What's the Difference between Depression and Bipolar Disorder?

Contents:

Medical Video: Understanding Bipolar Disorder

From the point of view of ordinary people, symptoms of depression and bipolar disorder (bipolar disorder) appear to be a bit similar. Generally both people with depression or bipolar disorder will experience a loss of interest in life, even losing the "appetite" for everything he once loved.However, like two sides of a coin, both are the opposite medical conditions. Do you know what really is the difference between depression and bipolar? Check out this article further to find out what is different about depression and bipolar.

What is the difference between depression and bipolar disorder?

Depression can be called a term unipolar depression, while bipolar disorder is known as the term bipolar depression.

Depression is a psychiatric disorder that makes a person feel sad sadness continues to be at its lowest point, and very desperate to lose motivation and enthusiasm to undergo daily activities.

The opposite, Bipolar disorder is characterized by changes extreme mood which we usually know by the term mood swings.Bipolar disorder makes the sufferer experience feelings of excitement and enthusiasm that are excessive and never subside (often called mania) at one time, and then can experience incomparable sadness at a later time.

Various signs and symptoms that can distinguish depression and bipolar disorder

To find out more about what different depression and bipolar disorder are, here are some things you can pay attention to:

The causes of depression and bipolar disorder are totally different

Although until now researchers have not found out exactly what causes bipolar disorder, they believe that genetic factors play a more important role in causing bipolar disorder. Two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine, fall apart in someone who has bipolar disorder. While depression is more influenced by various things, ranging from genetic factors, hormonal changes, the use of drugs, to chronic stress.

Depression causes sadness to continue, bipolar causes a person to feel happy and sad

Bipolar disorder causes a person to experience two different phases, namely the phase of 'mania' and 'depression' which can appear alternately. These mood changes can occur drastically, and often appear not in accordance with the conditions that are happening. For example, when you are having a hangout with friends, bipolar people feel sad without cause.

When someone is in the phase of 'mania' then someone will be at the top mood, very excited, unable to sleep, talk more than usual, talk very fast, easily distracted concentration, and think short term without thinking of the consequences. Phase ’'mania'’ usually lasts 7 days. Between the phases of 'mania' and 'depression', there is a phase of 'psychosis' which is a condition where a person will feel alien to his world and hallucinate - or have unreasonable ideas. While when a bipolar is in the 'depression' phase, he tends to experience the same symptoms as people who are depressed.

Usually, a person can develop a bipolar tendency in the teens to 30s.

Different diseases, also different symptoms caused

Different depression and bipolar disorder are often difficult to make an official diagnosis because these mental disorders are frequent show the same symptoms. However, there are some things that can be a differentiator to determine the diagnosis of whether someone is experiencingdepression or bipolar disorder

Depression can be characterized by physical symptoms such as the appearance of real pain in the body (whether it can be explained or not), emergence of feelings of sadness / anxiety, despair, anger, loss of interest in something or loss of interest to interact with the environment, loss of appetite , difficulty sleeping or insomnia, difficulty concentrating, making decisions, remembering, hallucinations, and the emergence of thoughts to hurt themselves.

While the characteristics of people who have bipolar disorder couldobserved witha tendency to hurt themselves, a mood that is unstable or changes drastically, and is more sensitive to something.

Different depression and bipolar can be seen from the medicine

Different from depression and bipolar, the treatment is also different. Depression can be short, and pthere are cases of prolonged clinical depression, treatment options include taking CBT counseling with psychotherapists or using prescription antidepressant drugs.Whereas people with bipolar disorder will usually get a more intense treatment, because bipolar is a condition that can last a lifetime and is more complex depending on the severity of the phase it experiences.

What's the Difference between Depression and Bipolar Disorder?
Rated 5/5 based on 2422 reviews
💖 show ads