If your mood swings from high to low inexplicably, then perhaps you may be bipolar. You could feel like Jack from Titanic in one minute , shouting to the heavens that you're the king of the world, then the next minute you feel like Jack from Titanic, dead from dispiriting frostbite and sleeping with the fishes. These highs and lows epitomizes the bipolar disorder perfectly, with behavior swinging back and forth from complete extremes in between several stages.

Bipolar disorder is often a cyclic, inconsistent illness where people periodically exhibit elevated (manic) and depressive episodes. Most people will experience a number of episodes that could last a long as six months, although some will experience only a single mood episode. First phase is hypomania, where the sufferer achieves a feeling or elation, normalcy or, at worst, blunted emotions. He or she is most relaxed during this time.

From there, the person becomes manic (hence the term "mania"); that is, he becomes very hyperactive and excitable. A bipolar may keep himself constantly in motion during this time, burning up hours with a myriad of tasks and activities with a sense of misplaced urgency for hours on end with inexhaustible energy, like a child going through sugar rush.

After this string of manic activity, the person burns out. Afterwards, the state of depression rears its ugly head. Signs and symptoms of the depressive phase of bipolar disorder include loneliness, self-loathing, apathy or indifference and depersonalization.

Wallowing in self pity, self-hatred, regret, anger, sadness and an assortment of other negative emotions, thoughts of suicide may play with the bipolar person's mind. This is a tough time for the sufferer, for depression is the longest bipolar phase, much more lengthier than mania.

In severe cases, the individual may become psychotic, a condition also known as severe bipolar depression with psychotic features. Nevertheless, the person usually reverts back to either the manic or hypermanic state. In extreme cases, rapid cycling, defined as having four or more episodes per year, can occur to the bipolar disorder sufferer. Behavior like this should be identified immediately, because it usually leads to suicide if the patient could not take his mood swings any longer.