How can you tell if someone is biopolar?

Question

My friend has been having serious highs and lows. In fact, he might sleep for 2 hours with a max of 4 hours. I'm concerned especially with 3 deaths in his family within 3 to 4 months of each other. He was already depressed and now it has gotten a lot worse. Just not sure what to do without tipping me hand...

Answer 1

The symptoms of bipolar disorder can vary from one person to another. People with bipolar disorder should talk with their healthcare providers about their symptoms at each visit. Symptoms of depression and mania (formerly referred to as "manic depression symptoms") include the following.

Depression:
Feeling sad or blue, or “down in the dumps”
Loss of interest in things the person used to enjoy, including sex
Feeling worthless, hopeless, or guilty
Sleeping too little or too much
Changes in weight or appetite
Feeling tired or having little or no energy
Feeling restless
Problems concentrating or making decisions
Thoughts of death or suicide

Mania:
Increased energy level
Less need for sleep
Racing thoughts or mind jumps around
Easily distracted
More talkative than usual or feeling pressure to keep talking
More self-confident than usual
Focused on getting things done, but often completing little
Risky or unusual activities to the extreme, even if it’s likely bad things will happen

Hypomania is a milder form of mania that has similar but less severe symptoms.

Keeping track

People with bipolar disorder may have periods of mania and depression during their life. But with treatment, their symptoms may be managed.

One important way to manage bipolar disorder is for people who are diagnosed with it to keep track of how they're feeling. They can track how things are going by using a Mood Chart.

If a person with bipolar disorder is taking medication, it's important for them to continue taking it even after the symptoms go away. If they stop taking medication, their symptoms may return.

Answer 2

You can't officially tell without a professional diagnosis but here is what I know.
Usually, bipolars are diagnosed with depression first. Once they get on an anti-depressant that will chemically put them at high risk for a manic episode, when the manic side shows itself then the person with bipolar disorder can finally be treated with the proper medications.
Depression is pretty easy to spot and usually is the majority of the illness; manic attacks are usually shorter. A manic episode can have many different symptoms; racing thoughts, fast talking, grandiose thoughts, careless spending, gody dressing, short temper, delusions, hallucinations, life of the party... that is a few and not everyone gets all of them.
There are several different versions of bipolar that rate from extreme to manageable. There are several web sites that have full information from check lists, to management, medication info. Below is just one of many web sites. Good luck!

Answer 3

Unlike normal depression, these are unusual changes in extremes of mood from high to low. There are most likely rage outbursts and uncontrolled bitter anger which can switch to highly excited periods.

DEPRESSIVE EPISODE
Lasting sad, anxious, or empty mood
Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed, including sex
Decreased energy, a feeling of fatigue or of being "slowed down"
Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
Restlessness or irritability
Sleeping too much, or can't sleep
Change in appetite and/or unintended weight loss or gain
Chronic pain or other persistent bodily symptoms that are not caused by physical illness or injury
Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts


MANIC EPISPODE
Increased energy, activity, and restlessness
Excessively "high," overly good, euphoric mood
Extreme irritability
Racing thoughts and talking very fast, jumping from one idea to another
Distractibility, can't concentrate well
Little sleep needed
Unrealistic beliefs in one's abilities and powers
Poor judgment
Spending sprees
A lasting period of behavior that is different from usual
Increased sexual drive
Abuse of drugs, particularly cocaine, alcohol, and sleeping medications
Provocative, intrusive, or aggressive behavior
Denial that anything is wrong

Answer 4

You can't tell for sure unless you get checked. Very high "highs" and happy moods one day and then very low "lows" depression and thoughts of suicide the next.

Answer 5

If someone is bipolar they will have days that they wont sleep at all, stay up doing all kinds of things, feel like they are invincible. Then they have days of deep depression.

Answer 6

Bipolar disorder (previously known as manic depression) is a diagnostic category describing a class of mood disorders in which the person experiences states or episodes of depression and/or mania, hypomania, and/or mixed states. Left untreated, it is a severely disabling psychiatric condition. The difference between bipolar disorder and unipolar disorder (also called major depression) — for the purpose of this introduction — is that bipolar disorder involves "energized" or "activated" mood states in addition to depressed mood states. The duration and intensity of mood states varies widely among people with the illness. Fluctuating from one mood state to another is called "cycling" or having mood swings. Mood swings cause impairment not only in one's mood, but also in one's energy level, sleep pattern, activity level, social rhythms and thinking abilities. Many people become fully disabled — for significant periods of time — and during this time have great difficulty functioning.
It is becoming increasingly clear that bipolar and unipolar mood disorders have a genetic component. For example, a family history of bipolar spectrum disorders can impart a genetic predisposition towards developing a bipolar spectrum disorder[2]. Since bipolar disorders are polygenic (involving many genes), there are apt to be many unipolar and bipolar disordered individuals in the same family pedigree. This is very often the case (Barondes, 1998). Anxiety disorders, clinical depression, eating disorders, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis and/or schizophrenia may be part of the patient's family history and reflects a term called "genetic loading".

Bipolar disorder is more than just biological and psychological. Since "many factors act together to produce the illness", bipolar disorder is called a multifactorial illness, because many genes and environmental factors conspire to create the disorder (Johnson & Leahy, 2004).

Since bipolar disorder is so heterogeneous, it is likely that people experience different pathways towards the illness.
The following is a quote from a successfully treated individual with bipolar disorder (from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health):

Manic-depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to live. It is an illness which is biological yet looks and feels psychological, one that is unique in conferring advantage and pleasure, yet one that brings in its wake almost unendurable suffering and, not infrequently, suicide. I am fortunate that I have not died from my illness, fortunate in having received the best medical care available, and fortunate of having the friends, colleagues, and family that I do.[3]
In her book, Touched With Fire, Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., writes:

The clinical reality of manic-depressive illness is far more lethal and infinitely more complex than the current psychiatric nomenclature, bipolar disorder, would suggest. Cycles of fluctuating moods and energy levels serve as a background to constantly changing thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. The illness encompasses the extremes of human experience. Thinking can range from florid psychosis, or "madness", to patterns of unusually clear, fast and creative associations, to retardation so profound that no meaningful mental activity can occur. Behavior can be frenzied, expansive, bizarre, and seductive, or it can be seclusive, sluggish, and dangerously suicidal. Moods may swing erratically between euphoria and despair or irritability and desperation. The rapid oscillations and combinations of such extremes result in an intricately textured clinical picture.

Answer 7

I hear one of the signs is that you don't need to sleep very much.

Answer 8

happy as a pig in a mud hole one minute and the next minute
mad as a rooster in a fight

Answer 9

Let a psychiatrist diagnose it.

Answer 10

check out there behavior because it tells all plz believe