Bipolar disorder sufferers and medical experts share how to regulate the condition and embrace the ups and downs
- People with bipolar disorder experience emotional swings between depression and manic euphoria ‘like a line of cocaine’, as one sufferer describes it
- Sadie Kaye, who founded non-profits in Hong Kong to help fellow sufferers, pairs medication with creativity and a healthy lifestyle to manage her condition
When you think about depression, you imagine a sufferer’s mental state goes in one direction: down. They are unipolar. In the condition once known as manic depression, a patient swings between high and low, up and down, between two poles: in other words, bipolar. The treatment for this strives to find a balance, a steadying of that pendulum, a finger to still it.
Teresa Chan, clinical adviser at Mind Hong Kong, a charity, gives the textbook definition of bipolar versus unipolar depression: unipolar depression symptoms include lethargy and loss of interest. Bipolar comes with an additional set of symptoms – mania – which are opposites to the low mood and apathy of depression as we know it. People with bipolar disorder present with confidence, euphoria, racing thoughts and restlessness.
“Mania is like your first sugar rush or line of cocaine,” she says. “The effects can last weeks, months, even years. During this time, our factory default setting is bold, impassioned, inspired, intuitive, seductive, magnetically charming and charismatic. We have no fear of failure.”
At first it sounds almost attractive – to be ignited by such energy, inflamed with can-do. But, as Kaye warns, there are huge downsides: “Life is generally about a degree of predictability, so if your mood suddenly goes up or down, for no apparent reason, it’s very hard for you and it’s very hard for those close to you. As mania builds, imagination and reality can easily blur. We might hallucinate or experience delusions, typically of grandeur.”