Comfort In Chaos
“There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness. When you're high it's tremendous. The ideas and feelings are fast and frequent like shooting stars, and you follow them until you find better and brighter ones…But, somewhere, this changes. The fast ideas are far too fast, and there are far too many; overwhelming confusion replaces clarity. Everything previously moving with the grain is now against-you are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable...It will never end, for madness carves its own reality,” (Jamison, 1995, p. 17).
Author, Kay Redfield Jamison MD has tried to explain life with bipolar disorder in her best selling novel An Unquiet Mind. The book depicts Jamison’s struggle with bipolar disorder while pioneering treatment and research for the disease as well. Jamison has proved that although the disorder does not have a sole cure, it is tolerable and treatable, as she has exhibited a highly successful life while suffering from such. Despite the fact that it can be dealt with the possibilty for a chemical imbalance to reoccur never truly disappears, leaving a marking on one’s brain for the rest of their human life. Yet today research in Neuroscience is moving exceedingly rapid producing endless discoveries and information providing hope for the future. There are always so many questions why, and finally we may be reaching the because. Bipolar disorder, as the name implies, is an illness with directly opposite states of mind. The National Institute of Mental Health (2007) has defined it as a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Those who suffer from the disorder have mood swings that can range from manic high states to extremely low depressed states, far more severe than the ups and downs most people face on a daily basis. This cycle of moods is obviously disruptive and damaging to one’s normal mode of life. The episodes of mania and...
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