Understanding Bipolar Disorder & Addiction

Bipolar disorder, a condition characterized by extreme mood swings over periods of time, can require special mental health medications for treatment. However, some patients choose not to use these medications or think they aren't working well enough. They instead turn to self-medication through substance abuse, which can lead to addiction. Understanding the moods, the reasons for substance abuse and the help offered can further explain bipolar disorder and addiction.

Mania and Depression

• To understand why bipolar disorder patients would have addictions, you have to understand the moods. Mania is the mood where the patient has extreme levels of energy and desire to do high-energy activities. Hyper-sexuality, frivolous spending, physical activity, like constant working out are among them. Manic patients will also delve into several projects with the intent to complete them all, despite the unrealistic amount of time and dedication needed. The same patients can also suffer from depression, which consists of disinterest in life, discontinuation of normally fun activities and talk about suicide. Sometimes the depression is triggered once the patient figures out the results of his actions during mania.

Substance Abuse

• When substance abuse occurs in bipolar patients, this is known as dual diagnosis. The substance abuse in bipolar patients can occur during both the manic and depression phases. Sometimes bipolar patients refuse to take medications because of the side effects and choose instead to self-medicate. Or they feel that the medications aren't doing enough. For manic patients, alcohol can become the substance of choice because of its depressant qualities. Patients in the depressed state can resort to cocaine abuse as well as other stimulants to lift themselves out of the funk. Unfortunately this self-medication can lead to addictions, effectively giving bipolar patients yet another medical condition to battle.

Help

• Help for bipolar patients with addiction sometimes starts with treating the addiction. Patients often need to use mood stabilizer medications to keep them from slipping into mania or having psychotic symptoms. However, many of these medications do not interact well with alcohol or other illicit drugs. If this strategy isn't available, patients may be simultaneously treated for both problems by different doctors. Both doctors should remain in communication and share information about the patient so they do not prescribe interventions that can conflict with one another. For example, a bipolar patient in depression may need antidepressants, but those medications could conflict with any alcohol detoxification medications.