Center for Treatment of Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Mood Disorders: Bipolar Disorder

We’ve all had “those days” at work or at home – days when we feel exhausted, irritable, or out of sorts and when nothing seems to go our way. Conversely, we’ve all also experienced days when we are chock full of energy, when we feel like we can take on the world, when ideas seems to flow effortlessly, and we feel joyful and optimistic. For most of us, those feelings of the “blues” or of being happy will ebb and flow from one day to another and they don’t really change our daily lives. But, for people with bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression), the swings between emotional highs and lows are chronic and can fluctuate broadly from extreme euphoria, overconfidence, and boundless energy, to the other end of the spectrum and despair, anger, and deep depression. People can also experience a mixture of the two extremes.