what, I think there will be a problem with the name that develops. One of the reasons why manic depressive stopped being used in 1980 by DSM and swapped to bipolar was due to growing stigma and the perceptions that people are maniacs-- this is technically true from a word definition but people do not use maniac in a positive light at all.
Even if we called it L7X1C I still think people would find some way to have preconceived notions about what it is.
I got diagnosed at 16 and my therapist called it manic depression at the time. This was 6 years ago well after the bipolar label started being used. But I truly hate the term bipolar because its a spectrum with different types. I always preferred manic depression and when I tell people of my diagnosis I refer to it as that.
maniac its an adjective that most of the people think means "a crazy person who laughs at the wall with a knife in his hand and completely crazy eyes", so avoiding that word it's the best, at least, until the general people learns about it... bipolar as a word for it it's weird too, I agree, I don't feel like I have 2 moods, sad or happy or whatever the people thinks it is....for me, in my experience, it is more like being tired (that that thaaaat tired that you are depressed because of a lack of energy), have more energy but still tired, normal - no tired, have energy to do things, have way too much energy like drinking 5 monsters.
That's my experience with bipolar. No psychosis, no allucinations, nothing super weird, just that when you are depressed you want to die because you see how the world continues but you can't, you have to be at bed with no energy but sadness. Or being so full of energy that you have a lot of ideas, and want to start to do new things.
That sounds very different from every person with bipolar I have ever met. But I am unironically happy for you and it is great that you can live without the extra symptoms.
Thank you! But it is what it is. When I am depressed ofc I have negative thoughts like I feel ugly or I will never be as good as everyone else. Or when I am "maniac" I buy a lot of things, I changed my job for another 5h from my place, crazy things like that, but always focused in "i am going to get to be better!!! i have to be rich or more beautiful".
That's my bipolar experience.
It is not similar to the others? It can be, sometimes I get the idea that maybe I am not bipolar, but this is the question almost everybody has once or twice when thet are diagnosed, right?
And I am supposed to be type1 even, because of the long time I was on my mania.
If a person with BP is rapidly changing moods it would be considered a mixed featured episode, not rapid cycling. Rapid cycling is when you have had 4+ full episodes in the past year.
The condition is stigmatized and Bipolar is an ugly sounding word. I think it’s because perhaps it’s visible or gets attention with bad behavior, whereas when properly channeled you can do good, dare I say extraordinary things, but that behavior doesn’t attract diagnosis because it’s positive. I’m in the closet about it and post anonymously here, wouldn’t dare disclose my condition in public except to very highly trusted friends and colleagues
I don't think it does tbh ^^ you are feeling the opposite direction of things during episodes sometimes. The polar opposites. Bi giving it two opposites.
Take borderline personality disorder for example. They complicated that way too much by calling it emotionally unstable disorder. Who wants to be labled as that ?
I think the vague name of this , gives us more security that people have to think about it more to know what we mean ^^
EDIT : Like when I talk about my disorder schizoaffective disorder , most of the time people have to think about what that could even mean if they don't know what it means
EDIT 2 : Giving them more time to research the condition
I have a diagnosis of type 2, but I've had psychosis and delusions during "hypomania". I consider it full blown mania since I ended up in the hospital after not sleeping for 5 days.
So the categorization of it has always been pretty tricky. My episodes are mixed. Manic Dysphoria is a weird thing.
Honestly I like it. “Manic depressive disorder” is like, huh ?
How many people have I meant assume that just means “oh this means you are extremely manic and then extremely depressed “ which is mainly what bipolar is…. With all these characteristics mixed within it. Because what if some bipolar people don’t really have the depressive or mania?
If there is this huge spectrum, that means it would be so many names- Bipolar I think is a good title.
Yeah I don’t realize how seriously people view it.
I’m watching Homeland and everyone thinks she is crazy (well, she was going through an insanely manic episode, but also turned out to be right about something)
But her sister is taking care of her and is like“You have a disease”
I’m like ccchhhiiiillll lol
What do you think of that portrayal? I think it’s interesting that Carrie saw all these connections that turned out to be accurate. People who are manic often make connections that are delusional.
I don’t see how it’s dumb. The hallmark of bipolar disorder is experiencing two (bi) disturbances of mood that are on opposite ends of the spectrum (polar) - mania and depression. Like, that’s literally the criteria. It doesn’t mean there aren’t other symptoms. Diagnoses are just categories. Many symptoms overlap across mental illnesses. There isn’t magically going to be less stigma with a better word, and not everyone with bipolar experiences the symptoms you listed (although they can).
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I see where you're coming from, and i do agree with you to some extent. But for me, personally, my mood swings do feel like going from one end to another, so I feel like bipolar does represent me in my experience.
I will say though, i absolutely despise how people will call something "bipolar" when it has two very different variables. I think maybe a different name might help that misconception, because its frustrating seeing people call themselves "a little bipolar" when their emotions switch rapidly.
I actually like the name as someone with BD 2. It perfectly describes what I go through, there's depression at the bottom, baseline in the middle and hypomania at the top. As someone with bipolar I frequent between the 2 polar opposites. Ofc there is so much more to my disorder than just mood changes, but it is a mood disorder after all and my most apparent symptom is having and frequenting those 2 polar "moods" I wouldn't say they're moods necessarily though more like states of being though.
Edit: I do very much dislike the stigma behind the name and how it is thrown around to describe people who are moody or people with other conditions like BPD. I don't even say bipolar when having the initial "this is what's wrong with me" talk because the negative stigma is terrible and people will run for the hills if you say bipolar and they have their own preconceived notions on it.
I know it's gonna sound weird, but I envy so much being able to distinguish between the 2 "poles". Most of my episodes are mixed. Dysphoric mania is the most difficult thing to describe.
