Monday, May 19, 2008
Bipolar Disorder in Teens
Bipolar Disorder (also know as manic depression) often reveals itself in teens as severe moodiness and unhappiness. Often the first diagnosis is one of depression. Frequently bipolar disorder is initially misdiagnosed. It can take time to properly diagnos bipolar disorder. Treatment includes a combination of carefully monitored medication and professional counseling.
Bipolar disorder manifests differently in teens than in adults. Adolescent cycles are more rapid, adult cylces can be over weeks or months, in children cycles can occur within the same day.
Drug and alcohol use in adolescents with bipolar disorder is common. Dual-Diagnosis is the term used to describe the process of treating a mood disorder along side a substance abuse problem. Symptoms must be analyzed and treated accordingly. Careful and caring counseling, as well a medical attention and proper prescribed medication, are used to treat this combination.
Other conditions which contribute to the risk of adolescents developing a bipolar mood disorder increase with:
- family history of bipolar disorder or other mood disorder
- family history of drug or alcohol abuse
- episodes of severe depression
Factors which can contribute to manic episodes include:
- changes in routine or sleep patterns
- certain antidepressants can trigger manic episodes
- traumatic life event
- abuse or neglect of medication
- using alcohol or drugs
Labels: Bipolar-Disorder, drug rehab, Drug-Addiction-Rehab, Dual-Diagnosis-Treatment, Manic-Depression, mental-illness, teen-drug-abuse
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Jails and Prisons - The Mentally Ill and Overcrowding
Because of the system's inability to handle the amount of prisoners it is forced to handle, many mentally ill people are siphoned in to jails or prisons instead of mental hospitals where they belong. Incarcerating the mentally ill is not a new phenomenon, it has been happening since the beginning of incapacitation, but with the resources and knowledge we now have at our disposal there is little excuse for our imprisonment of the psychologically handicapped. The lack of treatment for mentally ill inmates is tragic because mental disorders are highly treatable with a 60-80% success rate. It is possible that many of the mentally ill in prisons and jails could be treated, or stabilized, with current medications, but for that to happen, people, politicians, and judges would have to have a radical change of policy, ideology, and heart.
Labels: incarceration, mental-illness
