People who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder have a 20 percent risk factor for suicide, Dr. Marlene Hart said, during a community seminar at Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.
Despite that staggering risk, however, many people refuse to seek treatment for mental health problems.
That needs to change, Hart told the audience.
A shift in public perception about the problem could go a long way to help, she said.
“We have to fight stigma. It interferes with people getting treatment. It causes people not to come in,” Hart said. “If there is one message that I hope people get — is that psychiatric disorders, including bipolar … are medical problems.
“The brain is the most complicated organ in the body,” Hart added. “Why would we think, for whatever reason, it doesn’t have imbalances? It’s not logical.”
There are about 5.7 million adult Americans who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is about 2.6 percent of the population, according to the National Institute on Mental Health.
Hart, who is medical director at North Tampa Behavioral Health, has worked with countless clients struggling to overcome the difficulties of managing bipolar disorder. She spent 18 years of her career in Dade City, working with patients who grew up and graduated from high school and college. She worked with them through deaths of close family members, through marriages and divorces.
She got into the field because she wanted to help. Initially, she trained to be a social worker, but later went back to get her medical degree. She has seen the challenges of mental illness up close because her sister was a schizophrenic.
When people are diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it is very common to find someone else in the same family who has been diagnosed with the condition, Hart said. “It is one of the genetically connected medical problems that we know of.”
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, according to the National Institute for Mental Health.
There are four basic types of bipolar disorder; all of them involve clear changes in mood, energy and activity levels. These moods range from periods of extremely “up,” elated and energized behavior (known as manic episodes) to very sad, “down” or hopeless periods (known as depressive episodes). Less severe manic periods are known as hypomanic episodes, the NIMH reports.
Hart said the condition can be difficult to diagnose, and often can go undetected for 10 to 20 years.
“How do bipolar patients come to health care? They may be depressed,” Hart said.
“So, it looks like a major depression,” she said.
They don’t often come in when they’re manic, because they’re having a good time — unless it is causes them problems, Hart said.
When people come in to be treated for their mania, it’s generally because they got themselves into trouble, she said.
“People get into a fight at Walmart because somebody didn’t move fast enough, or didn’t get out of their way,” she said. Or, “people get into impulsive behaviors, like shoplifting. It’s the thrill. The excitement.
“When it gets severe, people run naked in the parking lot,” she added.
Or, they may go on lavish spending sprees or make foolish business decisions, she said.
Or, they become involved in sexual situations that are not the norm for them, which can lead to relationship problems.
“You can imagine if somebody is impulsively engaging in sexual behaviors they do not normally do, that this could cause a problem for their long-term relationship,” Hart said. “We have people coming in all of the time that say, ‘You know I got involved in this thing, I don’t know why I did it.’”
Excessive drinking may be another sign.
“About 40 percent of the people are estimated, who have bipolar, use alcohol to try to get themselves to sleep or calm down.”
She points to Robin Williams’ portrayal of Mork, on the television show, “Mork & Mindy” as a classic example of manic behavior.
The movie, “Silver Linings Playbook” also offers valuable insights, Hart said.
“I thought it was a really excellent portrayal of bipolar disorder,” she said.
Symptoms of bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.
People having a manic episode may:
- Feel very “up,” “high” or elated
- Have a lot of energy
- Have increased activity levels
- Feel “jumpy” or “wired”
- Have trouble sleeping
- Become more active than usual
- Talk really fast about a lot of different things
- Be agitated, irritable or “touchy”
- Feel like their thoughts are going very fast
- Think they can do a lot of things at once
- Do risky things, like spend a lot of money or have reckless sex
People having a depressive episode may:
- Feel very sad, down, empty or hopeless
- Have very little energy
- Have decreased activity levels
- Have trouble sleeping, they may sleep too little or too much
- Feel like they can’t enjoy anything
- Feel worried and empty
- Have trouble concentrating
- Forget things a lot
- Eat too much or too little
- Feel tired or “slowed down”
- Think about death or suicide
Source: National Institute for Mental Health
Published July 12, 2017
