No, bipolar disorder doesn’t mean that you’re kind of cheerful one day and a little bit glum the next. Those are just moods. That’s not a disorder. The Mayo Clinic says of bipolar, “When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities. When your mood shifts to mania or hypomania (less extreme than mania), you may feel euphoric, full of energy or unusually irritable. These mood swings can affect sleep, energy, activity, judgment, behavior and the ability to think clearly.”

We unpack what bipolar means from the perspective of our friend, Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Alliance. He’s a psychiatrist and also grew up with a bipolar father. Writer and pundit Ana Marie Cox is in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and she deals with what’s known as bipolar II, a variation on the disorder, that comes with symptoms that can be subtle but powerful.

Visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI here.

Visit Ana Marie Cox's website here. Listen to her podcast With Friends Like These on the podcatcher of your choice. Follow Ana Marie Cox on Twitter @anamariecox and on Instagram @anamariecox.

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