The suicide of actor and comedian Robin Williams may be bringing more awareness to mental health conditions that millions of people all over the world are suffering with. Although there has not been any definitive word on whether Williams was suffering from bipolar disorder, it was widely reported that he had been struggling with severe depression, which is something people with bipolar disorder deal with regularly. We now recognize that these conditions are not simply a result of someone being “crazy,” and are truly are diseases. The following are some important facts, signs, and symptoms of bipolar disorder, a mental health condition that was once known as “manic depression.”
#1 Number of sufferers
Image Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
It is estimated that approximately 2.6 percent of adults in the United States suffer from bipolar disorder. Although we don’t have numbers available that reflect the number of people that may be dealing with bipolar disorder worldwide, the 2.6 percent of adults who suffer from bipolar disease in America provides some notion of how widespread the problem is.
