Facts About Teens With Bipolar Disorder

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Teens with bipolar disorder will usually start to manifest symptoms during their childhood, and may be diagnosed in adult life. This disorder can affect anyone and without any specific history. However if one or both parents have a bipolar disorder, there are greater chances that their children may develop it at an early age. Family history of drug or alcohol abuse has also been associated with a greater risk for bipolar disorders.

The symptoms shown by teens with bipolar disorder are severe changes in their mood, whether they are unusually happy or silly, or sometimes very irritable, angry, agitated or aggressive. Some teens with bipolar disorder may experience unrealistic highs in self-esteem, for example feeling very powerful or like a superhero with special powers. Teens with bipolar disorder may develop an increase in energy and the ability to go with little or no sleep for days without feeling tired. Teens with bipolar disorder may also start talking too much, too fast and change topics too frequently. They also tend to get distracted very easily and their attention moves constantly from one thing to another. Teens with bipolar disorder my also develop repetitive high risk-taking behavior, such as abusing alcohol and drugs, reckless driving or sexual promiscuity.

When a teenager is depressed he or she may develop excessive irritability, depressed moods, unrelenting sadness, frequent crying, thoughts of death or suicide, they'd lose the enjoyment of their favorite activities, frequently complain of physical illnesses such as headaches or stomach aches, and other things such as a major change in eating or sleeping patterns, such as oversleeping or overeating.