Bipolar disorder

Mood Disorders

Moods are our emotions. They affect us every day. Sometimes we're sad, other times we're happy. We might even be sad and happy in the same day. But sometimes people's mood can get 'stuck' on sad. Or the moods might change a lot or become extreme.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a type of mood disorder. Bipolar disorder used to be called manic depression. It was called manic depression because people with bipolar disorder go through periods of intense depression and other periods where their mood is extremely high. These "high" periods are known as mania.

Navigating through Mania and Depression

Like many, Leslie did not accept her diagnosis easily. But manic spending, rage against loved ones, homelessness and hospitalization finally swayed Leslie that medication was a needed support. Major medication side effects and accessing specialists in a smaller northern town, however, have presented new challenges. See how Leslie is doing now, what changes she’d like to see in the health system, and the value mental illness has in her life.

Young, Bipolar and Addicted to OxyContin

An insider’s perspective

John Charles Hilderley

Reprinted from "Opioids" issue of Visions Journal, 2018, 13 (3), p. 11

In 2000, when I was 18, I was prescribed OxyContin for two painful kidney problems. The drug was relatively new then. The first three and a half years, I took up to 240 mg a day (considered a high dose) plus Percocet, a drug that contains smaller doses of oxycodone, for what my doctor called “breakthrough pain.”

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