Windsor – Tecumseh – Psychologist – Therapist – Golden Sun Wellness & Counselling
Phone: 519-919-4499
25 Amy Croft Dr Unit 18A, Windsor, ON N9K 1C7
dana@gswcounselling.com
Help for Bipolar Spectrum Disorders
Bipolar disorders can take many forms. For some individuals, bipolarity presents as manias, periods of frenetic energy coupled with really, really high or irritable mood. Manias tend to make people overconfident to the point of grandiosity and make many risky decisions they otherwise would not. Some manias can involve delusional beliefs and hallucinations. Milder manias can leave an individual with strained relationships at home, problems at work, and an empty bank account. More serious manias can leave a path of destruction in a person’s life, with broken marriages, being fired from the job, and in crippling debt.
For other individuals, bipolarity mainly consists of long episodes of depression interrupted by bursts of energized, creative activity called hypomanias. Unlike manias described earlier, hypomanias are very hard to distinguish from having a couple of really good days or a week, a time previously depressed individuals spend on catching up on all they’ve not been neglecting, and making many new commitments that will fall through once depression sets in again. The problem is these individuals are often misdiagnosed as having unipolar depression – research estimates that up to 25% of unipolar depressions diagnosed in primary care end up being bipolar depressions. They are then treated with antidepressant medications which tend to make symptoms worse or induce manias.
An accurate and timely diagnosis of bipolar disorder is very challenging in many ways. A timely but inaccurate diagnosis results in unnecessary treatments that often have unpleasant and at times dangerous side effects. An accurate diagnosis that comes when the individual’s life has been put on its head by a particularly destructive manic or depressive episode can still be very helpful, but it cannot prevent the things that have already happened.
Various types of medication have long been the only treatment for bipolar disorder. Over time interest in alternative or complementary approaches led us to where we are today, having talk therapies that are helpful across the bipolar spectrum. Cognitive behavior therapy for bipolar disorder and Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) are two approaches for managing symptoms of bipolar disorder that have evidence behind them.
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25 Amy Croft Dr. Suite 18A
Windsor, ON N9K 1C7
PH: 519-919-4499