DSM CRITERIA

Bipolar Disorder Symptoms and Charcerizations

How It Looks To The Non-Bipolar

• - Symptoms of Mania (Highs)
• - Symptoms of Depression (Lows)
• - Bipolar I and Bipolar II (Characterizations of Each)
• - Mania and Depression (How These Symptoms Look to the Non-Bipolar)

Symptoms of Mania (Highs)*

• - Increased physical and mental activity and energy
• - Heightened mood, exaggerated optimism and self-confidence
• - Excessive irritability, aggressive behavior
• - Decreased need for sleep without experiencing fatigue
• - Grandiose delusion, inflated sense of self-importance
• - Racing speech, racing thoughts, flight of ideas
• - Impulsiveness, poor judgment, distractibility
• - Reckless behavior
• - In the most severe cases, delusions and hallucinations

Symptoms of Depression (Lows)*

• - Prolonged sadness or unexplained crying spells
• - Significant changes in appetite and sleep patterns
• - Irritability, anger, worry, agitation, anxiety
• - Pessimism, indifference
• - Loss of energy, persistent lethargy
• - Feelings of guilt, worthlessness
• - Inability to take pleasure in former interests, social withdrawal
• - Unexplained aches and pains
• - Recurring thoughts of death or suicide

Bipolar I*

• - Bipolar I is characterized by one or more manic episodes or mixed episodes (symptoms of both a mania and a depression occurring nearly every day for at least 1 week) and one or more major depressive episodes. Most severe form.

Bipolar II*

• - Bipolar II is characterized one or more depressive episodes accompanied by at least one hypomanic episode (similar to manic episodes but are less severe, but must be clearly different from a person’s non-depressed mood).

Mania (What Mania Looks Like to the Non-Bipolar)*

• - Irritable, angry or raging
• - Racing thoughts, unable to concentrate, unable to hold a thought
• - Fast talking, or talking incessantly
• - Spending money like a millionaire
• - Obsessive compulsive
• - Grandiose ideas, wanting to start a horse farm and you have never owned a horse
• - Positive thinking (Peter Pan thinking)
• - Indiscriminate sexual encounters
• - Wanting sex multiple times a day with a partner
• - Aggressive, paranoid, psychotic, delusional (last stages)

Depression (What Depression Looks Like to the Non-Bipolar)*

• - Self-absorbed, selfish, demanding, unaware or unconcerned about the needs of others
• - Unresponsive, uncommunicative, aloof, withdrawn
• - Uninterested in sex and dismissive or distrusting of a partners tenderness or affection
• - Fractious, querulous, combative, contrary; finding fault with everything
• - Demeaning and critical of a partner
• - Changeable and unpredictable; illogical and unreasonable
• - Manipulative
• - Pleasant and charming in public and the opposite at home
• - Prone to sudden, inexplicable reference to separation or divorce
• - Prone to workaholism or avoidance of all responsibility
• - Increasingly dependent on alcohol and drugs, gambling, spending money
• - Obsessively addicted to TV, computer games and computer porn sites, and other compulsive distractions

*From Depression Fallout, Anne Sheffield, Three Rivers Press, N.Y. 1998