Almost 20% of all people in the US will at least experience one episode of a depressive episode and most of them more. Although not always taken seriously, a depressive disorder is a serious disorder that threads the patient’s social life and in the end even his own life. If you are depressed you will isolate yourself and don’t care anymore about the world around you. This article will try to outline the difference between a depressive episode and manic depression, both classified as mood disorders.
Depression is not a disease on itself but a syndrome, a collection of symptoms we call depression. If you qualify for a certain amount of those symptoms than you are considered to be depressed. This method of diagnosing is quite arbitrary and that is why there are many types of depression each with their own symptoms. The most important differentiation to make is between a primary depression and a manic depressive disorder because both are treated in a different way.
The main difference between the both of them is that with a manic depression comes mania, a state where you will feel abundantly good instead of feeling sad. Although this might sound as a very cool thing, when patients are in a state of mania they will lose the grip with reality and believe they are not bounded by anything. They believe they are god and thus can fly or they believe they are the creator of justice and everybody has to listen to them. Often they will spend a lot of money, drink a lot of alcohol and flirt with numerous females/males although they might be married. A mania can ruin someone’s personal life because he will do things he would normally never do. When these episodes are gone there will frequently come a state of depression and these mood changes will cycle through life.
The important to know this difference lays in the fact that both are treated in a different way. You can not give the same medication to depressed patients and patients with manic depression. Where medication is aimed to make someone feel more happy when they are depressed, they will do different things to someone with a state of mania. Cognitive treatment will also be different in both mood disorders because feeling sad of abundantly good both need a different approach.
Both syndromes are very well treatable if you contact your doctor and psychologist soon enough. Don’t wait for too long and believe you can solve it on yourself.
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