Marks Psychiatry

Individuals with an disorder such as bipolar disorder can behave in ways that make them question whether their actions are part of their personality or part of their illness.  For example, two common symptoms with bipolar disorder are hypersexuality and hyperreligiousity.  However, defining what is “hyper” is not always an easy task.  It can be very difficult to tease out what is the person’s personality and what is being driven by the disinhibition that you can see with a manic episode.  It is often during a euthymic period (neither manic nor depressed) that a person can do some introspection and get a sense of who they are.  It can be sobering for some to realize their free spiritedness, high sex drive, etc. may have been their illness.  They are then left to figure out who they really are.

In a similar way, chronic irritability that may seem a part of someone’s personality could be persistent depression that once treated significantly improves.  In these cases, a person may feel relief to know they are capable of feeling happy or having a good outlook on life.

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