What's the difference between depression and bipolar disorder?
From a layman’s point of view, the symptoms of depression and bipolar disorder look somewhat similar. Generally, people with depression or bipolar disorder will experience a loss of interest in life, even to the point of losing their “appetite” for everything they used to love. However, like the two sides of a coin, they are completely opposite medical conditions. Do you know what really makes the difference between depression and bipolar disorder? Read on for more on this article to find out what is the difference between depression and bipolar disorder.
What is the difference between depression and bipolar disorder?
Depression can be called by the term unipolar depression, while bipolar disorder is known by the term bipolar depression.
Depression is a psychiatric disorder that makes a person feel a sense of continuous sadness until it is at its lowest point, and is so desperate that it loses motivation and enthusiasm to carry out daily activities.
On the contrary, Bipolar disorder is characterized by changes extreme mood which we are familiar with the term mood swings. Bipolar disorder causes the person to experience feelings of excitement and excitement that don’t go away (often called mania) one time, and then experience incomparable sadness the next time.
A variety of signs and symptoms that can differentiate depression and bipolar disorder
To find out more about what are the differences between depression and bipolar disorder, 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 determined 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, are messed up in someone with bipolar disorder. Meanwhile, depression is more influenced by various things, ranging from genetic factors, hormonal changes, drug use, to chronic stress.
Depression causes continuous sadness, bipolar disorder causes a person to go back and forth to feel happy and sad
Bipolar disorder causes a person to experience two different phases, namely the phases of ‘mania’ and ‘depression’ which can appear alternately. This fluctuation of mood changes can occur drastically, and often appear to be incompatible with current conditions. For example, when you are hanging out for fun with friends, people with bipolar disorder feel sad for no reason.
When someone is in the phase of “ mania ” then someone will be at the peak mood, very excited, unable to sleep, talk a lot more than usual, speak very fast, easily distracted, and think short term without thinking the consequences. The “ mania ” phase usually lasts 7 days. Between the phases of “mania” and “depression”, there is a phase of “psychosis” which is a condition in which a person will feel alien to his world and hallucinate – or have ideas that do not make sense. Meanwhile, when a bipolar person is in the “ depressive ” phase, he tends to experience the same symptoms as people who experience depression.
Typically, a person can develop bipolar tendencies in their teens to 30s.
Different diseases, different symptoms
The difference between depression and bipolar disorder is often difficult to make an official diagnosis because these two mental disorders are frequent shows the same symptoms. However, there are several things that can be the differentiator to determine whether someone has a diagnosis depression 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 why or not), the emergence of feelings of sadness / anxiety, hopelessness, anger, loss of interest in something or loss of interest in interacting with the environment, loss of appetite , difficulty sleeping or insomnia, difficulty concentrating, making decisions, remembering, hallucinations, and thoughts of self-harm.
Meanwhile, the characteristics of people who have bipolar disorder could observed with a tendency to self-injure, an unstable or drastically changing mood, and being more sensitive to things.
The difference between depression and bipolar disorder can be seen from the medicine
Different from depression and bipolar disorder, the treatment is also different. Depression can be brief, and pin cases of long-standing clinical depression, treatment options include attending CBT counseling with a psychotherapist or taking a prescription antidepressant. Meanwhile, people with bipolar disorder will usually get more intense treatment, because bipolar is a condition that can last a lifetime and is more complex depending on the severity of the phase they are experiencing.
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