Bipolar 101: What It Is and What It Isn’t with Ana Marie Cox & Dr. Ken Duckworth

Bipolar disorder doesn’t mean that you’re kind of cheerful one day and a little bit glum the next. Those are just moods. That’s not a disorder. The Mayo Clinic says of bipolar, “When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities. When your mood shifts to mania or hypomania (less extreme than mania), you may feel euphoric, full of energy or unusually irritable. These mood swings can affect sleep, energy, activity, judgment, behavior and the ability to think clearly.” We unpack what bipolar means from the perspective of our friend, Dr. Ken Duckworth, CMO of NAMI, a psychiatrist who also grew up with a father with bipolar disorder.