Bipolar disorder is a very serious type of mental illness which is most characteristically marked by extreme mood swings, ranging from high to low and then going back from low to high. The spasms that have the patient experiencing high or good moods are called periods of mania, while when they feel low, those are periods of depression. The mood swings in some very serious cases may even become mixed to the extent of simultaneous existence. So, one person might feel elated and depressed at the same time. Bipolar disorder is not a rare disease at all, though it often goes undiagnosed.

Mania and its symptoms
The top five bipolar signs which are characteristic of the mania phase are as follows:

• A person may feel a little too happy, excited, elated, or pumped up for long periods of time, often without any breaks in between.
• The sleep requirements of the person experiencing mania drop down considerably because of the increased amount of energy they experience all of a sudden.
• The patient often talks very fast and their thoughts run at a speed where they can barely keep up with it in their speech.
• The extreme amount of restlessness, one of the top five bipolar signs, is common to all the patients who are in this state of bipolar disorder.
• They often end up engaging in extremely risky behavior, such as having impulsive sex, often without protection. They are even prone to doing things like gambling with life savings or spending too much money on very insignificant things.

Depression and its symptoms
The top five bipolar signs that are key to the depression phase are as follows:

• The person may feel extremely sad or hopeless for long periods of time, often without breaks.
• The patient concerned often withdraws himself or herself from both friends and family.
• They also start to lose interest in all kinds of co-curricular activities that they once enjoyed.
• They would most probably have a significant change in appetite, which is usually a decrease.
• They may feel severely fatigued or experience a lack of energy throughout the day, for a number of days at a stretch.

Curing depression
These symptoms often tend to appear in an individual’s late teens or early adult years, but it is not impossible for them to occur in children as well. However, the treatment of depression in bipolar disorder can be made very easy with proper care and diagnosis. It is important to understand the problems and nuances of this complicated illness if you want to get out of it or help someone cope with it.