Disorders:Bipolar

Disorders: Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

From the start of the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde are seen as one character as Dr.Jekyll just wishes to control his menacing other half but then towards the end of the novel we almost see him as two people instead of one. Some readers may think this as the two sides of the character becoming so un-alike from each other they almost become there own person, therefore making the reader almost believe this. As the characters become more and more un-alike from one another the novel portrays the reality of real peoples emotions stating that many have split personalities that may not be able to control. Mentioned in my previous blog that the characters could have been portrayed as having a mental disorder like bipolar which the author have interpreted through the novel and the characters. I wanted to studied further into mental illnesses and disordered like this to fully understand what the two sides of the characters could be based on and what how I could adapt this to my character. 

Mental illnesses:Bipolar

Bipolar disorder (manic depression) is a mental illness that cause people to have extreme high and low moods and changes in energy through either; sleep, thoughts processes and behavior. In this disorder people can have extreme highs, where they feel very happy and then extreme lows, where they can feel very sad and alone. However between both these extreme moods they can feel normal emotions like any other person and the extreme moods are like high/low 'poles' relating to it name bipolar. The meaning of 'manic' (which is the 'Highs') also describes the feeling of being very excited and confident which are sometime encouraged with reckless behaviour meaning that they may make quick decision. Over effects that can happen during this can be hallucinations meaning the person can see and hear things that are not really there causing them great confusion. Comparing, the illness it says that it has extreme emotions relating to Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's characters as both of them are one extreme emotion/traits of the other which the other could have based the characters on. The opposite of the highs is called 'Depressive' (the "lows') are the symptom when the person has feelings of extreme sadness and depressions. Unfortunately, most people with bipolar tend to have these symptoms of depressive more than manic (happy). 

Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder?

Bipolar, again is a disorder that cause extreme high and low moods that can happen at any point and can be unexpected. Its starts they can feel one mood for even a short or long period of time before switching to the opposite mood and depending on the person depends on how extreme the moods are, how long they last and how severe it becomes over time.

Some of these symptoms can be:

Mania (the highs):

• Extreme moods of happiness, hopefulness, and excitement
• Sudden changes in mood from being joyful to being extremely irritable, angry, and hostile
• Restless
• Bad concentration and can speak rapidly 
• Increased energy levels meaning less sleep 
• high sex drive
• Making quick and sometimes big decisions
• Can cause abuse to others due to alcohol and drugs

Depressive (the lows):

• Being very sad
• Low energy levels 
• Emotions of being worthlessness
• No longer enjoying passed activities 
• Bad concentration levels
• Uncontrollable crying
• Finds it hard to make decisions 
• Irritated 
• Need a large amount of sleep
• Insomnia
• Attempts of suicide and death

Conclusion: 

In conclusion, I am happy that I have researched into this mental illness as it give me a better understanding of the disorder and can also help me further relate it to the novel of 'Dr.Jykell and Mr.Hyde'. I decided to research into it as in the novel the main character Dr. Jykell splits his personality by taking a pill to make his darker, inner self be revealed and I believe that this story-line/character can relate to the disorder. As the characters have a almost split personality I know this relates to bipolar as explained above in the systems they can have mania (the highs) like Dr. Jykell and the depressive (the lows) like Mr.Hyde shown as two sides. Other similarities to this is like in the novel when eventually Mr.Hyde takes over Dr.Jykells body this can be like bipolar too as they are more in the depressive state then mania and most of the time it takes over. I will also research into deformities as well as mentioned in my previous blog.