When experts explain how it feels to live with bipolar disorder, they often describe the experience as an emotional roller coaster. This is an apt description of the unpredictable highs and depressive lows of a bipolar person’s mood, feelings, and energy levels. Even for an adult, these frequent fluctuations can be difficult. Unfortunately, they’re even harder for teens living with bipolar disorder.
Going through puberty means a lot of stress and physical and mental change, even without bipolar. To function properly, bipolar teens need plenty of help and attention from their parents and other loved ones. Don’t worry — we’ll help you meet this problem head-on by understanding what your teens are going through.
What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar is a disorder characterized by unexpected mood shifts. These can make it difficult for a person to function normally. In the case of bipolar teens, attending school and maintaining relationships will probably be harder.
About 1% of American teenagers live with bipolar disorder. How does bipolar affect teens in practice during their day-to-day lives?
Consider the feelings of joy or sadness that we all experience from time to time. With bipolar, moods switch between feelings of depression and elation far more often. Also, the emotions are more intense and prolonged.
In the past, bipolar was actually called manic depression. Experts believed that people with the disorder would always alternate between depression and mania.
Today, we know that teens living with bipolar disorder and adults experience a range of emotions on the spectrum between mania and depression. These are considered the two extreme poles of the disorder, giving it the modern name — bipolar.
Keep in mind that bipolar is a lifelong disorder but one that can be managed with proper treatment and ongoing care. In most cases, your teen will have to take mood-balancing medication for the rest of their life.
Continuing treatment is essential even once they feel better — sometimes involving temporary in-hospital treatment or prolonged outpatient programs. Depending on your teen’s behavior, they may also need treatment for drug or alcohol misuse.
For teens navigating the highs and lows of bipolar disorder, finding the right support is crucial. It is especially important in states like Tennessee, where teens have limited access to mental health resources. Professional help plays a key role in managing bipolar disorder, offering tailored strategies that can help stabilize mood swings and improve quality of life.
What Does Depression Look Like for Bipolar Teens?
Sadness is something all of us have experienced, at least occasionally. While the feeling needs no special introduction, the lows that people experience with bipolar disorder are far more intense. That’s why the left extreme on the bipolar spectrum is Major Depression — a clinical-grade depression that involves a profound, prolonged feeling of sadness and a lack of general motivation.
Besides a lack of motivation, bipolar teens may experience the following symptoms during their depressive phase:
- Suicidal thoughts of varying intensity,
- Indecisiveness and a lack of concentration,
- Low self-esteem and a sense of worthlessness,
- Excessive guilt,
- Decreased energy,
- Decreased or increased appetite, also leading to changes in weight
The specific feelings and how your teen processes them may differ depending on their personality and the severity of the disorder. Some teens experience this as a profound emptiness that leaves them low-energy, while others become extremely irritable.
In more extreme cases, teens with bipolar disorder may disassociate from reality and experience delusions or hallucinations. These, along with intense paranoia, may be lessened by medications prescribed by their healthcare provider.
What Does Mania Look Like for Bipolar Teens?
With bipolar, depression is only half of the picture. The other side of the coin is mania — a state of extreme happiness and euphoria.
This aspect of bipolar disorder is commonly less understood than depression. Still, it has often been described as being high on mood-boosting drugs. Some of the many symptoms of bipolar mania include:
- The inability to fall asleep or a lack of need for sleep
- Unnaturally high self-esteem, even leading to self-importance and arrogance,
- Racing thoughts and the inability to concentrate
- Difficulty staying in one place and sitting still, triggered by the constant need for activity
- Unusually constant and fast-talking
- Predisposition to engage in reckless behavior, including overspending, gambling, substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, etc.
In the less extreme cases, bipolar teens may experience hypomania — a less extreme form of mania that also tends to last shorter. With hypomania, the teens are more self-aware of the issues caused by bipolar disorder, and their judgment is less impaired.
So, these are the two alternating states of bipolar disorder. When a mood episode begins, teens suffering from the disorder will start feeling mild symptoms of depression or mania. Over a short period, their severity will heighten before they start swinging back to the other side of the pendulum.
Depending on the specific case of bipolar, the teens may go from a manic or depressive episode back to their baseline emotional state — or go straight to the other end of the spectrum.
How Does Bipolar Disorder Affect Daily Life?
As we’ve already mentioned, bipolar disorder can make a teen’s daily life quite difficult, even with the proper care.
Since they spend a lot of time in school, they’re likely to experience some of their manic or depressive episodes there. Unfortunately, mood swings will make it more difficult to focus on coursework and complete assignments.
The two stages of bipolar disorder can be equally distracting but in different ways. A manic episode can make your teen overconfident and reduce their responsiveness to authority. As a result, they’ll be less inclined to follow rules and teacher instructions or even sit still.
On the other hand, a depressive episode will likely trigger a lack of motivation for schoolwork. They may be unable to bring themselves to learn or even follow along in class.
Besides schoolwork, their social relationships may be affected as well. Their teenage friends likely won’t know a lot about bipolar disorder — potentially resulting in a lack of empathy or understanding for what your teen is going through.
Consequently, they may struggle to maintain friendships or avoid conflict and misunderstandings.
Conclusion — What Can You Do to Help?
Besides helping your child seek the treatment they need to manage bipolar disorder adequately, there are other things you can do to improve their well-being.
First, you should educate yourself as much as possible on the issue. One blog post won’t cut it — find the time to get into the details with various parent guides, articles, books, medical journals, etc.
Also, try to find other parents whose children suffer from the same disorder. Their experience will be valuable, helping you avoid pitfalls and find new ways to help your teen.
Crucially, you should communicate with your teen openly. Make talking about bipolar a regular, normal thing that they don’t shy away from. As a result, they won’t feel like their mental health is a taboo topic. Also, it will be easier for teens living with bipolar disorder when they’re used to talking about them and communicating their feelings.
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