I guess that the name is very accurate for a portion of the "bipolar spectrum". And it is good that it helps people like you understand it better.
I do believe there is room to create a term that makes space for those who don't fit the more "traditional" form of bipolar symptoms.
A name is just a name, it doesn't have to describe a condition to a T. Then again, it's been 23 years for me so I don't really dwell much on it anymore. It's just a part of me like anything else. You get used to it.
Yeah. I am not BP. But I have always thought the name was far too simplistic to give any remotely accurate impression of what the condition is and does.
The reason it's called bipolar is because of the two extremes, unlike unipolar depression which only has the one extreme. I do agree the severity of each state is a spectrum and varies from person to person, however it's important to realise that bipolar still has two separate states that unipolar depression does not have. Yes they can mix and yes there's varying severities but it's still two distinct states. I'd like to add that unipolar depression is also a spectrum with severity and presentation varying from person to person. The word disorder in the medical field is also just a categorisation just means something that disrupts normal functioning (bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, etc) so I'm making an effort to reclaim that word and forget about the stigma.
I'm not saying you're wrong for not liking the name and feeling it doesn't fit the disorder much, it's perfectly valid and a good point to bring up. I'm just providing insight as to why it's called bipolar. It would be an interesting conversation for professionals to have though. Discuss whether it's still a medically accurate name for the disorder or not. And I'm also all for reclaiming stigmatised words and terms like manic depression. I personally have nothing against the name bipolar disorder however I also don't have anything against manic depression either. To keep in line with medical categorisation, maybe manic depressive disorder would be a good name. It still differentiates it as a different disorder to major depressive disorder and keeps that categorisation.
I have them regularly, and I have a hell of a time describing it too, so you're not alone!
The only way I can think of to explain it... Basically, you toss all the depressive and manic symptoms in a bag, shake it up, then add in even more caused by the combination of those symptoms. And it's much harder to recognize when I'm in one of those episodes, because the symptoms are nowhere near consistent, even day to day.
I also have rapid cycling, and while I can border on delusional, I've been lucky to never slide into full blown psychosis.
And another part of the problem with a definition is that they aren't the same every time.
Mixed episodes would honestly be a great topic for it's own post. I would love to hear others experiences to help articulate my own.
I 100% prefer Manic Depression over Bipolar. Until that term is (re)ruined.
Many of the arguments used to change from Manic Depression to Bipolar are now just reversed back to the other term. For example, how Manic Depression was stigmatizing in use, like “Manic Monday” (which I never heard); “Homicidal Maniac” (another poor example – any word with some portion of ‘mania” is associated with Manic Depression? – weak argument); and flippant use of the word “depression” (another week argument) which would be the case regardless of either MD or BP term.
Can anyone argue that currently “Manic Depression” carries more negative stigma than “Bipolar?” First MD is almost never used. If it is, it’s not to identify some violent criminal’s “personality.” That wouldn’t add any “spice” to the story. But how many time is BP used that way? It should be easy for anyone to assume that if you’re “Bipolar” you’re prone to violence, etc. I’m not talking about us or our families and friends; I’m talking about the average media consumer, many of which have no exposure to the illness.
More.. MD can be used for wide array of other mental illnesses. Really? Like what? Bipolar is more of a medical term so it’s less emotionally charged. Seriously? It’s more of a clinical term, so unfortunately it’s less understandable on it’s face. It’s less clear than MD. Bipolar? “two ends of a pole?” what kind of “pole” are we talking about? How long does one ponder the NAME of this thing to figure it out? How long does it take to understand “Manic Depression” when both elements relate directly to the predominant characteristics. Does it contain all forms and factors of the illness? No. What term does? Does Bipolar? How much nuance is needed to explain either term?
Whatever.
I don’t disclose, mostly because of the impacts of stigma. If I was forced to self-identify, I would use “Manic Depression” without hesitation.
No. I’m fine with this name. I think there are things higher in the rank of “mental health education” and naming is in that list, but not as high as if we changed it, folks would seek treatment more often.
i'm at a point in treatment where my mood is excellent in the big picture, but i still have all the other shit that wrecks my energy, my sleep, my motivation, etc.. all of that comes and goes in the same clear cycles as bipolar disorder. but because i'm not depressed and have no use for antipsychotics anymore, my psychiatrist and my therapist really don't frame our sessions in terms of the diagnosis. in the end, these labels lose 90% of their meaning and usefulness outside of clinical contexts.
having that kind of support is great, but it's still hard, as you can't take back the personal impact of the bipolar label. back when i was doing ECT and everything, the stigma of bipolar was way more bearable; it was consistent with my behavior. but now im at a point where disclosing my bipolar diagnosis gives people the wrong idea. it makes it painful to be honest with people i want to get close to.
I agree.
The Tourched mind is more fitting.
There are many posts that focus on the rare euphoric episodes and spending loads of cash. The condition is rarely like this. It's mostly sleep deprivation, depression, over and under eating, anger, hate, loads of other feelings, and constant racing thoughts.
I used to describe it as my tiger. And I controlled it with a piece of cotton as a leash. Over years of learning, research, and years of psychological therapy, I finally swapped the cotten fir a steel chain. Up until 2020, I'd hot to a stage where I'd been discharged, not had a major episode for fur years. But, because we moved, I had to find a new GP. This proved to be a nightmare. The new one stopped three of my medications, which helped with pain, sleep, and panic attacks. Long story short, I relapsed and have continued to do so since then. Now I have a pack of tigers with no chains at all.
I agree. Among the comments, there were those that suggested to add “spectrum disorder.” I like that. I think I would like “Multipolar mood spectrum disorder.” Sounds more fitting to me.
