Can Bipolar Disorder Have an Effect on Physical Health?

Bipolar disorder is a mental disease that effects not only your mood, but your physical health as well. There are a number of problems that can occur as a direct result of bipolar disorder.

Death

• Those with mental diseases are three times more likely to die prematurely from physical diseases. This is because those who are mentally ill do not take good care of their bodies.

Physicals

• It is important that people diagnosed with mental disease get routine physicals as well. Serious problems may go undetected because those who are ill do not feel the pain or ignore it.

Weight

• Those who are bipolar often experience a loss of appetite, which causes weight to plummet. Weight can drop to dangerously low levels.

Sleep

• Insomnia is a common problem among those with bipolar disorder. Insomnia is the inability to sleep or the inability to stay asleep, and often leads to fatigue or worse physical problems.

Sex

• Bipolar patients often have a low sex drive or no sex drive at all. This may cause the inability to have an orgasm or to become sexually aroused.

Pains

• Many bipolar patients have chronic pains that have no physical cause. Their pain may be completely mental.