Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes major mood swings, alternating between extreme emotional highs and extreme emotional lows. To be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, you must experience episodes of very low mood that last at least two weeks or longer AS WELL AS episodes of very high mood (mania or hypomania) that last at least four to seven days or longer. Symptoms of mania include feelings of euphoria, elevated self-worth, decreased need for sleep, with some patients needing as little as one to two hours to feel reenergized, increased goal-oriented activity and restlessness, and increased talkativity, or talking so fast that people have difficulty understanding you. Additionally, people with mania will often engage in risky behaviors like excessive spending, reckless driving, increased alcohol and drug use, and promiscuity. In severe cases, manic patients may feel that they are invincible, think they have a special connection with God, or believe things that aren’t true. Hypomania is similar to mania, but symptoms are less severe.