Prior to the assigned homework I had an elementary understanding of Bipolar Disorder (BD). After reading the two assigned studies “Extra dimensions in all aspects of life-the meaning of life with bipolar disorder” and “Definitional Issues in Bipolar Disorder Across the Life Cycle” I feel they greatly expanded my understanding of BD. The videos, “Manic Episode” and “Rapid Cycling” provided me with a real life understanding of what BD looks like. In “Manic Episode” the viewer experiences what it is like to interact with a person experiencing a manic state. Although I had read about manic states prior to viewing the video, seeing a real life depiction of someone in the manic state made it more understandable for me. I found Michael Landreau’s video
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It looks at BD in a holistic way, striving to understand the existential meaning of life for people living with BD. Although the study was not statistically significant due to the small sample size, it raises issues that should be examined in the future. By asking the research subjects the simple question “Would you like to tell me about your experience of living with BD?” the researchers were able to develop an essence of what it means to live with BD by taking the conversations that resulted from this question and highlighting clusters of meanings that appeared in the text. After reviewing these clusters a pattern of meanings emerged and allowed for the essence of the meaning of what “the lived experience of Bipolar Disorder” is for the participants. The participants own words were used to highlight the variations on the essence. The following description emerged from the study “living with bipolar disorder entails experiencing extra dimensions in all aspects of life, expressed in terms of a magnitude and complexity beyond that which is perceived as pertaining to normal life” (p.
It looks at BD in a holistic way, striving to understand the existential meaning of life for people living with BD. Although the study was not statistically significant due to the small sample size, it raises issues that should be examined in the future. By asking the research subjects the simple question “Would you like to tell me about your experience of living with BD?” the researchers were able to develop an essence of what it means to live with BD by taking the conversations that resulted from this question and highlighting clusters of meanings that appeared in the text. After reviewing these clusters a pattern of meanings emerged and allowed for the essence of the meaning of what “the lived experience of Bipolar Disorder” is for the participants. The participants own words were used to highlight the variations on the essence. The following description emerged from the study “living with bipolar disorder entails experiencing extra dimensions in all aspects of life, expressed in terms of a magnitude and complexity beyond that which is perceived as pertaining to normal life” (p.