Symptoms And Treatment Of Bipolar Disorder - 1953 Words

Bipolar disorder (BP) is a debilitating mental illness that is found in 2% of the population and that onsets in late adolescence and early adulthood (Fabbri et al., 2014). The causes and treatment of BP are not known however there are many biological and cognitive theories (Myers, 2013). The types of treatment include various medications and types of therapy such as cognitive behavior therapy (Abrams, 2004). The very important question that needs to be asked is whether cognitive behavior therapy is a more effective treatment for bipolar disorder than multiple types of medications. Bipolar disorder is characterized by the polar shift in mood from mania to depression in a set amount of time which can range from hours to months (Fabbri et†¦show more content†¦CBT is used to prevent relapse along with improving the entire course of the disease for the patients (Myers, 2013). The aim of CBT is to alter the way a person thinks as well as acts (Myers, 2013). A great way to go about CBT is to retrain a person’s negative thoughts into realistic and attainable goals such as completion of homework without becoming upset (Myers, 2013). The point of a therapy session is to teach the patient how to go about daily life and how to retrain your thinking along the way (Myers, 2013). For example, a person with bipolar disorder could be in a manic state struggling with keeping their composure. With CBT they could try to make a conscious effort to slow down their thinking and to take everything one step at a time (Myers, 2013). Even though it is difficult to retra in a brain to do this, it is extremely efficient because they are allowing themselves to change the course of their BP without the use of medications that wouldn’t allow the same in depth understanding (Myers, 2013). People often refer to BP as being a chemical imbalance in the brain which is true (Abrams, 2004). However, in order to treat the mania along with the depression using medications or CBT it is important to understand what causes the depressive and manic states (Abrams, 2004). When a person has depression many molecules in the brain are not bound to receptors which are normally activated by reuptake into the presynaptic nerve fibers (Abrams, 2004). Instead,