by Bipolar or manic depression refers to a mental health condition that leads to extreme mood shifts. These extreme mood swings affect a person’s behavior, ability to think properly, activity, sleep, and energy.
A person suffering from it feels hopeless or sad when they feel depressed. But when their mood changes to mania, they feel full of energy and euphoric. It is a life-long condition, but mood swings and other related symptoms can be effectively dealt with through a treatment plan.
A good treatment for bipolar disorder takes place in a rehab facility that’s fully equipped with an infrastructure that keeps the patient in a positive frame of mind. The facility professionals use their expertise to provide their patients with an extensive recovery journey.
Treatment for Manic Depression
The most effective treatment for this mental health disorder is a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Many patients are administered more than one drug, such as an anti-psychotic and a mood-stabilizing drug.
The treatment must be continued even after the patient starts feeling better so that the mood symptoms can be monitored and can stay under control.
Bipolar disorder treatment requires rehabilitation, and a quick and accurate diagnosis by experts can help treat this problem successfully. The first line of treatment for this condition begins with mood stabilizers.
After remission from a particularly acute instance of this disorder, the patient is at a high risk of relapse for around six months. Therefore, the continuation of therapy is frequently recommended. But even after six months, a lifelong risk for new acute episodes is still there.
A person who has experienced more than two hypomanic episodes is seen as having lifetime manic depression. They should have maintenance therapy to reduce the future occurrence of such episodes. After the doctor has stabilized the mood of the acute stage, the medication therapy continues indefinitely at low doses.
Long Term Management of Manic Depression
Long-term management of this disorder goes beyond the prescribed treatment plan. After the patient gets the right combination of treatment, they need to firmly stick to the treatment plan to minimize recurrence of their mood episodes.
Self-management of symptoms exerts an essential role in achieving recovery. Some good strategies for self-management include the following.
- Making a sound work-life balance
- Consuming a healthy diet
- Forging positive relationships
- Getting adequate sleep
- Exercising consistently
Self-care and interpersonal support also enhance recovery by boosting the patient’s confidence in themselves. Interventions that encourage people to deal with their mood shifts can aid recovery.
The patient should be encouraged to not fear their mood changes as being afraid of them will only minimize the capacity of the patient to contain them.
Although you cannot avoid mood shifts because of manic depression, gradually, the individual becomes good at identifying the early signs of mood shifts. They can then build strategies to minimize their effects.
Strategies like mindfulness, yoga, and meditation help bring awareness to shifts in mood. Other self-care activities like reading, journaling, or listening to music also help calm the mood shifts before they aggravate.
This disorder can result in severe high and low mood episodes in the absence of effective treatment. Its symptoms adversely affect the quality of a patient’s life. The untreated disorder can also enhance the risk of suicide and self-harm.
But with professional treatment, the person can enjoy extended periods without feeling unexpected mood episodes.