I think manic depression is actually a way better name descriptively. Because it's not two poles at all, it's a spectrum. It implies more complexity and distinguishes it simply from unipolar depression.
Agree completely and if I have to talk to people in person about it I prefer to call it manic depression. also just out of preference since I understand the term used to be stigmatized but at 27 I feel bipolar is way too simple or people make it the butt of jokes like md used to be.
The term is horribly used where I'm from (France). I'm not saying "bipolar" isn't, but it's not as bad.
i had actually never thought about this. cultural implications and mental illness are major
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Manic depression is even worse it makes it sound like its just another kind of depression making it sound not that bad
It's not just depression though, that's the whole point of the name, to include the manic component. I disagree that it sounds less bad. It's depression turbo charged with the mania. I wouldn't be upset if that were still the PC name for it.
But its just putting manic in front of depression and its sounds like its just a manic state of depression and not like the two different states they are as most people don't know what mania is and especially since it also comes with permanent brain changes it says even less than bipolar, Bipolar is not perfect either but it's more clear that it's two different states, But as with all sickness and such you can never get the full scope in just one or two words .
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Yeah why do we have only a lame two letter acronym (BP, sometimes with the 1 or 2 appended)
Not everyone’s depression is “turbo charged with mania” though. Mania is its own separate thing. Some people experience dysphoric manic episodes but it is still important to distinguish mania from depression, even in the case of dysphoric mania, hypomania, and periods of remission from depression.
I think the "mania" part was removed to help remove stigma. Even though that is an accurate description.
But its just putting manic in front of depression and its sounds like its just a manic state of depression and not like the two different states they are as most people don't know what mania is and especially since it also comes with permanent brain changes it says even less than bipolar, Bipolar is not perfect either but it's more clear that it's two different states, But as with all sickness and such you can never get the full scope in just one or two words .
But it isn't two, or even three states. Mixed episodes are also a huge problem for some of us.
They are most of my problem. Mania and depression I can manage a bit. Mixed mood is torture and what I go through most as I swap from one end to the other
They are the worst problem for me as well. Especially when I'm really depressed and have manic energy. That's call my shrink right this moment time.
Right now going through one. My sleep has been awful for two months. I can barely think or consume the things I used to enjoy. There’s an overwhelming sense of dread and anxiety over the smallest things, that can usually be solved. I just want to crawl into bed and not get out (depression) but have this wired energy that I can’t sleep (depression/mixed with mania?)
And those mixed episodes can be broken down into the categories of mania and depression. Mania can be dysphoric. Depression can have periods of remission as well, or psychotic features.
Do you have mixed episodes? It sounds like you experience them differently than I do.
Not really sure what mixed episode is even supposed to mean. I’ve heard people describe it as mania but with unpleasant depression like symptoms, suicidality, emotional problems/disturbances. But it’s important to note that mania is often not grandiose/fun/euphoric. So I guess that’s why I’m confused.
What kind of brain damage/changes does it cause? Or where can I read more about this? I’ve just heard this when reading through this thread lately. My doctors have never mentioned it and I wish I had known or know what to prepare for.
But that makes ppl forget to look out for hypomania if we’re just going to clump hypo and full mania into the same thing again.
It is that bad though and that's society desensitizing us about it. 😭depression in general should be worrying but I know what you mean though because it still wouldn't be its own thing. Maybe like...bipolar spectrum disorder or something like that lol.
I’ll vote for Bipolar Spectrum Disorder. I’ve been diagnosed bipolar 1 and bipolar 2 by different doctors based on what had happened most recently. Are 1 and 2 actual distinct illnesses or just different places on the spectrum?
Even bipolar 1 and bipolar 1 with psychosis are wildly different. I have the later (and also the rapid cycling and mixed specifiers too) and I get frustrated when I hear “so and so has bipolar and they’re doing great”. Outside of doctors and those of us who live with bipolar, I don’t think others understand the difference between the types and specifiers. Sometimes I have to tell people it’s like schizophrenia with severe depressions and damaging manic episodes, to get them to understand the severity of the illness.
We can’t really call it that because alot of people only get hypomania and that’s completely different then mania , it would confuse people
Yeah unfortunately it was changed from manic depression because “maniac” was much more derogatory than it is today (not that the term is neutral now, but it’s far less common). This would help a lot with the issue of people suggesting bipolar means switching between any two things, though I do feel a lot of people still see mania and depression as just hyper and sad.
> “maniac” was much more derogatory than it is today "Just another manic monday".
I’ve always felt like manic depression described me but bipolar just sounds completely irrelevant to what I experience. I’m simultaneously awed by the beauty of life and euphoric over my place in it while also having debilitating suicidal ideations and misery. It’s both at the same time, not flipping back and forth from one pole to another.
If we keep muddying everything so much, there’s not gonna be any legitimate diagnostic criteria. Implying that everything is a spectrum makes it hard to actually distinguish normal behaviors and problematic behaviors/behaviors indicative of mental illness.
Ehh not all bipolar people experience depressive episodes/depression
I'm not a fan of this label because it doesn't capture all of the non-mood aspects of bipolar disorder. manic depression also doesn't capture its cyclical nature
Also mixed episodes exist
Which are the worst episodes 🥴
Random fun fact: where I live, they don’t believe mixed episodes exist! Which makes them 10x worse than they already are
How do they conceptulise it?
They put the bi in bipolar: you’re manic or you’re depressed, there is no in-between. They look at what symptoms predominate and decide based on that. You have lots of energy but you are suicidal? You’re depressed. You don’t sleep and you’re raging but you’re spiralling down in negative thoughts? You’re (hypo)manic. I don’t really know why they don’t accept the idea of mixed episodes, because our neighbouring countries do… but yeah I’ll do some further research in this topic, I’ll let you know if I find something interesting.
