Sunday, March 24, 2024

Is Bipolar And Manic Depression The Same

Don't Miss

What Can I Do To Manage My Symptoms

Jimi Hendrix – Manic Depression – Guitar Cover

You can learn to manage your symptoms by looking after yourself. Selfcare is how you take care of your diet, sleep, exercise, daily routine, relationships and how you are feeling.

What lifestyle changes can I make?

Making small lifestyle changes can improve your wellbeing and can help your recovery.

Routine helps many people with their mental wellbeing. It will help to give a structure to your day and may give you a sense of purpose. This could be a simple routine such as eating at the same time each day, going to bed at the same time each day and buying food once per week.

Your healthcare professionals should offer you a combined healthy eating, exercise and sleep programme.

You can find more information about wellbeing any physical health at:www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/living-with-mental-illness/wellbeing-physical-health/.

What are support groups?

You could join a support group. A support group is where people come together to share information, experiences and give each other support.

You might be able to find a local group by searching online. The charity Bipolar UK have an online support group. They also have face to face support groups in some areas of the country. Their contact details are in the Useful contacts at the bottom of this page.

What are recovery colleges?

Unfortunately, recovery colleges arent available in all areas. To see if there is a recovery college in your area you can use a search engine such as Google.

Potential Causes And Risk Factors

Experts do not know exactly what causes bipolar disorder, although they believe that several factors play a role. These include:

  • Genetics. People with bipolar disorder seem to have variations in genes that may have increased their risk of developing the condition. However, it is unclear exactly how these variations lead to the onset of the disorder.
  • Family history. If a sibling or parent has bipolar disorder, a person is more likely to develop it themselves.
  • Environmental factors. Experiencing periods of high stress, such as bereavement, can trigger bipolar symptoms. A traumatic head injury or abusing alcohol or drugs may also increase the risk.

Most likely, a combination of heredity and environmental factors plays a role in bipolar development.

How Do Doctors Treat It

Although there’s no cure for bipolar disorder, treatment can help stabilize moods and help the person manage and control symptoms. Like other teens with long-lasting medical conditions , teens with bipolar disorder need to work closely with their doctors and other medical professionals to treat it.

This team of medical professionals, together with the teen and family, develop what is called a treatment plan. Teens with bipolar disorder will probably receive medication, such as a mood stabilizer, from a psychiatrist or other medical doctor. A psychologist or other type of counselor will provide counseling or psychotherapy for the teen and his or her family. Doctors will watch the symptoms closely and offer additional treatment advice if necessary.

Recommended Reading: Stress-induced Hyperglycemia

How Do You Know If You Have Bipolar Disorder

Most of us have up and down days. You might have bipolar disorder if the symptoms persist for a set period of time and interfere with your relationships, job, and ability to enjoy life. For a bipolar disorder diagnosis, youll see a psychiatrist. This medical doctor specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders. Doctors refer to bipolar disorder criteria set forth by the American Psychiatric Association in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders .

Are Bipolar And Manic Depressive The Same

Is Bipolar and Manic Depression the Same Thing?

Asked by: Trudie Weimann

Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs , valproic acid , divalproex sodium , carbamazepine and lamotrigine .https://www.mayoclinic.org bipolar-treatment faq-20058042 ) and lows . When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities.

Also Check: Chances Of Inheriting Schizophrenia

Is Bipolar More Serious Than Depression

Both are serious mental illnesses than can affect a persons quality of life. And both can lead to serious consequences if left untreated, including suicide, self-harm, reckless behavior, and impairment at work, home, or school. Both bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, however, can be treated to lessen the risk of these dangerous symptoms.

What Are The Signs And Symptoms

A person with bipolar disorder will go through episodes of mania and at other times experience episodes of depression . These aren’t the normal periods of happiness and sadness that everyone experiences from time to time. Instead, the episodes are intense or severe mood swings, like a pendulum that keeps arcing higher and higher.

