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Bipolar disorder: stabilise the mood, protect the life.
An alternation between depressive episodes and phases of elation — and in between, a state that can be perfectly normal, which often delays the diagnosis by years. At the Espoir Clinic in El Menzah 9, bipolar disorder is diagnosed and stabilised. A caregiver answers at any hour on +216 52 247 043.
Recognising the episode
The phase of elation — mania or hypomania — does not resemble happiness:
- A collapsed need for sleep, without fatigue: three hours a night and a feeling of bottomless energy.
- Accelerated speech, outsized projects, an irritability that rises fast.
- Spending, decisions, a disinhibition that do not resemble the person.
The depressive episode looks like any depression — lasting sadness, slowness, guilt — and it is often the one that brings people to consult, hiding the other side.
- A sleepless night with agitation, speech that races, suicidal thoughts: the home page explains what to do until help arrives. In immediate danger, call 190.
What the clinic offers
- Mood stabilisers: the treatment that steadies the mood — the word is in the glossary —, decided after examination and followed over time.
- Sleep protection: it is the first alarm signal and the first lever — sleep is watched like a vital sign.
- Psychoeducation: patient and family learning together to recognise the early signs of a new episode — before it settles in.
- Admission in the acute phase: sheltering the episode, in a single or double room, nursing presence day and night; the length of stay is reviewed every week.
The ways to be received are detailed on the Psychiatry in Tunis page.
Bipolar disorder, alcohol and stimulants
Alcohol and stimulant use clearly worsens the course of the disorder — it triggers episodes and blurs the diagnosis. When a habit has settled in, medical withdrawal and mood stabilisation are treated together, under the same roof.
The questions people don’t dare ask
Mood swings or bipolar disorder?
Everyone has ups and downs. Bipolar disorder plays out in episodes lasting days or weeks, with collapsed sleep and no fatigue, spending and decisions that do not resemble the person. Only a medical interview can settle it.
Does the treatment last a lifetime?
Often long-term, because the treatment is what holds the stability. Its exact duration is a medical decision, reviewed with the patient — and stopping is never decided alone: it is the first cause of relapse.
Can I live a normal life with bipolar disorder?
Yes. Once stabilised, the disorder prevents neither working, nor loving, nor building. What changes the trajectory: a treatment kept up, protected sleep, and early signs that the patient and family know how to recognise.
The information on this page is general and does not replace a medical consultation. No treatment, no stopping and no dose change should ever be decided from this site.
The full page: psychiatry in Tunis — conditions, admission, frequent questions.
The other mood disorder: depression.