I wrote this as a Guest Post on Tony Robert’s blog, Delight in Disorder: Divine delight in a disordered world.
The Scream, Edvard Munch, 1893
As I look back on the cycles of bipolar that have tried to steal my life away from me, I am acutely aware of both overt and covert cycles associated with this illness.
The overt cycles are mania or hypomania and depression, which is why this brain disease used to be called manic-depression. Some sufferers prefer to use this name because it accurately describes the two polar-opposite cycles we swing through without the middle ground in between. Hypomania is the milder form of the upswing cycling experienced by those who have bipolar 2, the more “benign” form of bipolar. While mania is often accompanied by visions, voices and dangerous behavior, the symptoms of hypomania can be overspending to the point of bankruptcy, risky sexual behavior, or extreme irritability with self or those around us. Depression in bipolar 1 is more extreme, while in bipolar 2 is more frequent. Both […]
Please read the rest on Tony’s site.
Susan Irene Fox 