Throughout my life, I’ve known many people with mood disorders. One of my best friends today has been diagnosed including General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Bipolar Disorder.
Anxiety is essentially a feeling of unrealistic or excessive fearfulness. Often times, people get anxiety about the future or current stimuli they’re experiencing. However, in the case of GAD, the anxiety often comes out of nowhere; you’re not able to recognize where the worry is coming from. In order to be diagnosed with GAD, you have to have uncontrollable and persistent anxiety for at least six months. Anxiety can also present itself in other disorders, like panic disorders. This is where someone might experience a panic attack, a minutes-long espisode of dread that can be accompanied by physical symptoms, like chest pain.
I’ve watched her struggle with the constant anxiety, and it can get very exhausting for her. For example, we could be in the car going somewhere, but she suddenly gets too anxious to continue to our destination.
Bipolar Disorder is when a person’s mood will switch between extreme lows and extreme highs. This is formerly called manic-depressive disorder, and it can often be attributed to genetics. In the case of my friend, her mother also has bipolar disorder. My friend will often be very energetic and spontaneous during her “manic” stages and very uninterested and slow in her down stages.
I’ve found that being supportive of friends with mental illness is incredibly important. It helps to not act like you know or understand everything they’re going through, but rather allow them to tell you about their own experiences. It’s important to be knowledgeable about mental health, so that you have a very general idea of what someone might be going through, and can therefore support someone through what could potentially be a time of hardship.