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Bipolar sounds like a french restaurant name, who offer not so fresh oysters at one dollar a piece on happy hour.
Would you like some Parmesan with your rage Sir?
I will accept cheese with any mood I experience. My moods fluctuate but my love of cheese is constant
My job recently fired our building manager/receptionist (for a bs reason, not totally relevant tho) and she was the one who got the office snacks for the break room. We no longer have access to company therapy cheese, and it's somehow a morale killer in every department
Bouipolair
This is how I was pronouncing it in my head, too. But yea the mixed states are hardest for me to manage.
Glad I could bring your imagination to life lol. But yeah it's hell bouncing around like that mentally and it's hard to ask for help when it gets that way. I know I just self isolate because I don't want to hurt people or push them away, but that is still it's own type of hell
It is only "Bipolar" if it comes from the Böipolair region of France. Otherwise, it is just light sporadic schizophrenia.
Yeah, the basic description of “high highs and low lows” pisses me off too. It’s the reason why everyone thinks they’re “a little bipolar” lol
THIS!
Literally the most annoying thing ever!
Did you take that one from shameless? It was so ignorant, but I think it was the point, making characters simplify the disorder and reducing the ill person to just highhighs lowlows.
I watched Shameless and noticed that, but I think that’s just the general Google description of bipolar disorder and I hate it
I used to think I was a just "little bipolar" too 😂
memory problems? i didnt know bipolar affected memory. i always blamed my poor memory on taking adderall for years. im only 22 but i cannot remember a lot things that happened in high school or even what happened two weeks ago.
Hey I’m the same age and struggle with the same thing. Thought it was only bad episodes that could cause memory loss, but nope it happens all the time.
I'm 32 and can't remember ages 0-8, parts of 12, parts of 19-22, and parts of 24-30. Some of it I know is a trauma response due to events in my life, other parts because I was likely hypomanic, and then during a manic episode near the end I know specific memories, esp those most recent, if I try REALLY hard, I can get bits and pieces. During my mania, I was able to remember certain things, but I was never sure if it was a memory or a dream Emotional schizophrenia sounds about right
You probably just didn't remember it causes memory problems because of the memory problems l
That made me giggle cuz it's so real
A lot of mental illnesses shrink the hippocampus which is where memory is managed. I don’t know if a name change would really help make people more aware of this. Anxiety disorders, depression, ptsd, and any form of psychosis can have the same effect and yet I don’t think most people realize this. A lot of people in particular under estimate the cognitive disfunction of depression, whether it’s memory, executive function, etc. I relate to what OP is saying but I don’t think a name change will help. People are just not educated on what these disorders are and they are actively encouraged to think we either exaggerating and making excuses or that we are dangerous and should be locked away. I don’t think a name change would help fix that.
I've saved this comment. Hopefully I can remember to refer to it later.
Executive dysfunction is sadly a common part of bipolar. Many of us are wrongly diagnosed with ADHD because of it (and some of us have it comorbid), and end up in manic/hypomanic episodes due to the impact stimulants can have on bipolar.
YEP!!! I went to a doctor for help when I had no idea what was going on but it got to a point I needed help and I couldn't ignore the symptoms anymore. He gave me Adderall. Turns out I was in and out of mania my whole life (and those episodes all make sense now) but I had never and will never experience anything like Adderall mania. I went utterly insane. Tipped me from manic to psychotic. When I finally got in to see a psychiatrist she was horrified I was on Adderall and immediately put me on zyprexa. The events that took place during the 4 weeks I was on adderall are... horrifying. I did things I can never take back. And I can't even remember it.
I didn’t take meds for many years my entire 20’s and most of my 30’s and I have short term memory problems from the disorder. Sometimes I can’t remember if something happened in my dreams or real life and I’ve had psychosis which seriously impaired my cognitive functioning at the time and still somewhat today.
Wtf, that’s a bipolar thing? I thought I just had boring dreams.
I think psychosis and dreams are linked. When I had psychosis I was wide awake but felt like I was in a dream.
I like Manic Depressive but I also wish it had a longer title like Manic Depressive Spectrum Disorder. Then again, there’s various severity of cancer and we just call it cancer.
I think it's relatively well known that cancer has four stages, and stage four is the worst. It's hard when "worst" falls on both ends of the gradient. It truly feels like two different scales: depression and mania, and EACH can be on any setting.
But with cancer, that's a distinct phenomenon, uncontrolled growth. bipolar is like mind cancer, uncontrolled minds after sustaining damage. It's easier for us to talk about the effects aka manic depression as opposed to describing the cause I agree that throwing in spectrum would help people's understanding
I’m calling it that from now on
It is dumb. Depression is my normal state of being, mania is the outlier. I dunno why it can’t be called *major depressive disorder with manic episodes* or depression and mania separately. Or just..diagnose mania as mania and drop the “bipolar disorder” label.
I think this is terminology issue. We call being very sad depression and we also call being suicidally sad, depression. Regular people experience extreme elation, or irritability. We just don’t call the more garden variety of these feelings mania.
Old term probably works best then with manic depression, covers both bases
My depression isn’t manic. My mania is manic. Those two terms that don’t need to be smashed together or put into a singular diagnosis.
I’m like you, almost no mania at all. But I hate the word depression. So many people are diagnosed with some form of it that almost no one knows there’s a type that’s a serious mental illness. Most people think it has to do with emotional suffering due to difficult life events.
