A friend of mine, kyakaLeaf, recently gave me some info about bipolar disorder. She would like to share this with the guild, and gave me permission to post it here. She said she's going to join the guild, so give her a warm welcome!
And now her info:
n.n
I took Psychology at my college for Fall Semester 2006 (just for reference).
Today, for one reason or another, doctors are prescribing people with “bipolar disorder.” The sheer number of people prescribed with it proves that it is a misdiagnosis.
True story: A girl taking a few AP classes in school got bogged down with homework and felt a little sad because she couldn’t go out with her friends. She was a little on edge, and got mad at her mom for coming to talk to her while she was working. She was taken to a doctor and prescribed with bipolar. Now, I don’t know for a fact the extent of her sadness or anger, but I doubt it was anything out of the ordinary; also, today’s “rich parents” over react about everything…
Let me start by explaining depression, you will see why after. Depression is a relatively serious psychological problem that can be caused from almost anything. It is when an individual feels very closed or alone; this person will appear sad or tired. A depressed individual can be reluctant to do anything, including work, play, or otherwise. It is often distinguished by”feeling sad for no reason.” Clinical Depression, or sometimes-called “unipolar disorder,” is when these symptoms last for a few weeks, rather than just hours or days. Those with clinical depression are usually on suicide watch as well; if not specifically on watch, then special attention is paid to them.
Bipolar disorder is
only a clinical disorder, and is a very serious case. Up until recently, bipolar was instead referred to as “Manic Depression.” Someone with manic depression is clinically depressed; despair, sadness, the works for long periods time (usually longer than shorter). Manic depression is distinguished by what is called a “Manic episode.” During such a state, the person feels directly opposite of depressed, or the opposite pole. One feels very confident, and sure of herself. Likewise, rather than being closed up, the person will be very outward, forward, and public. Some who is generally conservative and “unknown to the world” may go out to the store and buy extensive amounts of flashy and provocative clothing “because their wardrobe doesn’t show off enough” or may jump up on the table and start performing a strip tease “because everyone wants their sexy body.” These episodes usually last only a few hours, and may occur at any time without warning. Someone may have an episode two days in a row, or may go one, two, three, or any other number of years without having another episode. One may even have recovered from depression entirely but still have a manic episode, usually followed by depression.
Manic depression is for life, and is very serious. You know how well treatments work for depression (i.e. its mostly a “I’m on drugs so I must not feel bad, hmm…” (i.e. placebos)); there are no treatments for manic depression. Okay, I give, drugs for depression do in fact do something. As they say, they help with “chemical imbalance.” If you are still reading, then prepare to feel knowledgeable, because often even doctors (yes Medical PhDs) don’t know what a “chemical imbalance” is. If you got to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotransmitters and read “Mechanism of action,” it gives a pretty good idea of what should happen; even still, it leaves out a few parts (the important ones). Here is my simplified version (as I do not want this to be confusing and I can’t sit down with you and talk it through):
1. A dendrite (collection of neurons) receives the “information,” such as “I feel something” or “this is hot.” The form/shape/makeup of the information gives it the name “neurotransmitter.”
2. Multiple information pieces are “wrapped up” into a vesicle.
3. The vesicle is sent through the axon to the axon terminal.
4. There is a gap between the axon terminal and the “next cell” (I cannot remember what the next cell is, but it isn’t too important). This gap is called a “synapse.”
5. The vesicle goes up to the edge of the axon terminal, and releases the neurotransmitters into the synapse. Most of the neurotransmitters make to the receptors on the other side of the synapse (i.e. to the receivers on this “next cell”), but not all of them do. The ones that don’t make it, go back to the vesicle. (After that, I don’t know what happens to them; I imagine they get decomposed)
** It is normal for not all of these neurotransmitters to make it. The so called “Chemical Imbalance” is when too few of these neurotransmitters make it.
The drugs that fix this “chemical imbalance” disallow the neurotransmitters from going back to the vesicles. Sometimes, they back to the “next cell” again, sometimes they go off to somewhere else. This means the neurotransmitters don’t get taken care of, and if they don’t get to the “next cell” they can potentially cause problems elsewhere. Thus you get side effect of taking the drug, or maybe even worse depression; it is “information” going to the wrong places.
(To recap) Depression is very common, but not very serious. Depressive periods can last anywhere from a few hours to a few years (longer is more serious). Manic Depression never goes away, even if the “depression” seems to. 
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