What’s the difference between depression and being manic depressive?
April 21, 2009 by How To Treat Depression
Filed under More Depression Answers
Can you answer Kewl Katt’s question about Depression?:
I know this person who says she suffers from depression, but she has these extreme highs and lows. She goes from being giddy, compulsive and promiscuous to threatening to kill herself. Do you think she’s really manic depressive, and why would she lie about her condition?
Beck Depression Inventory
I know this person who says she suffers from depression, but she has these extreme highs and lows. She goes from being giddy, compulsive and promiscuous to threatening to kill herself. Do you think she’s really manic depressive, and why would she lie about her condition?
Beck Depression Inventory
Depression Feedback: Sounds like a good posibility that she could have bipolar or otherwise known as manic depression. I would guess she isn’t really lying to you about the condition. The highs of bipolar are often not as bothersome to the one who suffers from the disorder as the flip side of depression. Also it sounds like she is not on proper medication if any at all. Perhaps it is an undiagnosed condition. I would advise your friend to seek help ASAP, this is a very treatable condition.
Depression Feedback: When a person wants to kill him/herself, it may be just because of depression. Manic depressive illness, or bipolar disorder, contains periods of aggression and depression. Never hurry to make a diagnosis. It is a psychologist’s job. You may also review my profile to get good answers.
Depression Feedback: Once upon a time there wasn’t any depression or manic depressive either.
You either felt good or you felt bad, but I guess the drug companies changed that.
As for your friend, I’m sure any doctor will give her drugs to feel better.
Depression Feedback: There are several different classifications of depression. Manic depression, or bipolar depression, is one of these types of depression.
Your friend sounds like she very well may be bipolar to some degree. However, I am not a doctor, so I don’t know for sure. I read up on bipolar a while ago. Usually a mood stabalizer (such as lithium) is combined with SSRI treatment.
Other types of depression are major depression, dysthymic depression and atypical depression. Major depression can occur for no apparent reason, and many people experience it for a week or more. People with this type of depression do not normally have highs during the depression. Dysthymic depression is chronic, low-grade depression. Atypical depression is, well, atypical, and so its manifestations vary.
Actually, depression has existed for a long time, although it went more by the name melancholia. People who were depressed were described as having a melancholic humor.
Depression Feedback: She could be….but what is her age. Bipolar disorder (manic depression) is a rather serious diagnosis. Teens can be a bit compulsive and promiscuous because of those developing frontal lobes. She may be misdiagnosed if she is bipolar because a dr would need evidence of manic behavior. If he just sees her depressed she would be catergorized as having regular depression….and indeed most bipolars start out with a depression diagnosis. Bipolar disorder is also a rather serious diagnosis with life long implications she may just not feel like sharing because of the stigma associated with it. She may also only suffer during depression…lots of bipolar patients love mania. Whichever the situation she probably is not lying….
Depression Feedback: BIPOLAR disorder causes dramatic mood swings—from overly “high” and/or irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, often with periods of normal mood in between. Severe changes in energy and behavior go along with these changes in mood. The periods of highs and lows are called episodes of mania and depression.
A DEPRESSIVE disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or wished away. People with a depressive illness cannot merely “pull themselves together” and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression.