Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
Many people who are afflicted with mental disorders like bipolar, schizophrenia, and severe depression may not realize why they feel the way that they do until it is too late and the changes in their attitude and demeanor have become permanent. That is why it is so important that people understand some of the cause and symptoms of these diseases before it becomes too late. Not to mention the fact that since so many people tend to get the various ailments confused they might have difficulty recognizing one particular symptom of a specific mental disease over the other.
The reason that bipolar, schizophrenia, and other mental diseases often become merged together in the minds of so many people who are confused about the various symptoms is that they often have overlapping symptoms. Not to mention the fact that many times these diseases are lumped together in the media because it is easier for them to put everything in a large, collective pile rather than distinguishing between the different diseases in a way that the public will easily understand. Because of these common misconceptions many people confuse the different types of mental diseases and their underlying causes, making it difficult for people who may be suffering from these problems to differentiate between the problems so that they can adequately understand the disease that is afflicting them.
Unlike bipolar, schizophrenia is not a very common disease. It is usually something that usually affects people when they are between the ages of fifteen to twenty nine. It is also a disease that affects men more often than it does women, causing various types of hallucinations and delusions that help to play into their own separate world view. Everything about the hallucinations are illogical, and you will not be likely to persuade a person who is under the impression of a schizophrenic episode that the things they are seeing and hearing are not really happening to them.
One of the main problems that people have when they are dealing with schizophrenia is that they cannot seem to reason or talk to others in the outside world. To them the people on the outside are all enemies because they do not live in the same make believe world that the schizophrenic has built from the confines of their delusions. The delusions that schizophrenics develop will often tell them that the medication they are supposed to be taking to help correct their problem is actually poisoning them, and as a result they very rarely get better. This can make it almost impossible for schizophrenics to hold down a job or participate in many normal day to day activities.
Bipolar disorder on the other hand is a fairly common mental disease (compared to other mental disorders) that affects people by causing them to alternate between moods of extreme mania and depression. Either period can last weeks or months for each person, depending on the person’s mood. When someone with bipolar disorder is in a mania, they will do things like go shopping with money they don’t have, talk on the phone for hours, start creative projects they cannot finish, or just about any number of things that will keep them up and active. When someone is in a manic stage, they can stay in a manic swing for a long period of time and then they will suddenly crash and end up in a severe depression. While they are depressed they are likely to go through extreme periods of lethargy and sadness. During this time they are unlikely to do much of anything, and are often found either sleeping or lying around the house worried about everything they do and the potentially dangerous outcome of each decision they make.
If you or someone you know is experiencing some of these symptoms of bipolar, schizophrenia, or another mental health problem, then you will want to make sure that you go to a doctor right away. The sooner that these things are found and treated, the better your overall prognosis is likely to be.
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Thanks for a very informative article. I think it is important that people understand the differences between these three diseases so that they can get proper medical treatment. It seems to be fairly common for people with bipolar disorder to be treated for depression only which actually makes their condition worse. The sooner a correct diagnosis can be made, the sooner the correct meds can be prescribed.