What is bipolar, and how is OCD and anxiety related to it?

Answer 1

I think people have answered about bipolar depression above.

Obsessive compulsive disorder is as the name suggests - thinking about things over and over and then often having to perform ritualistic activities - like washing hands or repeating the same words or arranging and re-arranging your socks.

OCD is a version of a particular type of anxiey disorder. There are others including GAD - generalized anxiety disorder with and without panic attacks.

Bipolar depression is not necessarily related to either OCD or anxiety disorders, though any combination of the three can occur. Interestingly some of the medications you might use for each of the disorders can be helpful - though with bipolar depression you usually need a mood stabilizer - with the other disorders. SSRI's and Tricyclic antidepressants are helpful. Using benzodiazapene's are sometimes used too.

Answer 2

True. Check out wedmd.com.
NOT true. "bipolar is multi-personality"
Bipolar is a mood disorder. Some people might say that your moods are your personality. Use caution when classifying a persons' mental state. People who have bipolar are sometimes on the bottom end (psychologically), deep depression. Inversely, bipolar can be manic (on top of the world or feel great) and/or hypo-manic. The mood disorder part of this is when the persons' moods are like a sine wave going between a mixture of both of these moods. Another disorder which mimics bipolar is ADHD. The symptoms for both of these are so similar it is very difficult to discern.

Back to the question, OCD. Over Compulsive Disorder. Read what Webmd have to say. The way I read it, the two can be interconnected, however, they can stand alone and not be related. There is hope, if you feel you have symptoms, go and see a professional pyschiatrist. This person has an M.D. behind his name. This professional can prescribe drugs that can give your life "normalcy." I am not saying drugs are the cure for everything. For an ADHD bipolar adult they have helped me.

Answer 3

I started to answer this question an hour or more ago and got side-tracked. I'm glad you didn't stop taking answers too soon. You got at least one very pathetic answer. The last guy did pretty good, though.

I'd check out NAMI.org, "inform yourself". About.com also has some good info.

It's not at all unusual for the symptoms of anxiety to occur in someone who is bipolar. I think most bipolar people have had anxiety to one degree or another at some time.

It's also not unusual for OCD and bipolar to co-exist. One being the primary diagnosis and the other secondary. I'm bipolar and had OCD as a secondary diagnosis for awhile according to one doctor. I'm really just a bit "Monkish" today.

Answer 4

Okay, I'm not an expert, other than I've had bipolar disorder for about 20 years. Most people recognize the depression part of it and a lot of people, like me, are misdiagnosed as depressed, for years. Depression is what it sounds like, a fairly consuming depression, your down, you either sleep too much or too little, eat too much or too little and basically just can't pull yourself out of the funk. Then, you are sometimes on the other end of the spectrum, your manic phase, when you are totally on top of the world...happy as can be, probably too much so. Talking too fast, working too much, spending too much, and, for me HIGHLY IRRITABLE. You seem like the life of the party, but it just takes a little bit to push you right over the edge into blowing up at people and then a wee bit further back into the depression. OCD isn't a part of my reality, but I and many other people with bipolar I believe also suffer from anxiety.

People who don't have these diseases or haven't loved someone with them may think they are character flaws, but they are as real as diabetes or other chemical or hormone-based illnesses. For that reason, if you even think you may have this GET HELP! There is no shame and there are lots of great medicines and therapists that can help. I am living a full, successful and happy life with my disease...no reason for anyone not to!

Answer 5

Bipolar is a varying mood...from so depressed (depressive phase) you can't get out of bed to bouncing off the walls (manic phase) you can't get your house clean enough. Often in the manic phase you lose control..do things you normally would never think of. OCD and anxiety often accompany Bipolar disorder.

Answer 6

bipolar is severe mood swings. OCD obssesive compulsive disorder and anxiety can trigger the mmod swings. Things have to be a certain way or done in a certain order or it can cause the mood swings.

Answer 7

check out www.webmd.com
helpful answers here too: www.ivillage.com
bipolar means you have mutliple personalities. Sometimes people who are bipolar have anger management problems or spend too much money shopping. Etc. Its a really liberal sector. Good luck though!

Answer 8

You should be taking medicine for all of those on a daily basis. You should also be going to see a shrink on a regular basis. The shrink will help you out a lot on the issues and help you do some self therapy. And about self harming yourself is a major sign of bi-polar disorder, with a good medicine that works for you the harming yourself to try to end life should stop. This doesn't mean you won't still get down on yourself once in a while, but it shouldn't go that low anymore. Your mom should seriously talk to the doctor whom diagnosed this and gave you meds for this. There are so many options out there and with medicine you may not need more than to see a shrink. The doctor will explain it all to her and talk it over with her about the reasons and what is going on and what his/her opinion of this is. I have bi-polar myself and once I was medicated and on the medicine for a month I noticed my whole way of like change. I can now control my tempers, not so depressed I wanna end life, I don't have mood highs and lows anymore and I don't have racing thoughts and I don't sleep as much as a cat does anymore. Medicine changed my life big time. Anxiety is something that can stem from both ocd and bi-polar. Bdd can be controlled well with self therapy from a shrink. Or B she just doesn't want to deal with it and thinks there is nothing she or anyone around you daily can do to help you out so you need to be living with people specialized to care for you. Just tell mom she really needs to talk to your doctor about all of this before she goes ahead and makes any decisions on putting you into any type of care. Also tell her if the doctor feels the need to place you in care then they can recommend a good place and get you into a place faster(this fact might steer her to listen to you and talk to the dr first). I honestly wouldn't want to be in any care that I didn't fully need so if you have to do all it takes to have her talk to the doctor about it because to me it sounds like there is more to the disorders you have than she understands. I hope your mom has a good long chat with the doctor about all of this and comes to a better understanding of how to control it all than with just dumping you off in someone else's care. To me dumping you off in someone else's care would mean she don't wanna deal with it and just thinks things will be the same as before and now that you are diagnosed you should be able to go to a care facility. I would fight tooth and nail for what is right and to recover on my own with proper medicine you should be fine. OMG how medicine changed my life in a big way. but that still doesn't mean I don't get down once in a while when having a bad day I might get a lil upset that things just are going wrong and want time alone, but I no longer peace from everything I can with the world because of a low mood. Good Luck to you.