As noted, bipolar disorder isn’t all or nothing. Mood-disorder specialists talk about a bipolar spectrum. At one end of the spectrum is bipolar I. People with this form of the illness experience severe mania and severe depression. Next comes bipolar II. People with bipolar II experience severe depression, but more mild episodes of elevated mood called hypomania (hypo means below, like a hypodermic injection that delivers a drug underneath the skin). Farther down the spectrum is cyclothymia, which is characterized by cycles of hypomania and mild depressive episodes. Then there is something
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