Dr. Jorge Galindo is a licensed therapist with over 25 years of experience, specializing in bipolar spectrum disorders. He explains that bipolar disorder ranges from severe forms like bipolar I, characterized by major depression and manic episodes, to less severe forms such as bipolar II with hypomania and depression. Cyclothymic disorder, considered a milder variant, involves frequent mood swings between hypomania and brief periods of depression.

1. Jorge Galindo

2. A licensed marriage, family, and child therapist with over 25 years
of experience in the field, Dr. Jorge Galindo shares a private
practice with his wife, Miriam Galindo, PsyD, in Irvine, California.
When attending a doctoral internship at St. Joseph Hospital of
Orange, Dr. Jorge Galindo received training and learned how to
assess and treat bipolar spectrum disorders.

3. Bipolar disorder has varied and complex symptoms, and is seen
as a spectrum of moods that incorporate a range of bipolar
disorder types, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
for Mental Disorders, or DSM-5. For instance, bipolar I disorder is
a more extreme variant of the condition where the person has
multiple episodes of major depression and at least one manic
episode that lasts at least one week, or a combination of both.
Manic episodes typically consist of unusual irritability, euphoria,
and delusions.

4. Bipolar II disorder is typically less severe than bipolar I disorder,
and it is characterized by hypomania (a milder form of mania) and
major depressive episodes. People with bipolar II disorder often
are misdiagnosed with unipolar depression, since major
depressive episodes outnumber hypomanic episodes.

5. Cyclothymic disorder, sometimes called bipolar III disorder, is
when the person frequently alternates between hypomanic
episodes and periods of depression, which typically are brief and
milder than in the case of major depression. For a person to be
diagnosed with a cyclothymic disorder, they must have had the
symptoms of both hypomania and depression for a minimum of
two years if an adult, or one year for children and teenagers.