Bipolar disorder is a chronic or episodic (which means occurring occasionally and at irregular intervals) mental disorder. It can cause unusual, often extreme and fluctuating changes in mood, energy, activity, and concentration or focus. Bipolar disorder sometimes is called manic-depressive disorder or manic depression, which are older terms.

Everyone goes through normal ups and downs, but bipolar disorder is different. The range of mood changes can be extreme. In manic episodes, someone might feel very happy, irritable, or “up,” and there is a marked increase in activity level. In depressive episodes, someone might feel sad, indifferent, or hopeless, in combination with a very low activity level. Some people have hypomanic episodes, which are like manic episodes, but less severe and troublesome.

Most of the time, bipolar disorder develops or starts during late adolescence (teen years) or early adulthood. Occasionally, bipolar symptoms can appear in children. Although the symptoms come and go, bipolar disorder usually requires lifetime treatment and does not go away on its own. Bipolar disorder can be an important factor in suicide, job loss, and family discord, but proper treatment leads to better outcomes.

Taken from: NIMH - National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.)

Assistance in a crisis situation

In the event of an acute crisis:

• Call your doctor. Your doctor can be the first step in getting help.
• Seek immediate help from a doctor or the nearest hospital emergency room (Notaufnahme), if you or someone you know is in crisis or considering suicide.
• • Hospitals in Berlin: https://www.berliner-krankenhausverzeichnis.de/en/search/search/?locale=en&client=berlin
  • Hospitals in Brandenburg: https://www.german-hospital-directory.com/search/Bundesland/Brandenburg.html
• In an emergency:
• • Call 112 to contact the ambulance / rescue service (Rettungsdienst)
  • Call 110 to contact the police (Polizei)
• On-call doctor service / medical service (Ärztlicher Bereitschaftsdienst):
• • Call 116117, free of charge nationwide including from the mobile network
  • More info in German: here
• Crisis service Berlin (Berliner Krisendienst):
• • Multi-lingual assistance and cooperation with interpreters and linguists
  • Regional accessibility from 16:00 until 24:00
  • See: https://www.berliner-krisendienst.de/en/

• More: https://www.berlin.de/willkommenszentrum/en/everyday-life/support-in-emergency-situations/

Last update: August 13th, 2019

in Berlin

Online search engine for Statutory Health Insurance Doctors (KV Berlin):

• https://www.kvberlin.de/61arztsuche_en/index.html
• set "Fields" to "Psychiatry"

in Brandenburg

Online search engine for Statutory Health Insurance Doctors (KV Brandenburg):

• https://arztsuche.kvbb.de/ases-kvbb/ases.jsf
• fill field "Was" with "Psychiatrie"
• fill field "Wo" with ZIP-Code (PLZ) or location (Ort)
• "Umkreis" = radius in kilometers

bipolaris has asked psychotherapists in Berlin and Brandenburg if and how often they treat people with bipolar disorder or other serious conditions. The results are available here:

• bipolaris Psychotherapeuten-Datenbank
• • "Standort" = ZIP-Code (PLZ) or location (Ort)
  • "Suchradius" = radius in kilometers
  • set "Fremdsprache" to "englisch"
  • set "Diagnose" to "Bipolare Störungen"

More detailed information can be found inside the following PDF.

With many thanks to Ingrid Johnson (www.ingridejohnson.com) for translation!

• Sozialpsychiatrische Dienste der Bezirke
  socio-psychiatric services (public health department)
  https://www.berlin.de/lb/psychiatrie/hilfe-in-krisen/sozialpsychiatrische-dienste-der-bezirke/

• International Bipolar Foundation (IBPF)
  http://ibpf.org/
• Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA)
  https://www.dbsalliance.org/
• International Society for Affective Disorders (ISAD)
  https://www.isad.org.uk/
• International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD)
  https://www.isbd.org/
• European Alliance against Depression (EAAD)
  http://www.eaad.net/
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, U.S.)
  https://www.nimh.nih.gov/

• Google Translate
  Translates documents and websites too (simply copy and paste the link into)
  https://translate.google.com/?hl=en

• Linguee - English-German Dictionary
  Search translated texts
  https://www.linguee.com/
  

• LEO Dictionary
  https://dict.leo.org/german-english/
• dict.cc - online dictionary
  https://www.dict.cc/
• PONS Online Dictionary
  https://en.pons.com/translate

Questions and suggestions: bipolaris@bipolaris.de

• © English language flag: public domain (source)
• © NIMH Publication PDF: public domain (source)