Bipolar disorder and OCD: Overview

Bipolar disorder and Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are mental disorders that cause a severe disturbance in a patient’s life. A most significant change occurs in the behavior of the patient while the intensity of the disorder varies from person to person. These disorders are not age-specific; symptoms may appear in teenage or late in the ’20s. At the start, they may not be severe, but with the passage of time patient’s condition goes worsen. Although these disorders are rare in occurrence as they enter the severe stages; they are difficult to cure.

Sometimes, they are confused with each other but when we go into detail, they are different in symptoms. While in some cases, symptoms of both disorders start appearing in a person and completely disrupt his normal life. It is necessary important to treat such patients with a professional psychologist and admit to the hospital if needed. Koshish clinic is a highly experienced institute in Lahore to treat such patients. Their expert psychologists are competent enough to do Bipolar and OCD management of the disorder in affected patients. It is very difficult to treat these patients because they do not accept themselves to be psychological patients. It is the duty of each individual to report at the center and also convince the patient to go for psychological counseling.

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a psychological disorder that directly affects a person’s emotions. It alters the behavior of the person and causes extreme mood swings and extreme related conditions like depression. The mood swings may occur from time to time instead of a regular condition. It is also characterized as manic depression. Mania and hypomania are the two keywords associated with this disorder.

What is Mania and Hypomania in BD

Mania is the condition of the patient when he feels more active, energized, and abnormally talkative. He wants to perform activities very anxiously and do not even want to sleep or take rest. All this behavior is unusual and an observer can easily feel that there is something wrong. Hypomania also has the same symptoms almost but they are not severe. The behavior of the patient is changed, he wants to do more activities but the urge is quite less than in manic condition. Both of these conditions are differentiable by the severity of the symptoms.

Mania/hypomania alteration with depression

As more the person feels energetic in Mania, the same extremity is in the depression phase but of disappointment and hopelessness. Mania/hypomania alters with the depression phase. The patient feels himself down, discouraged, and even not able to communicate properly with others. His thoughts become negative and he wants to quit his life.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

In OCD, like mania in bipolar disorder, the patient goes crazy to do activities but the difference is that he goes on doing the activities repeatedly.  He has unwanted obsessions to do activities compulsively. It is also an abnormal condition that can be identified even by a layman. Obsessions in OCD are of various types like cleanliness, he goes on cleaning his hands, teeth, and other daily use things like his pots again and again. He cannot even meet other people due to the fear of germs. He may also feel danger from a thing that is even not a minor dangerous.

The behavior of the patient in OCD becomes very rigid because he is not able to control his thoughts. They are constant and compulsive to do an activity many times even may take several hours a day. He is not able to recognize that he has missed the important tasks while indulging in unnecessary obsessions.

Bipolar disorder with comorbid OCD-Treatment

These are different conditions but the symptoms are almost similar. They can occur together in a patient. Treatment of bipolar disorder with comorbid OCD starts with stabilizing the emotions of the patients. A medical professional and psychologist examine the patient carefully and identify the severity of the disorders. Some patients need to be admitted to hospitals for emergency care. Both medication and psychotherapy are vital for effective treatment.

A psychologist with friendly behavior can help the patient to pass the manic or depression stages early. Also, he does counseling to guide the patients that concentrate on focused thought and try to avoid unnecessary obsessions.