Symptoms of mania include:

  • anger, worry, and anxiety
  • thoughts of death or suicide

In adults, episodes of mania or depression usually last for weeks or months, although they can be shorter in length. In children and adolescents, though, these episodes can be much shorter, and a kid or teen can even go back and forth between mania and depression throughout the day.

Episodes of mania or depression may happen irregularly and follow an unpredictable pattern or they may be linked, with a manic episode always following a period of depression, or vice versa. Sometimes episodes have a seasonal pattern. Mania in the spring, for example, may be followed by depression in the winter.

Between episodes, someone with bipolar disorder usually returns to normal functioning. For some people, though, there is little or no “break period” between their cycles. These mood swing cycles can change slowly or rapidly, with rapid cycling between mania and depression being much more common in women, children, and adolescents.

P

Don’t Miss: Audrey Hepburn Eating Disorder

How Often Do Moods Change

Mood changes can be common in borderline personality disorder since people with this condition have very unstable emotions. However, mood swings are more likely to happen without warning- often lasting less than a day and not related to any specific event. In bipolar disorder, mood swings are more likely to follow a pattern or be triggered by something.

Why Has Manic Depression Lasted

What is Bipolar Disorder?

It is impossible to fully say why manic depression continues to be the preferred term for some people. Some options include:

  • People who were initially diagnosed before 1980 and never received more contemporary information regarding their condition.
  • People who only sought out information regarding their mental health or the mental health of others from outdated or unreliable sources.
  • People who still use manic depression because the term is self-explanatory and easier to understand compared to bipolar.

The final item is of particular importance. When people hear manic depression, they have a good understanding of the condition.

Bipolar disorder sounds different. It is less obvious and veiled in mystery. There is no unipolar disorder, though that term is sometimes used to describe depression.

So, it is likely that manic depression continues to be a popular word because of its ability to describe the condition that it names.

You may think that it doesnt matter what you call the condition because it is the same, but this might not be a good road to travel. In a world where people are continuously inundated with information, it can be complex and challenging to discriminate fact from fiction.

You May Like: What Is A Depression On A Topographic Map

You May Like: Webmd Anxiety Disorder

Bipolar Disorder Vs Manic Depression Are They The Same

Bipolar is defined as someone who experiences extreme highs and lows, normally sadness and happiness are the two emotions that are often experienced. With bipolar, it comes suddenly with no warning sign. Unless the person has been properly diagnosed, they may not realize they are bipolar. The highs in bipolar are known as mania, while the lows are called depression.

For many, depression is often associated with feelings of sadness however, depression is much more than that. It can impact ones feeling of self-worth as well as affect their outlook on life. Another thing to note with depression is that there are periods of depressive moments followed by feelings of normalcy.

Bipolar and depression are not entirely different diagnoses, but they describe the aspects of one another.

One thing that individuals who are diagnosed with bipolar and depression experience are mood swings.

What Is A Borderline Personality Disorder

A borderline personality disorder is a mental health condition that is characterized by unstable moods, behavior, and relationships. People with a borderline personality disorder may experience intense emotions and have difficulty regulating their thoughts and feelings. As a result, they may act impulsively and engage in risky behaviors. They may also have problems maintaining stable relationships.

Don’t Miss: Pristiq For Ptsd

Treatments For Bipolar Disorder

The high and low phases of bipolar disorder are often so extreme that they interfere with everyday life.

But there are several options for treating bipolar disorder that can make a difference.

They aim to control the effects of an episode and help someone with bipolar disorder live life as normally as possible.

The following treatment options are available:

  • medicine to prevent episodes of mania and depression these are known as mood stabilisers, and you take them every day on a long-term basis
  • medicine to treat the main symptoms of depression and mania when they happen
  • learning to recognise the triggers and signs of an episode of depression or mania
  • psychological treatment such as talking therapy, which can help you deal with depression, and provides advice about how to improve your relationships
  • lifestyle advice such as doing regular exercise, planning activities you enjoy that give you a sense of achievement, as well as advice on improving your diet and getting more sleep

It’s thought using a combination of different treatment methods is the best way to control bipolar disorder.

