Positive aspects of mental illness :spirituality empathy creativity realism resilience

Review

Positive aspects of mental illness: A review in bipolar disorder

ABSTRACT

Introduction: There is growing interest to understand the role of positive psychological features on the outcomes of medical illnesses. Unfortunately this topic is less studied in relation to mental health, and almost completely neglected in relation to one of the most common severe psychiatric illnesses, bipolar disorder. Certain specific psychological characteristics, that are generally viewed as valuable and beneficial morally or socially, may grow out of the experience of having this affective disorder.

Objective:We describe the sources,research and impact of these positive psychological traits in the lives of persons with bipolar disorder based on the few published literature available to date. These include, but are not limited to: spirituality, empathy, realism, and resilience.

Methods: After an extensive search in the literature, we found 81 articles that involve descriptions cf positive psychological chararacteristics of bipolar disorder.

Results: We found evidence for enhancement of the five above positive psychological traits in persons with bipolar disorder. 

Conclusions: Bipolar disorder is associated with the positive psychological traits of spirituality, empathy, creativity, realism, and resilience. Clinical and research attention to preserving and enhancing these traits may improve outcomes in bipolar disorder.

1  Introduction

There is growing interest in clinical research to understand the role of positive psychological traits on the outcomes of medical illnesses. However, most of this research has been conducted in non-clinical samples (i.e., normal populations such as adolescents and university students) (Larson, 2000; Seligrnan and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Taylor and Brown, 1994), in non-psychiatric samples ( ie.,medical illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer) (Folkman et al., 1986; Kass et al.,1991; Majumdar et al,.2002;Penninx et al., 2000), and in some epidemiological surveys ( Frederickson et al.,2003; Levin, 1996; Willis 1986). While it is widely accepted that the influence of positive psychological traits on health is important, this topic is less studied in relation to mental health (Adler et al., 1998; Folkman, 1997; Taylor and Brown, 1988), and almost completely neglected in relation to one of the most common of severe psychiatric illnesses. bipolar disorder (Lee Duckworth et al.,2005). These include, but are not limited to: spirituality, empathy, creativity, realism, and resilience (see Table 1).

Mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder, are generally viewed as harmful, and associated with notable stigma (Hayward et al., 2002; Proudfoot et al., 2009). This is unfortunate because mental illness is common, and bipolar disorder is one of the most common severe mental illnesses . Bipolar disorder is potentially disabling and life-threatening (with a lifetime suicide rate of about 10%), but also highly treatable . What is infrequently recognized, by the public as well as professionals, is that mental illnesses can have some positive aspects. Research has shown a correlation between bipolar disorder and increased positive emotional responses . Patients with bipolar disorder have reported an elevated positive affect compared to controls in multiple aspects of daily life , and an increase in the achievement of ambitious goals . In addition, certain specific psychological characteristics, that are generally viewed as valuable and beneficial morally or socially, may grow out of the experience of having this illness. These include, but are not limited to: spirituality, empathy, creativity, realism, and resilience. In this review, we describe and analyze the prevalence, sources, and impact of these psychological in the lives of persons with bipolar disorder based on the few published literature available to date.

Table 1 Positive psychological features present in bipolar disorder

spirituality

empathy 

creativity 

realism

resilience