No, bipolar disorder doesn’t mean that you’re kind of cheerful one day and a little bit glum the next. Those are just moods. That’s not a disorder. The Mayo Clinic says of bipolar, “When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities. When your mood shifts to mania or hypomania (less extreme than mania), you may feel euphoric, full of energy or unusually irritable. These mood swings can affect sleep, energy, activity, judgment, behavior and the ability to think clearly.”We unpack what bipolar means from the perspective of our friend, Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Alliance. He’s a psychiatrist and also grew up with a bipolar father. Writer and pundit Ana Marie Cox is in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and she deals with what’s known as bipolar II, a variation on the disorder, that comes with symptoms that can be subtle but powerful.Visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI here.Visit Ana Marie Cox's website here. Listen to her podcast With Friends Like These on the podcatcher of your choice. Follow Ana Marie Cox on Twitter @anamariecox and on Instagram @anamariecox.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.