Help and advice for people with a long-term condition or their carers is also available from charities, support groups and associations.

This includes self-help and learning to deal with the practical aspects of a long-term condition.

Bipolar Disorder And Depression

Manic vs Depressive phase (sometimes in the same day). : bipolar

Bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder are mental health conditions that share some similar features. In some cases, people may confuse the two. However, they are separate disorders that require different treatment approaches.

Some of this misunderstanding may be attributed to the term bipolar depression, which is a name given to the depressive episodes that are a part of bipolar disorder. To understand the difference between bipolar and depression, each disorder must be examined on its own. Once a person understands both disorders separately, it becomes easier to identify differences between bipolar and depression.

Read Also: Phobia Of Large Words

What Are The Long

Bipolar disorder is a life-long and often recurring illness. You may need long term support to help manage your condition.

What medication options are there?

Your doctor will look at what medication worked for you during episodes of mania or depression. They should ask you whether you want to continue this treatment or if you want to change to lithium.

Lithium usually works better than other types of medication for long-term treatment. Your doctor should give you information about how to take lithium safely. If lithium doesn’t work well enough or causes you problems, you may be offered:

  • Valproate,
  • Olanzapine, or
  • Quetiapine.

Your doctor should monitor your health. Physical health checks should be done at least once a year. These checks will include:

  • measuring your weight,
  • checking your liver and heart, and
  • checking your pulse and blood pressure.

What psychological treatments are recommended?

You should be offered a psychological therapy that is specially designed for bipolar disorder. You could have individual or group therapy.

The aim of your therapy is to stop you from becoming unwell again. This is known as relapse. Your therapy should help you to:

If you live with your family or are in close contact with them, you should also be offered family intervention.

Family intervention is where you and your family work with mental health professionals to help to manage relationships. This should be offered to people who you live with or who you are in close contact with.

Many People With Bipolar Disorder Are Misdiagnosed As Depressed

Up to 25 percent of people with bipolar disorder are wrongly diagnosed with depression initially, which may have to do with the fact that they only seek treatment when they’re trapped in the desperate pit of clinical depression. Later on, when the medical professional learns of the episodes of mania or hypomania in the patient’s life, they are more often able to correctly identify bipolar disorder.

There’s another side to the misdiagnosis, though. “Many people think of bipolar as a way to describe extreme mood swings and it tends to be overdiagnosed, especially in teenage populations,” Aman tells Bustle. But the phases of mania or hypomania differ distinctly from mood swings, both in their duration and how they interfere with people’s everyday lives. Individuals with bipolar disorder, versus those with severe mood swings or clinical depression, are more likely to suffer from substance abuse, eating disorders, and metabolic issues.

This also means treatment will vary for each person. Aman says she cannot prescribe a single way of helping someone through a manic stage, as everyone responds differently. She does point out, though, that every person with bipolar disorder, no matter what “type” they have or how often they fall into a clinical depression, “needs loads of support from friends and family.” They often forget the fact that they’re loved, so keep encouraging them, even if you feel like you don’t quite get what they’re going through.

Images: Fotolia Unsplash

Recommended Reading: What Is Feretrophobia

Signs And Symptoms Of Bipolar Disorder

Posted: Jun 30, 2022, 4:00:00 PM

Bipolar disorder is a type of mood disorder that causes fluctuations in your emotional state. You may experience times of depression and mania or hypomania. Signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder vary depending on your emotional state.

From the community: So I told my therapist about the whole thing about the sex with tons of guys when I lived on my own, not because I like them, just because I liked the sex and I got a high off of it and felt awesome when I was doing it and about the shopping and how I would just feel so great when doing it and about the credit card issues my parents don’t know about and the $6,000 that I had spent in a few months from my money from selling my house since being at home again. My therapist said it sounded like I was bipolar and wanted me to contact my psychiatrist and tell him what I told her. Well, I didn’t until I was actually spending again and realized what I was doing and that I had to stop… Inspire member

Symptoms Of Bipolar Disorder

Manic Depression (Cover)

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by extreme changes in thinking, mood, and behavior. Individuals who suffer with this condition also typically experience mania and depressive stateshence, why it used to be called manic depression or manic-depressive illness.

