In 2011, at age forty-nine, I discovered I have bipolar disorder. This news explained a lot about my life and I could have used it when I was younger. But all in all I am glad I’m learning more about myself.
Bipolar is a mood disorder. A person with it has extremely high or low moods. The highs that someone with bipolar I experiences are called mania. Those of a person with bipolar II are called hypomania. The lows are depression.
Other variations of bipolar include types whose symptoms look like bipolar but don’t fit known categories. Doctors call those types “bipolar not otherwise specified.”
I have bipolar II disorder. So my hypomania never swings totally off the charts like the mania of someone with bipolar I can do. But like the typical person with bipolar II, at times, my depressions have been paralyzing. They started before I hit my teens. More »
