One question that comes up over and over again -- a question asked in email, in chats and in the forum -- a question we have all asked at one time or another, is What causes bipolar disorder? I once heard a member of a listserv suggest that it is caused by a shortage of Lithium in the brain. One forum participant said he vaguely remembered reading an article that tried to link dog bites …showed first 75 words of 893 total…

…showed last 75 words of 893 total…and Barlow define this model as a "hypothesis that both an inherited tendency and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder" (2000). So the bottom line, according to today's thinking, is that if you are manic depressive, you were born with a bipolar time-bomb in your brain, and something in your life set it off. But scientists could refine that theory tomorrow. The one sure thing is, they won't give up looking for answers.