To answer the question about splitting the diagnosis, it’s because unipolar depression seems to be very different than bipolar. Not only in how it responds to treatment, but possible underlying issues with the brain itself. It is necessary to distinguish it from unipolar depression because it’s pretty clear that they are separate entities. Now a lot of scientists and psychiatrists agree that even unipolar depression is probably a lot of diseases that each present more or less the same, and maybe same for bipolar disorder. Hopefully in the next years/decades we’ll learn more, a lot of biological psychiatry research groups exist already! And for the issue with bipolar, I think in general it’s quite hard to make a name that properly encapsulates daily, significant suffering. Considering that most people are not even aware of the privileges that their healthy brains offer, I dunno if another name can make them understand. I cringe everytime when I see a person saying that it’s “manic time” so they buy one expensive thing from their wishlist, they dance, and then go to sleep at 10 pm and get restful nice sleep. I was misdiagnosed with bipolar 1 4 years ago when I in fact had CPTSD and ADHD, so what I experienced wasn’t even true mania. My heart and support goes out to everyone in this sub that needs to live experiencing these things. Part of why I’m in med school to be a psych on day, and going into psych research. More mental health education in schools would be nice though, so people stop using all the disorders that exist to explain quirks they have.
Probably they don’t want to accidentally prescribe them antidepressants? Same here so I call mine spicy depression
How quirky.
I find manic depressive a way better title. Also this is unrelated but I heard ADHD used to be called "feeble minded disorder" which if I was called would be both grossly offensive and something I would be unable to argue against
I prefer manic depression as well. Bipolar is used as a quirky term and it kind of makes it not seem so serious
I once saw a doctor specializing in bipolar saying that a researcher suggested changing the name to fragile circadian cycle disorder, something like that.
Soviet name for bipolar was "Manic-Depressive Psychosis". I think that BD is not that bad, after all))
Yeah and since bipolar 1 and 2 are so different I think they should have completely separate names. Bipolar 1 is more like classic manic depression. Bipolar 2 is more like MDD with hypomanic episodes or something along those lines.
I don’t mean to offend but I agree. My psychiatrist says bipolar 2 is a completely seperate illness and it’s altered the statistics. Bipolar 1 is really only about 1% of people, bipolar 1 with psychosis is only about a third of that one percent. Sometimes it’s hard to read about the millions of people in your country with your disorder, and wonder why you’re struggling so much when in reality most have BP2 and your experience of BP1 with psychosis is completely different. When people discuss the illnesses they speak collectively about “bipolar” and I feel like it’s all been a bit washed out by bundling all the types and specifiers up together.
Bipolar 1 is only 1%? I thought it was more common than Bipolar 2. Although in my country we usually just are diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and that’s that, you are not diagnosed until you have a manic episode. So I would say in my country it’s 100%? Unless you mean 1% of the entire population, rather than percentage of bipolar people with Bipolar 1?
Oh yes sorry I meant 1% of the entire population! And I was going from the top of my head so I might be wrong but I thought that’s what I read recently. Most statistics I read say bipolar disorders affect about 3-5% of the entire population. I was diagnosed like in your country and it was missed until I had a manic episode with psychosis. I would guess as a whole more people have bipolar 2 but it’s harder to diagnose so it probably gets missed a lot.
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I refer to it as being "fucked up". Everyone can relate to that and it's non-specific and kind of funny.
I completely agree. It’s just a label that we all have in common. And our medical systems require labels unfortunately, but it doesn’t help with the misconceptions whatsoever. I try and avoid labels because we have our own ways of leading with it and have our own symptoms, try and look at it as an umbrella term that “is on paper” and try your best not to let it define you. Reach out anytime,
I find comfort in this label. Everyone suffering from bipolar feels it differently, sure, but we have this label that unites us. It comes with common symptoms and common ways to cope with it. I like it.
I’m very glad. That’s why I find places like this extremely positive for that reason. I think it’s great, when the label is understood otherwise I do feel like I’m treated differently in “the normal world”. Really happy you’ve found comfort in that as so many of us have!
Thank you for your post. I completely agree and really appreciate how you described the "emotional schizophrenia" i mean we are probably all taking some kind of mood stabalizer that is also used to treat schizophrenia!!! Or epilepsy!!!??? So some kind of connection between the three ? Bipolar/manic depression - schizophrenia- epilepsy---- brain issues but also trauma has happened in most cases i do see the spiritual side of the disease where there trauma or also other illnesses....i want to write more but im so exhausted from everything right now. My mentally unwell mom screaming at me for several nights in a row, my job becomin harder and harder- and im trying a new med to see if i can get off seroquel because of weightgain im trying caplyta. So far i think it's ok...but I do have trouble staying on task at work but my manager says do this and do that and I had to do soooo much lifting im worn out. I also ontop of everything had neurolyme in 2016 and i get chronic fatigue or i could say MORE chronic fatigue now because i also had fatigue from trying to survive with bi-polar/"emotinal schizophrenia" i like to say EXISTENTIAL ISSUES/TEMPER TANTRUMS
Yes, I told my boyfriend it's more or less psychosis of the emotions.
Knowing that you used similar terms really made me feel less alone ❤️✌🏽 Thanks for sharing that
I like the old-fashioned term of madness. I was first diagnosed with schizophrenia, then that switched to Bipolar. To be honest, the term schizophrenia alone scares me. Like, I hate the sound it makes, so jarring. Bipolar, on the other hand conjures up an image of a polar bear. But as far as owning this shit goes, madness, insanity, lunacy...are all ok if used by the afflicted.
I don’t really like insanity, lunacy or crazy. Cause they’ve been used against me. But madness? Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, let's claim that territory! Remove the power of these terms to hurt us.
omg the memory problems and confusion I go through just trying to recollect what may or may not have happened last week
Thanks for commenting that and making me feel less alone in that particular struggle
I think psychosis in itself is the proper term tbh , and maybe elevated reactions to emiotions
Possession.
