According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder is defined as having unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day task. There are several different types of bipolar disorder including: bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, and cyclothymic disorder (“Bipolar Disorder,” 2014). The signs and symptoms for each bipolar disorder slightly vary. However, the main sign and symptoms include having moods with extreme highs (manic episodes) and having extreme lows (depressing states); these extremes can occur simultaneously or in rapid sequence (Reserved, 2016).
Some common symptoms of mania include: increased energy, activity, and restlessness, euphoric mood, extreme irritability, distractibility, little sleep needed, poor judgment, abuse of drugs, and denial that anything is wrong (“About Bipolar disorder,” 2016). Bipolar disorder can be diagnosed if at least three of the mania symptoms listed above occur every day or for long periods at a time. At the same time some common symptoms of depression include: poor appetite, trouble sleeping, …show more content…
After almost beating his wife’s lover to death, Solatano Jr. is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and placed in a mental health facility. But it’s not because he almost beat a man to death that he is diagnosed with the disorder. It’s because of his inability to realize that what he did was a manic episode. A manic episode can best be defined as “a period of excessive euphoria, inflated self-esteem, wild optimism, and hyperactivity, often accompanied by delusions of grandeur and by hostility if activity is blocked” (Wood, Wood, Boyd 2014). Also, before his manic episode, Pat was delusional in thinking that his wife and one of her coworkers were smuggling money from the