Is Bipolar Disorder Chronic?

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder, is a chronic mental illness that can wreak havoc on your health as well as your personal and professional life. It is characterized by severe mood swings that alternate between periods of emotional highs and lows. These periods of highs and lows can negatively affect your relationships, work, academic performance, and daily activities.

(Read here the Key Clinical Features of Bipolar Disorder). 

This mental illness as neither gender nor age specific. However, individuals around 25 years old are more likely to have this mood disorder. Studies show that nearly 2.9% of the US population has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and more than three fourths of the cases are severe.

These figures necessarily indicate an alarming fact that mental illnesses are on the rise, and the time has come for everyone to extend their knowledge on different types of mental illnesses.

How Bipolar Disorder is a Chronic Mental Illness?

Though there is no consensus over what a chronic mental illness actually entails, experts developed a few criteria that may be used to categorize mental illnesses. In the case of bipolar disorder, experts have been able to file this illness under the “chronic” category.

There are two factors that are often used to describe a chronic mental illness:
-Recurrence pattern of the condition: A chronic condition can still resurface even if the symptoms have been dormant for a long period of time.

-Length of the condition: The longer the duration of the condition, the greater the risk of the disability.

There are various opinions on the chronicity of mental illnesses. Nevertheless, the generally accepted model of a disease chronicity includes:

●     Chronic-death: Bipolar disorder patients can develop suicidal tendencies especially during their depressive mood phase. The risk of suicide in patients with bipolar disorder is nearly 20% more than that of normal individuals.

●     Chronic-Self-limited: Bipolar disorder is not a self-limiting illness. A multifactorial approach comprising of medications, counseling, and coping strategies forms the mainstay of bipolar disorder treatment.

●     Chronic-Remission: Remission, temporary resolution of the clinical features of the condition, can be achieved through the use of medications.

●     Chronic-Recurrent: Bipolar disorder can come back again in the form of episodes of mania or depression within two years of recovery.

Helping a Patient with Bipolar Disorder

There is no definitive way to cure this debilitating mental illness, but a combination of medicines, counseling, and coping strategies can go a long way in managing the symptoms of this condition, which can help bring an individual’s life back to normalcy.

Like all other chronic illnesses, bipolar disorder requires continuous care to avoid the condition from coming back and to keep prospering complications under control. However, although bipolar disorder is chronic, it is still manageable and treatable. Patients with bipolar disorder can live a normal life with the right treatment.

Tips for Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Recovery is possible; you need a committed psychiatrist, and supportive family and friends to help you combat this illness. Your impaired thinking will try and push you away from the potential of your recovery, but don’t let it consume you. For many patients with chronic mental illnesses, recovery or getting back to normalcy may seem unachieveable. Patients may feel as if everything is lost, but this is not the case.

If you or a loved one experiences any of the symptoms of bipolar disorder, call your doctor right away. Let us help you find specialized care through the top psychiatrists in your area here.