Bipolar Disorder and Manic Depressive Illness

Your environment is made up of the things you do, the people with whom you interact, and the spaces you inhabit on a daily basis. There will always be some aspects of your environment that you will have no control over. When this happens, it is easy to feel over-whelmed and anxious. It might be a bully at school who always picks on you, your parents who fight a lot, or the death of a close friend or relative. Peer pressure, financial troubles at home, sickness, and divorce are other events that can leave you feeling very unhappy.

When you are under pressure, your body tries to help you by producing large amounts of certain hormones. As do neurotransmitters, hormones carry messages between your brain and your nerve cells. When you are anxious or afraid, you will often have excess amounts of a stress hormone called cortisol. Many depressed people often have higher than normal levels of cortisol. If these high levels stay in your body for a long time, they can have an effect on both your brain and your nerve cells. The changes that result can lead to serious depression.