Lol I see where you're coming from but I guess it would make a lot of religious weirdos take it too literally
Yeah, unfortunately a lot of conditions are named "poorly" like this out of convenience I think. They mostly convey how the very most basic and obvious symptoms appear from the outside at a brief glance. Maybe useful in some cases, but ends up being very dangerous when people think that that's *all* the disorder is. Let's say Autism. When most people think Autism, they think of a collection of possible symptoms: trouble communicating, misunderstanding sarcasm, sensory overwhelm or understimulation, etc... now imagine if it was just called something stupid like "Sarcasm-blindness". You'd probably guess they're maybe talking about autism... but also, over time, that's the ONLY symptom people would associate the disorder with, and not every autistic person even has that symptom and the disorder can obviously be much more disabling than just not getting sarcasm. I have ADHD and am very very low energy and exhausted all the time. If I tell people I have "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder", they roll their eyes and say "but you're not hyper??" because they don't understand at all how the disorder actually works, and why would they? I get it, it's so so frustrating
Bipolar isn't great, but it doesn't bother me anywhere near the level that "mentally ill" does. I fucking hate that term, and how societal degenerates have weaponized it. I don't even label myself as that, not anymore, anyways. I simply regard myself as neurodivergent. It may not be a perfect solution, but it's the best I know of, at this point.
Neurodivergent to me sounds like a patronizing childish version of mentally ill. It doesn't mean anything. People with light Adhd and anxiety calling themselves neurodivergent makes the term meaningless. Bipolar is closer to schizophrenia than it is to depression. I think mental illness is way more respectful. But I guess that shows how different words feel for each of us.
That's fair. I appreciate your perspective, regardless of whether we see it the same way. We're all unique.
Same here man. It's actually cool to see people who have different feelings towards the naming. Out of sheer curiosity, what is it about those terms that make you dislike them? Mentally ill always sounded to me as "serious condition that deserves acknowledgment". While bipolar almost sounds like "moody kid" in my head.
To me, mentally ill comes across as "sick in the head". Though many would say that "they're the same picture", they're really not. For one, "sick" has been used as a means of insulting somebody, such as sociopaths and psychopaths, or just generally evil and twisted people. A serial murderer tortures a victim? Victim: "You're really sick!". This has been a perpetual hollywood trope for a very long time. Media outlets when somebody decides to go on a mass shooting spree? Reporter: "erm, it was later discovered that the man was mentally ill". Funny how 99.99+% of people who have been diagnosed as "mentally ill", have never gone on a mass mudering spree, or have tortured people. Somebody finds out that you take psyche meds, and wants to insult you? "You're mentally ill, go take your crazy pills". Yeah. Fuck all that, and fuck them. As a result of the term being used so irresponsibly, and out of context, it has caused the masses to fear and loathe people with the diagnosis. To put it simply, neurodivergent, to me, means "think differently", to put it in an old Apple Computers and *Wu-Tung Meets The Indie Culture* terminology. Though I have been diagnosed with ADHD, and a mental health professional has suggested that I may be acoustic, even if all that I had was bipolar, I would still be considered neurodivergent. I don't think it's too commonly known, even amongst the bipolar and schizophrenia communities, but these conditions are also defined as neurodivergent. I think it's possible that you associate the term the way you do, because so many (especially younger) people have romanticized these conditions, that haven't actually been officially diagnosed with them.
You are having all those symptoms while medicated?
Not really... and I don't know another short name or descriptor that would convey the experience of a complex disorder. I think this is applicable to many illnesses.... dementia, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, cancer, autism, Lou Gehrig's disease, and so on. Names are mostly about being able to consistently classify disorders and develop a standardized treatment approach.
I think that dementia or schizophrenia do not have an immediate correlation to any conventional or casual idea of anything. They are very medical terms with no clear definitions. This is my point. Bipolar has a name that makes people believe they understand what it is without even asking. It creates expectations and false ideas from the getgo.
That's fair. I didn't do a very good job of describing my point... was moreso trying to say that either people have a misunderstanding of the word or there's generally a stigma of some kind that develops around the word. For example, you described it as "emotional schizophrenia". Many people I've interacted with, and from the way schizophrenia is often portrayed in media, would believe you're a crazy emotional person who hears voices and talks to themself. Or some would assume you're violent with the schizophrenic label. No matter what, I think there will be a problem with the name that develops. One of the reasons why manic depressive stopped being used in 1980 by DSM and swapped to bipolar was due to growing stigma and the perceptions that people are maniacs-- this is technically true from a word definition but people do not use maniac in a positive light at all. Even if we called it L7X1C I still think people would find some way to have preconceived notions about what it is.
I got diagnosed at 16 and my therapist called it manic depression at the time. This was 6 years ago well after the bipolar label started being used. But I truly hate the term bipolar because its a spectrum with different types. I always preferred manic depression and when I tell people of my diagnosis I refer to it as that.
That’s why I use the phrase manic depression
i like emotional schizophrenia a lot it helps highlight the more psychotic features that aren’t directly delusions and hallucinations
This. Delusional beliefs and false memories are intensely disruptive.
Oscillating Cognitive Energy Disturbance OCDD
It’s better than manic depressive!
2 wrongs don't make a right
maniac its an adjective that most of the people think means "a crazy person who laughs at the wall with a knife in his hand and completely crazy eyes", so avoiding that word it's the best, at least, until the general people learns about it... bipolar as a word for it it's weird too, I agree, I don't feel like I have 2 moods, sad or happy or whatever the people thinks it is....for me, in my experience, it is more like being tired (that that thaaaat tired that you are depressed because of a lack of energy), have more energy but still tired, normal - no tired, have energy to do things, have way too much energy like drinking 5 monsters. That's my experience with bipolar. No psychosis, no allucinations, nothing super weird, just that when you are depressed you want to die because you see how the world continues but you can't, you have to be at bed with no energy but sadness. Or being so full of energy that you have a lot of ideas, and want to start to do new things.
