Difference Between Anxiety and Bipolar

Anxiety Vs Bipolar

People sometimes ask the question, ‘how do you describe the anxiety present in bipolar disorder?’ Makes sense? If not, it is because anxiety can both be regarded as a symptom or a disease in itself.

The question above, described anxiety as a symptom of bipolar disorder. As a symptom, it can take the form of agitation. It can clearly be manifested through other physical forms like the way bipolar patients sometimes pick at their own nails or their usual nature of not being able to sit still. Yet sometimes, the anxiety in bipolar disorder can be purely internal in nature. This is probably the more dangerous manifestation of anxiety in the disorder because there are no other ways of channeling the emotion or feeling out. It is as if the patient is going to explode because of the weight of the anxiety felt.

In bipolar disorder, there are two ends to the pole. It is either the patient becomes manic or the patient becomes depressive. But what makes bipolar disorder complicated is the timeframe that you can determine when the person is said to be manic or depressive. In several instances, the patient can be both and thus called manic-depressive.

When anxiety kicks in the manic stage of bipolar disease, the patient may feel more irritable that usual. The drawback here is that he has lots of energy to spare to counter the irritability and thus he may engage in activities he thinks will stop the irritability like drinking alcohol. The alcohol can temporarily suppress the symptoms though. That’s why manic patients may seem to rely on them so much. But as the alcohol wears off, the symptom starts to show again if not a lot worse. In the end, it will all bring down to a cycle of intoxication.

When anxiety kicks in the depressive stage, the patient is to be monitored 24/7. This is the time where suicide attempts are mostly successful. When he already feels that there is no hope and that he is still feeling anxious no matter what intervention is taken, then he may think that he has no other option of getting out than to simply take his own life.

Anxiety can also be a disease per se. If anxiety symptoms abnormally affect the person already and if it persists for at least half a year then he may be experiencing any of the specific anxiety disorders like social phobia, specific phobia and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among others.

1. Anxiety can both be a symptom and a disease in itself.

2. Bipolar disorder is a major mental condition.

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