Bipolar Disorder & Social Rank

[James Brody]

Gardner suggested that bipolar disorder is a distortion of alpha: his data included comparisons of CEOs with hospitalized manic depressives. Gardner found similarities.

There is, however, a link between mate access and social dominance. This relationship can also be viewed in terms of mate access and territory. The larger the territory for a male, the more offspring he is apt to produce. And McGuire found that female vervets control the social rank of males.
The mood changes in bipolar disorder are often tacked to someone's graph of time between episodes: Goodwin and Jamison, for example, go on for 900 pages but don't hook up with the idea of environmental triggers for mood changes. In contrast, the late Dennis Cantwell, a founder of child psychiatry, remarked that he nearly always found social changes to precede emotional ones.

The earmarks of bipolar disorder include expansiveness of mood, spending too much, and getting laid too often. The urge to do these things, however, becomes excessive when financial and family resources are exhausted. And, one of those resources that may be exhausted could be that of maintaining the internal chemistry beneath the mood. A manic episode can be a lot of fun, it can also be a lot of work!*

Why am I rambling? I've recently met two adolescent males who argue less, smiler more, tend to their jobs even though schoolwork remains a trivial concern for both. These dramatic changes occurred after the guys found a steady girl. And one father predicted this change seven years ago when I first met his son who is now 24. It was a long wait for all of us!

James Brody

* This is all dreaming, please treat it as such. For example, I ignore rapid cycling, a condition wherein moods can change every few hours between elation and depression. (There's gotta be a clock!) I ignore manics that are irritable SOBs for their families but less often in public. I also neglect a particularly dangerous condition that combines hyperactivity and an irritability that is more than usually associated with suicidal conduct, even in small children.

References
Gardner R (1982) Mechanisms in manic depressive disorder: An evolutionary model. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 1436-1441.
Goodwin, F. & Jamison, K. (1990) Manic-Depressive Illness. NY: Oxford.
McGuire M & Troisi A (1998) Darwinian Psychiatry. NY: Oxford.