Ian Gallagher: Mania And Manmas In The Show Shameless

Ian Gallagher is a fictitious television character from the show Shameless. The show is set in the South Side of Chicago and focuses around a dysfunctional family of six children who raise themselves with the occasional appearance of a drunk father and bipolar mother. Ian, born in 1996, is the third eldest of the children. He began developing symptoms of bipolar disorder, mania and depression, in his late teens and into his early twenties. His siblings noticed his symptoms almost immediately, identifying them to be parallel to the symptoms their mother, Monica, had experienced years before when she was first diagnosed. Ian’s symptoms became evident around the time he found out that his biological father was not the same as his siblings. Feeling alone and disconnected from his family, Ian attempted to run away to West Point. …show more content…
This is the first manic episode Ian experiences. Only after an extreme episode of depression does Ian believe the army is not for him, deserts his unit, and returns home. Ian has many other instances of mania and depressive episodes with the full range of symptoms for each, as well as distress and impairment due to these episodes. Based on his symptomatology the DSM-5 would diagnose Ian Gallagher with bipolar disorder, more specifically bipolar I disorder.
To be diagnosed with bipolar I disorder the individual must meet a set of criteria established by the DSM-5. The first set of criteria is the presence of at least one manic episode, characterized by at least three of the seven symptoms of mania, and lasting for at least one week. The symptoms are as follows: inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking, flight of ideas or racing thoughts, increase in goal directed activity or psychomotor