This disorder can vary from person to person, whereas some may experience mostly manic phases and others, mostly depressive states. Both, however, have their own symptoms.

Symptoms of a depressive episode may include:

  • Feelings of emptiness or worthlessness
  • Behavioral changes
  • Taking on more than one can handle
  • Foregoing sleep or having little desire for it
  • Unrealistic beliefs about ones abilities
  • Showing high-risk behavior

Additionally, some people with bipolar disorder may experience something called hypomaniathis is similar to mania, but a less severe form. The main difference is that symptoms of hypomania do not typically hinder your life as mania does.

Now, it is also possible for individuals with bipolar disorder to experience mixed mood states whereas depressive and manic symptoms coexist. In these instances, symptoms or side effects may include agitation, insomnia, suicidal ideation, and extreme changes in appetite, all whilst feeling abnormally energized.

You May Like: Faint From Anxiety

Symptoms That Lead To A Diagnosis

If youre suffering from any kind of mental health disorder, its important that you identify and understand your symptoms in order for our doctors to correctly diagnose you. Bipolar disorder consists of both manic and depressive episodes that create an unstable mood.

Mania can be extreme changes in mood, or you can have hypomania which is typically less severe. Symptoms of mania include:

Difficulty sleeping Extreme energy Increased self-esteem Difficulty concentrating Racing thoughts

On the opposite end of the spectrum, depression can change your emotional highs to hopeless lows. If you have bipolar disorder with depression, symptoms you may experience include:

Fatigue Sadness Decreased energy Overeating or loss of appetite Suicidal thoughts

Our team at Boston MindCare take a detailed history to decipher your symptoms and give you a definitive diagnosis. With that, we can also form a customized treatment plan for you.

Diagnosing Depression And Bipolar Disorder

If you have bipolar disorder, getting a diagnosis can be complicated because its difficult to recognize hypomania or mania in yourself. If your doctor is unaware you have those symptoms, your illness will appear to be depression, and you wont get the right treatment.

Accurate analysis of your symptoms is the only way to arrive at the correct diagnosis. Your doctor will need a complete medical history. You should also list all the medications and supplements you take. Its important to tell your doctor if youve had a problem with substance abuse.

No specific diagnostic test is available to help your doctor determine if you have bipolar disorder or depression. But your doctor may want to order tests to rule out other conditions that can mimic depression. These tests might include physical and neurological exams, lab tests, or brain imaging.

Treatment will be more effective if you start early and stick to it.

Read Also: Can Anxiety Raise Blood Sugar In Non Diabetics

Symptoms Of Depression Vs Symptoms Of Bipolar Disorder

Depression and bipolar disorder are complex conditions that can share symptoms. It may take some time to receive the proper diagnosis.

presence or absence of three episodes to diagnose bipolar disorder from depression. These are:

  • Manic episode:Mania is a period lasting at least 7 days of high energy combined with several, specific behavior changes. The changes cause dysfunction at work or in a persons social life.
  • Hypomanic episode:Hypomania is similar to mania, but with a shorter period of less severe changes. The changes do not cause trouble with daily living and last at least 4 days.
  • Major depressive episode: At least 2 weeks of several symptoms of depression. The criteria for a major depressive episode mirrors that for a diagnosis of MDD.

Manic episodes are characterized by irritability or increased energy levels on most days, for the majority of each day. People must also experience at least three of these behavior changes to be considered for a bipolar disorder diagnosis:

  • boundless energy and less need for sleep
  • racing thoughts or switching topics during conversation
  • speaking more or speaking rapidly
  • increased activity
  • becoming easily distracted

More articles

Popular Articles