Psychopathology Sum-Up: Bipolar Disorder

[Content note: brief discussion of suicide]

Weekly series! As per previous discussion, I will be published a big information blog about a specific mental illness on each Friday.

I know, today is not Friday. I’m publishing early because I’m excited, and also I want to get lots of feedback. Tell me what I’m not including, what other things you want to know, etc. If there’s enough questions, I’ll do a second follow-up post. Lastly, tell me if there’s terms I’m not defining that I should be. I really really don’t want to get wrapped around jargon here–it helps nobody.

The idea is to talk about what the diagnoses are and aren’t, common misconceptions, what treatment and outcomes look like, and so on. Though not all therapeutic orientations (the theory and approach behind a course of treatment) depend on or use diagnoses–and there’s some very good arguments against using the medical model of diagnosis–we do use labels to conduct research, and it’s worth learning what a mental illness is. I’m going to try to include any changes to diagnostic criteria as well as current debates.

This post is massive and organized in informational sections, so I’ve put it behind a jump.

Continue reading “Psychopathology Sum-Up: Bipolar Disorder”

Psychopathology Sum-Up: Bipolar Disorder
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