What Causes the Bipolar Disorder?

 

If one of your friends or loved ones is suffering from bipolar disorder than you already know how hard it can be to live and interact with them. One moment they might be on top of the world, singing and confident and exuberant, wanting to spend money and party and engage in furious amounts of productivity. Other times they may be so depressed they want to die, feeling worthless, crying, absolutely without pleasure in life and crushed by a sadness profound it defies understanding. Where do these mood swings come from, and what is the cause of bipolar disorder? Though much is still unknown by scientists, enormous progress has taken place these past ten years. In this article we'll take a look at what is actually known, and help you understand the causes of bipolar disorder.

Doctors believe that bipolar disorders does tend to run in families, and can be greatly aggravated by the environment. Specifically, alcohol and drugs can make dealing with bipolar disorder incredibly harder, as well as stressful jobs or environments. What is clear however is that bipolar disorders stem from a chemical imbalance in the brain. These neurotransmitters finely regulate how we feel and act, and an imbalance there can generate disastrous results.

Three brain chemicals are thought to be imbalanced when bipolar disorder is in evidence. These are noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine. Noradrenaline and serotonin have been consistently linked with a variety of mood and mental disorders such as psychosis and schizophrenia. Serotonin is closely linked to such physical activities as sleeping, waking, being sexual, and being impulsive. Dopamine is the pleasure chemical, and helps generate senses of well-being and pleasure in our minds and bodies. The disruption of these three chemicals can lead to huge swings in our body's ability to regulate itself.

Bipolar disorder has definitely been demonstrated by researchers to follow genetic lines, with studies performed by Johns Hopkins, Stanford and other universities demonstrating that the likelihood of one twin to develop the disease increased by a large percentage if the other twin manifested it first. Further, children of adults with bipolar disorder had a 51% chance of manifesting it themselves, as well as other disorders such as ADHD, depression, and substance abuse.

Sleep deprivation has also been linked to the triggering of a bipolar disorder episode, such that doctors suggest people take non-addictive sleep medication in order to ensure that their social rhythms remain uninterrupted and smooth.

 

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