Bipolar Disorder And Other Mental Illnesses Essay

Having Bipolar Disorder means waking up not knowing whether Tigger or Eeyore will be making your decisions for you(healthyplace.com). I became interested in bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses because my older cousin suffers from bipolar disorder and dissociative identity disorder. After he was diagnosed I wanted to learn more about it, to better understand how he felt living with these disorders. He wasn t able to come over because my parents were afraid he would do something to harm us, especially since he had set my cousins back porch on fire trying to kill his sisters. Bipolar disorder affects 5.7 million of adult Americans, 2.6 percent being over the age of 18. Throughout this paper, you will hear about what bipolar disorder is and the different categories of bipolar disorder, the symptoms, and the medicines used to treat them. Bipolar disorder was first noticed in the second century, during this time people who had symptoms of a mental illness were executed because the church believed these people were possessed by demons. As the years went by slowly people started to understand, as a physician and philosopher named Aretaeus of Cappadocia who had recognized the symptoms of depression and mania ad linked them together. His findings didn’t become known until 1650 because of a scientist named Rob Burton wrote a book about clinical depression, called The Anatomy of Melancholia. Later in 1854 bipolar disorder was seen in a whole new light after Jean-PierreShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Bipolar Disorder On Individuals, Families And Society1109 Words   |  5 PagesMental illness is a leading cause of disability in Canada. All Canadians are likely to be indirectly affected through a mental illness in a family, friend or colleague. 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