Can bipolar disorder form into a more serious mental illness? Also does anyone know why it seems that all the mental disorders involve chemical imbalances, like the dopamine hypothesis, and serotonin and all that. Psychologists always say its Genetics, though it really seems environmental factors play the biggest role. I honestly think that almost all personality, mood, and psychotic disorders are not cause by genetics, but the way people were raised and the kind of life they lead.
Discover How Easy It Is To Start Being Happy Today – FREE REPORT!
Read the Panic Attack Review
Related Products:
5 Comments
Luigi Fontaine
on 8th Mar, 10 08:03pm
there are a couple of extremes that an untreated bipolar disoder could lead to; the person with the disorder could make some bad decisions and wind up in prison, or he or she could grow out of it with age and maturity.
talking about chemical imbalances is what they want to talk about because it is the drug dealers and chemists who are in charge of treating the disorder. psychologists are weak and ineffective intellectuals who have thrown their hands in the air and given up hope of being useful or doing good, so when they say “it’s genetic” what they are really saying is “time to give up, throw that child in the gas chamber, there’s plenty more where he came from, and now I’ll have a nice glass of wine please”.
people are created by their environment, the life they lead, but also by genetics and personality. the way to properly treat bipolar disorder doesn’t seem to be with drugs. or at least, not totally. changes in environment and attitude can make a big difference.
Sito
on 8th Mar, 10 09:03pm
if my mother and aunt werent hospitalized i would agree ..
i think it is gentetic..im living proof but i can also see how you were brought up can play a large role in it
serious
on 8th Mar, 10 09:03pm
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/bipolar_disorder/page2_em.htm
If left untreated people can cycle and their moods will escalate and then depression sets in. Genetics are involved, but I also believe enviroment plays a huge role. Good luck!!
gotta luv da Li
on 8th Mar, 10 10:03pm
Bipolar disorder is a progressive disease of the brain. Left untreated, it gets worse. I was untreated until mid-life. It got a heck of lot worse. I now take a lot more medication because of the delay. I swing much worse and more frequently. I have had psychosis which never happened before. It does get worse and I am far from the only evidence supporting that. There have been numerous tests that show decreases in executive functioning over time. There have been studies of cadavers that show decreases in brain gray matter. Anyone who says that there is not physical change in the brain is an ignorant fool. Science is recognizing that neurotransmitters (dopamine in particular, but serotonin and norepinephrine as well) themselves probably are not directly the cause, but are involved in a cascade of events that effect calcium channels, ion channels, GABA, and other brain systems. Bipolar also very clearly runs in families. Nearly every person with the disorder has a close relative with bipolar, recurring major depression, or schizophrenia. The three are somehow inter-related, and there is much thought going into something called spectrum theory. Anyway, there obviously is a genetic component. Essentially, if you don’t carry the genes odds are almost zero that you will get it. It also is believed that if you do have the genes it takes a stressful event to trigger the illness. So yes, there is a component about life events. That, however, does not mean you had a poor upbringing.
If you want to do research, try the National Institute of Mental Health’s research repository. It is valid research unlike some of the unsubstantiated opinion pieces you’ll find on the web.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
galaxy
on 28th May, 10 09:05pm
The last entry is correct. Those who do not accept this as an illness do not understand the biology involved at all, and are only basing their comments on personal opinions not having any scientific or medical knowledge .
Mental illness is so misunderstood and is way behind medicine even though many of the so called mental illnesses are biological in origin. What classifies something as an illness is a collection of “symptoms” which occur with great similarity or even identically in many cases in other individuals, in a clear pattern with a clear course, just like any other chronic illness has identifiable symptoms. Like all illnesses some people have milder versions of the same illness and require less treatment and can have some impact on their health and prognosis usually by making some lifestyle adjustments.
Mental illness is no different in this respect ,it is just affecting the particular physical organ of the brain responsible for thought processing, emotions and behaviour which is why the symptoms come out in this form, and I can not understand why even trained psychologists can not grasp this point, as they are so focussed on behaviour. They will not see that medical conditions, of which mental illness is part of this, often have genetic components, like any other inherited conditions. This is so simple , Why can’t they get it ? At least the general public can be excused for their ignorance and difficluty understanding neurobiology as it can be complicated.
I agree that “possibly” a trigger such as a significant stress may be needed to bring out the illness in some, although in others mental illness seems to occur spontaneously at certain agaes, especially where there is a family history, but there is definiterly an underlying biological predisposition. And even where there is a significant life stress, or ongoing trauma in youth which can be identified, this may also alter the developing brain chemistry by flooding it with large amounts of stress hormones suddenly or over a long period of time or when in shock, so again ,chemistry plays a part in the trigger of an illness just as it affects the immune system too, it obviously affects the brain, cortisol affects the herat too, so why should the brain be any different ? Even it the trigger has started out as an environmental external trrigger. Long term stress at any age affects brain chemistry over a period of time and hormonal changes can also contribute as a biological trigger as can unrecognised thyroid problems. When this is understood , hopefully the stigma of mental illness will be reduced and these confditions understood and accepted just like any other condition such as diabetes and epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.