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It’s a mental illness that affects about one in twenty people in America. Zak Teachout
is one of those people. He was only a teenager when bipolar illness started to make
his life almost unbearable.
Zak says, “When I was 14 I was going through a whole bunch of really tough times
with the family and school and everything. Everything just kind of broke down and
we didn’t know what was going on. It was way beyond normal teenage stuff.”
Dr. Michael Spellman is a licensed psychologist with Lee Memorial Health System.
He says one of the things medical professionals are learning is that bipolar illness
can really start to emerge in younger years than they used to think.
Years after his bipolar diagnosis, Zak says he’s still learning to live with illness.
“With bipolar there’s no constant. Everything is constantly changing from unusually
high and dangerous moods to the worst lows you can imagine. You can’t function in
a normal environment. You have to turn everything around to fit your illness.”
But bipolar illness doesn’t always mean extreme highs and lows. Psychologists say
they now know the illness can have many different depths and ranges.
Zak says a lot of people assume bipolar illness is just mood swings. He says that’s
part of it but there is so much more.
Dr. Spellman says “ You don’t have to have the euphoria, you don’t have to have
the manic behavior to have bi-polar illness. When you notice that you have a sequence
of ups and downs, when you notice that you’re mood isn’t particularly stable compared
to other people around you it’s worth wondering out loud with your doctor about
the possibility of bipolar illness.”
Research shows that patients diagnosed with bipolar illness should take medication
and see a mental health professional to ensure the best treatment.
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