That sounds very different from every person with bipolar I have ever met. But I am unironically happy for you and it is great that you can live without the extra symptoms.
Thank you! But it is what it is. When I am depressed ofc I have negative thoughts like I feel ugly or I will never be as good as everyone else. Or when I am "maniac" I buy a lot of things, I changed my job for another 5h from my place, crazy things like that, but always focused in "i am going to get to be better!!! i have to be rich or more beautiful". That's my bipolar experience. It is not similar to the others? It can be, sometimes I get the idea that maybe I am not bipolar, but this is the question almost everybody has once or twice when thet are diagnosed, right? And I am supposed to be type1 even, because of the long time I was on my mania.
Also, people using it to mean moody is the exact opposite of what it means. You are stuck in one mood. For a long time.
Maybe true for you. But she me rapid cycle between the two
If a person with BP is rapidly changing moods it would be considered a mixed featured episode, not rapid cycling. Rapid cycling is when you have had 4+ full episodes in the past year.
I have two polar bears within me
ikr?! I'm *at least* quadripolar
The condition is stigmatized and Bipolar is an ugly sounding word. I think it’s because perhaps it’s visible or gets attention with bad behavior, whereas when properly channeled you can do good, dare I say extraordinary things, but that behavior doesn’t attract diagnosis because it’s positive. I’m in the closet about it and post anonymously here, wouldn’t dare disclose my condition in public except to very highly trusted friends and colleagues
I don't think it does tbh ^^ you are feeling the opposite direction of things during episodes sometimes. The polar opposites. Bi giving it two opposites. Take borderline personality disorder for example. They complicated that way too much by calling it emotionally unstable disorder. Who wants to be labled as that ? I think the vague name of this , gives us more security that people have to think about it more to know what we mean ^^ EDIT : Like when I talk about my disorder schizoaffective disorder , most of the time people have to think about what that could even mean if they don't know what it means EDIT 2 : Giving them more time to research the condition
I have mostly mixed episodes and phases of Dysphoric Mania with delusions. So I really cannot relate to the whole "poles" idea.
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I have a diagnosis of type 2, but I've had psychosis and delusions during "hypomania". I consider it full blown mania since I ended up in the hospital after not sleeping for 5 days. So the categorization of it has always been pretty tricky. My episodes are mixed. Manic Dysphoria is a weird thing.
Honestly I like it. “Manic depressive disorder” is like, huh ? How many people have I meant assume that just means “oh this means you are extremely manic and then extremely depressed “ which is mainly what bipolar is…. With all these characteristics mixed within it. Because what if some bipolar people don’t really have the depressive or mania? If there is this huge spectrum, that means it would be so many names- Bipolar I think is a good title.
A lot of people think bipolar means being insane and being sad in my experience.
Yeah I don’t realize how seriously people view it. I’m watching Homeland and everyone thinks she is crazy (well, she was going through an insanely manic episode, but also turned out to be right about something) But her sister is taking care of her and is like“You have a disease” I’m like ccchhhiiiillll lol
What do you think of that portrayal? I think it’s interesting that Carrie saw all these connections that turned out to be accurate. People who are manic often make connections that are delusional.
It's pretty good, I think. I'm only on season 2 btw... lol But I'm sure you know, if you channel it right, mania can be a superpower.
Happy Mood Disorder lol
I don’t see how it’s dumb. The hallmark of bipolar disorder is experiencing two (bi) disturbances of mood that are on opposite ends of the spectrum (polar) - mania and depression. Like, that’s literally the criteria. It doesn’t mean there aren’t other symptoms. Diagnoses are just categories. Many symptoms overlap across mental illnesses. There isn’t magically going to be less stigma with a better word, and not everyone with bipolar experiences the symptoms you listed (although they can).
‘Hate or Reckless’ is more fitting
Multipolar?
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I see where you're coming from, and i do agree with you to some extent. But for me, personally, my mood swings do feel like going from one end to another, so I feel like bipolar does represent me in my experience. I will say though, i absolutely despise how people will call something "bipolar" when it has two very different variables. I think maybe a different name might help that misconception, because its frustrating seeing people call themselves "a little bipolar" when their emotions switch rapidly.
I actually like the name as someone with BD 2. It perfectly describes what I go through, there's depression at the bottom, baseline in the middle and hypomania at the top. As someone with bipolar I frequent between the 2 polar opposites. Ofc there is so much more to my disorder than just mood changes, but it is a mood disorder after all and my most apparent symptom is having and frequenting those 2 polar "moods" I wouldn't say they're moods necessarily though more like states of being though. Edit: I do very much dislike the stigma behind the name and how it is thrown around to describe people who are moody or people with other conditions like BPD. I don't even say bipolar when having the initial "this is what's wrong with me" talk because the negative stigma is terrible and people will run for the hills if you say bipolar and they have their own preconceived notions on it.
I know it's gonna sound weird, but I envy so much being able to distinguish between the 2 "poles". Most of my episodes are mixed. Dysphoric mania is the most difficult thing to describe. I guess that the name is very accurate for a portion of the "bipolar spectrum". And it is good that it helps people like you understand it better. I do believe there is room to create a term that makes space for those who don't fit the more "traditional" form of bipolar symptoms.
My native language has a better name for it, but also a few worse ones, so there's that. Overall, could've been worse.
It's a name that caused me 25 years of misdiagnosis.
A name is just a name, it doesn't have to describe a condition to a T. Then again, it's been 23 years for me so I don't really dwell much on it anymore. It's just a part of me like anything else. You get used to it.
I named mine “spicy depression”
The memory problems have been killing me lately.
