A lot has been shocked when the news broke that the multi-awarded actress Catherine-Zeta-Jones has been seeking help in a mental health facility for the mood disorder known as Bipolar Disorder. A lot has been curios what is this disorder all about and how come someone as famous as Catherine-Zeta-Jones didn’t hesitate to have it known to the public.
Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depressive disorder in the medical parlance. In layman’s term, is a mental disorder wherein a person experiences the extremes of emotions of being hyperactive in a lot of things and feeling like you don’t want to do anything at all alternately in a short period of time. These extremes of emotions are said to come in different levels and most often separated by a normal mood period. The manic stage represents the hyperactive mode while the depressive on the opposite mode respectively.
As to the case of Zeta-Jones, she is being diagnosed to be having Bipolar II disorder. It is the type of Bipolar disorder characterized by at least one manic episode and at least one major depressive episode. It is type wherein patients are highly susceptible to committing suicide.
The manic stage is being manifested by disorganized racing thoughts, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, or all of the above combined. While the depressive stage are the opposite of what has been mentioned. Treatment of the disease is basically through medications which is usually in the form of mood stabilizers. SSRI a known anti depressant is being used as well but placed in great caution as it would exacerbate the manic stage.
Zeta-Jones is currently battling the challenge of having a husband, Michael Douglas, who is recovering with throat cancer. “After dealing with the stress of the past year, Catherine made the decision to check in to a mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her Bipolar II disorder,” said Zeta Jones’s publicist Cece Yorke. It has been that last September, Zeta Jones said she was “furious” that doctors failed to detect the cancer earlier of her husband earlier.
