Mania and hypomania are integral part of Bipolar disorder that belongs to psychotic disorder category. Mania is the word used to describe “elevated mood” of the person and depression is used for “low mood”. Bipolar disorder, literally speaking occurs in two episodes namely manic phase and depressive phase. But in practice most of the people affected with this disorder will be in “depressive” phase rather than in “manic phase”.
Symptoms :
The hypomania can be described by the following signs or symptoms, but not all of these are present in the same person. Hypomania is less severe when compared with mania.
The person will show increased activity and energy level. Flee of thoughts will be racing on his mind and he may not be able to put it in words. He would be seen with high level of confidence and self esteem. The person will be extremely talkative but he will change from one activity to the other thus easily distracted. He will not be able to concentrate in one particular activity. He will not get enough sleep.
One cannot say for sure that the affected person will be in elevated mood for the entire day. Suddenly he may become aggressive showing anger or even violence to others. He will show increased interest for social gathering and might have increased sex drive. He will show interest in pleasurable activities without bothering about the consequences. It is the time when one spends recklessly ignoring the financial commitments or family.
He will lack judgmental skills or balance and he will not accept that his behavior has changed. Most of the time, hypomania will be followed by depressed state of bipolar disorder. Only few of the above symptoms will be displayed by affected person and not all. Some people may not show any symptoms at all.
Causes :