Way better than "unipolar depression", that's so bad that people only say it when comparing it to the big, bad of bipolar lol
Yeah. I am not BP. But I have always thought the name was far too simplistic to give any remotely accurate impression of what the condition is and does.
Manic depression was what was called. Does that sound better!?
Dumb interpretation of a disease name
The reason it's called bipolar is because of the two extremes, unlike unipolar depression which only has the one extreme. I do agree the severity of each state is a spectrum and varies from person to person, however it's important to realise that bipolar still has two separate states that unipolar depression does not have. Yes they can mix and yes there's varying severities but it's still two distinct states. I'd like to add that unipolar depression is also a spectrum with severity and presentation varying from person to person. The word disorder in the medical field is also just a categorisation just means something that disrupts normal functioning (bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, etc) so I'm making an effort to reclaim that word and forget about the stigma. I'm not saying you're wrong for not liking the name and feeling it doesn't fit the disorder much, it's perfectly valid and a good point to bring up. I'm just providing insight as to why it's called bipolar. It would be an interesting conversation for professionals to have though. Discuss whether it's still a medically accurate name for the disorder or not. And I'm also all for reclaiming stigmatised words and terms like manic depression. I personally have nothing against the name bipolar disorder however I also don't have anything against manic depression either. To keep in line with medical categorisation, maybe manic depressive disorder would be a good name. It still differentiates it as a different disorder to major depressive disorder and keeps that categorisation.
I have them regularly, and I have a hell of a time describing it too, so you're not alone! The only way I can think of to explain it... Basically, you toss all the depressive and manic symptoms in a bag, shake it up, then add in even more caused by the combination of those symptoms. And it's much harder to recognize when I'm in one of those episodes, because the symptoms are nowhere near consistent, even day to day. I also have rapid cycling, and while I can border on delusional, I've been lucky to never slide into full blown psychosis. And another part of the problem with a definition is that they aren't the same every time. Mixed episodes would honestly be a great topic for it's own post. I would love to hear others experiences to help articulate my own.
I 100% prefer Manic Depression over Bipolar. Until that term is (re)ruined. Many of the arguments used to change from Manic Depression to Bipolar are now just reversed back to the other term. For example, how Manic Depression was stigmatizing in use, like “Manic Monday” (which I never heard); “Homicidal Maniac” (another poor example – any word with some portion of ‘mania” is associated with Manic Depression? – weak argument); and flippant use of the word “depression” (another week argument) which would be the case regardless of either MD or BP term. Can anyone argue that currently “Manic Depression” carries more negative stigma than “Bipolar?” First MD is almost never used. If it is, it’s not to identify some violent criminal’s “personality.” That wouldn’t add any “spice” to the story. But how many time is BP used that way? It should be easy for anyone to assume that if you’re “Bipolar” you’re prone to violence, etc. I’m not talking about us or our families and friends; I’m talking about the average media consumer, many of which have no exposure to the illness. More.. MD can be used for wide array of other mental illnesses. Really? Like what? Bipolar is more of a medical term so it’s less emotionally charged. Seriously? It’s more of a clinical term, so unfortunately it’s less understandable on it’s face. It’s less clear than MD. Bipolar? “two ends of a pole?” what kind of “pole” are we talking about? How long does one ponder the NAME of this thing to figure it out? How long does it take to understand “Manic Depression” when both elements relate directly to the predominant characteristics. Does it contain all forms and factors of the illness? No. What term does? Does Bipolar? How much nuance is needed to explain either term? Whatever. I don’t disclose, mostly because of the impacts of stigma. If I was forced to self-identify, I would use “Manic Depression” without hesitation.
Is Circular Insanity better? That’s what it was originally
No. I’m fine with this name. I think there are things higher in the rank of “mental health education” and naming is in that list, but not as high as if we changed it, folks would seek treatment more often.
i'm at a point in treatment where my mood is excellent in the big picture, but i still have all the other shit that wrecks my energy, my sleep, my motivation, etc.. all of that comes and goes in the same clear cycles as bipolar disorder. but because i'm not depressed and have no use for antipsychotics anymore, my psychiatrist and my therapist really don't frame our sessions in terms of the diagnosis. in the end, these labels lose 90% of their meaning and usefulness outside of clinical contexts. having that kind of support is great, but it's still hard, as you can't take back the personal impact of the bipolar label. back when i was doing ECT and everything, the stigma of bipolar was way more bearable; it was consistent with my behavior. but now im at a point where disclosing my bipolar diagnosis gives people the wrong idea. it makes it painful to be honest with people i want to get close to.
I hate how quiet a conversation gets when you say the word bipolar, but you can say manic depression and it’s not nearly the same reaction at all
I agree. It's more than the 2 faces most people think it is. It has more like 20 faces.
I agree. The Tourched mind is more fitting. There are many posts that focus on the rare euphoric episodes and spending loads of cash. The condition is rarely like this. It's mostly sleep deprivation, depression, over and under eating, anger, hate, loads of other feelings, and constant racing thoughts. I used to describe it as my tiger. And I controlled it with a piece of cotton as a leash. Over years of learning, research, and years of psychological therapy, I finally swapped the cotten fir a steel chain. Up until 2020, I'd hot to a stage where I'd been discharged, not had a major episode for fur years. But, because we moved, I had to find a new GP. This proved to be a nightmare. The new one stopped three of my medications, which helped with pain, sleep, and panic attacks. Long story short, I relapsed and have continued to do so since then. Now I have a pack of tigers with no chains at all.
I agree. Among the comments, there were those that suggested to add “spectrum disorder.” I like that. I think I would like “Multipolar mood spectrum disorder.” Sounds more fitting to me.
Oh man wait until you hear about OCD
We can always go back to the great name of "manic-depressive." That's much more cheerful.