Lately, Shaima has been feeling so confident and energized that she's been turning in all of her assignments ahead of time, writing a screenplay, exercising for two or more hours daily, taking on extra shifts in her part-time job, and going with only two or three hours of sleep a night. Her roommate doesn't know whether to be happy for Shaima or concerned, because a few weeks ago, Shaima seemed so depressed she could barely get out of bed each morning. Which disorder is Shaima most likely experiencing?

In psychopathology and according to the DSM-V Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that has the characteristic of causing shifts in mood and activity levels. In other words, people who have this disorder might present a high level of activity during a period of time (called manic episodes) and then this period would be followed by a very low activity level (depressive episodes) and vice versa.

In this example, Shaima has been turning her assignments ahead of time, writing, exercising and taking extra-shifts; however, a few weeks ago she could barely get out of bed. We can see that currently she's having a very high level of activity (manic episode) while a few weeks ago she seemed to be in a depressive episode having a low activity level. This is a dramatic change in her mood and therefore could be a sign of Bipolar disorder.