Manic Depression

Many of us do not know the basic difference between clinical depression and manic depression. We often use them interchangeably. With this confusion in mind, manic depression’s clinical name was changed to bipolar disorder.

If you read through, the basic difference between the two is very simple. Manic depression or bipolar depression includes the diagnosis of clinical depression. This was the reason why the two were used interchangeably all these years as they included the component of clinical depression.

Some of the common signs and symptoms of manic depression are:

• Feeling gloomy, sad and unhappy for uninterrupted period of at least two weeks
• Crying for no reason
• Feeling of worthlessness and guilty
• Feeling lethargic and less energetic
• Lack of interest in any day to day activities

Both depression and bipolar disorder share the common symptoms. At times 25% people are first diagnosed with common depression later the case is taken as Manic depression. Once the professional medical practitioners understand the history of the ailment then they categorize normal depression as manic depression or hypomania.

Mania Distinguishes Manic Depression from Depression

Mania is a distinguishing feature of bipolar depression. This differentiates it from Clinincal depression. A person who has been diagnosed with bipolar depression if found to experience one or more manic episodes.

What are manic episodes?

• Feeling of over excitement, confidence and happiness
• Getting extremely irritable, wild and aggressive
• Uncontrollable race of thoughts and speech
• Considering yourself very important, special or gifted
• Making wrong judgements related to money, relationships and gambling
• Getting involved with risky behaviour, taking more risks than ordinary ones

A person who has experienced milder form of mania or hypomania may experience only some of these symptoms or the severity of the symptoms is very low. A person who has clinical depression does not experience any of these symptoms.

Depression is not the only disorder which is often confused with bipolar disorder. In teens and children there are other forms of disorders. One of these is ADHD attention deficit disorder. At times this disorder is misdiagnosed when a person is in his teen age and the child is diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

The reason is children and teen agers exhibit hyperactive behaviour, which is common symptom of ADHD and this, is the reason why it is confused with bipolar disorder.

Teens that are detected with bipolar disorder get engaged in antisocial activities or risky behaviours like getting involved with drugs, sex and alcohol.

People who get severe form of bipolar disorder are said to develop Type 1 Bipolar disorder. People who have lesser intense form are said to have hypomanic instead of full blown manic episodes. This is known as Type 2 type of bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder like any other mental ailment is treated with combination of psychotherapy and medications.

Manic depression in detail:

In manic depression, you can see mood swings in extremities from high to low. Another term used for Manic depression is bipolar disorder. This is a disorder of brain, this causes weird change sin persons energy level, mood and ability to function.

Manic depression affects both men and women. There is no fixed age for this disorder; however, usually it begins in late adolescence. People of all age, class, ethnic group and race are susceptible to this disorder. It is said there is a genetic link to it, which runs in families.

Apart from affecting the sufferer’s life this disorder has made life terrible for many caregivers and immediate family members.

Diagnosis of manic depression

The bipolar disorder or manic disorder symptoms are classified according to the manic episodes:

Manic episode: if elevated mood is exhibited with three or more of the symptoms in most of the days then it is referred to as manic episode. These symptoms last usually for a week or longer. In case the mood is irritable and four additional symptoms are present then definitely it is manic episode.

Depressive episode: a person is said to have depressive episode if he exhibits five or more of these symptoms, which last for a period of two week or more.

Mixed bipolar episode: In mixed bipolar disorder, the manic symptoms are found along with depression symptoms. A person may have a sad and dull mood however, at the same time he may feel energetic.

Treatment options for manic depression

The person should know his personal triggers. This illness follows recurrent patterns and therefore continuous treatment becomes very essential. The person should necessarily take adequate amount of sleep and must take regular sleeps. This is very important part of manic depression treatment process. Knowing sleep patterns and other life events help in proper treatment of this disease.

Medication includes the mood stabilizers which is recommended by most of the psychiatrists. The commonly given medicine is lithium or valproate. At times antidepressants are also given when mood swings occur.

Main cause of depression is alternation in chemical imbalance in patient’s brain. Therefore, antidepressants are given to the patient to treat this imbalance. Early detection of symptoms is very important so that the patient gets timely treatment. This can save patients life from a great misery.

It is very important to monitor patient’s thyroid levels. Many bipolar disorders are due to abnormal thyroid functions. The abnormal level of thyroid is due to energy level changes and mood swings.

It is very important to know how to spot relapses. For successful treatment people who are diagnosed with manic depression should know how to spot relapses. It is very important for the family members also to know how to spot the relapses.

Hope for manic depression

Manic depression surely is troublesome for person and his immediate family. There is always a sense of sadness and incompleteness all around. With proper care and medication many patients have come out of this dreadful disorder. There should be a lot of patience in the caretaker who handles the patient. the patient should also know what his weak points are this makes him to spot his abnormal behavior. with positive hope and confidence things can get back to normal.