Bipolar Depression vs Depression

I hope yall are enjoying your month of June so far. Hopefully used my tips I have provided on Recap – May, in order to have a better month. Also, hope everybody in the LGBTQ community and supporters keep celebrating Pride Month. I know I will continue rocking my blue, purple, and pink. Don’t forget the LGBTQ community needs just as much attention for mental health as anybody else. Read my post about mental health within the LGBTQ community for more information. I did not forget that I have announced I am making this month Bipolar Disorder month. So I will continue discussing various topics of bipolar disorder for the rest of June.

I know on an earlier entry, BPD vs Bipolar Disorder, I have provided a little bit of information of bipolar disorder in order to make the difference between it and borderline personality disorder. However, I did not go in much depth on bipolar disorder. So this entry we will explore more into it and what’s the difference between bipolar depression and general depression. So with me in the hot balloon ride of bipolar depression! **Disney-ish music starts to play in background**

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder. Someone with bipolar disorder can have extreme fluctuation in mood, energy, activity, and concentration or focus. I know what you’re probab;y thinking, “But Michy, everybody goes through ups and downs! Does that mean everybody is bipolar?!?!?!” Look, smart ass, we’re not talking about somebody being moody. We’re talking about going very irritable, like the Hulk, one minute to sunshine and rainbows on the next. Now there is two types of moods in BI-polar disorder. Yea, you see what I did there? One mood the the depression mood. That’s when a person feel sad, indifferent, or hopeless, in combination with a very low activity level. The other mood is called manic mood. As you may guess it, it’s the complete opposite. Someone might feel very happy, irritable, or “up,” and there is a marked increase in activity level.

Now, I know on my previous entry, BPD vs Bipolar Disorder, I have explained symptoms of bipolar disorder. Here is a chart of symptoms for BOTH moods in bipolar disorder.

Symptoms of a Manic Episode	Symptoms of a Depressive Episode
Feeling very up, high, elated, or extremely irritable or touchy	Feeling very down or sad, or anxious
Feeling jumpy or wired, more active than usual	Feeling slowed down or restless
Racing thoughts	Trouble concentrating or making decisions
Decreased need for sleep	Trouble falling asleep, waking up too early, or sleeping too much
Talking fast about a lot of different things (“flight of ideas”)	Talking very slowly, feeling like you have nothing to say, or forgetting a lot
Excessive appetite for food, drinking, sex, or other pleasurable activities	Lack of interest in almost all activities
Thinking you can do a lot of things at once without getting tired	Unable to do even simple things
Feeling like you are unusually important, talented, or powerful	Feeling hopeless or worthless, or thinking about death or suicide

Don’t get it twisted, there are people with bipolar disorder that has a milder case than others. The best example I can give is when someone is having a hypomanic episode. A hypomanic episode/hypomania is just a less severe version of manic episode/mania, BUT… it does not cause significant distress or impair one’s work, family, or social life in an obvious way while manic episodes do. While the person goes through this, their family and/or friends will pick up on the mood swings and changes in activity levels as behavior that is different from usual.

There are three types of bipolar disorder. One of them is Bipolar 1 disorder. Bipolar 1 is when someone’s manic episode last longer (at least 7 days) than their depressive episode. Of course Bipolar 2 is the complete opposite. The depressive episode last longer than the mania. The third one is called cyclothymia. Cyclothymia is a persistent SYMPTOMS of hypomanic and depressive symptoms, but they are not intense enough, or do not last long enough, to qualify as hypomanic or depressive EPISODES.

Now, that we cover the bipolar disorder, we can briefly discuss about depression. I have went into full details about depression on my blog entry, Depression. Please read it for more insight. But all and all, depression is more than just feeling low. It’s a deep sadness or emptiness that a person can’t shake. They might feel hopeless, worthless, and restless. They might lose interest in things that you used to enjoy. Some days might be a little better than others, but for the most part, it’s a continuous low feeling. There is no extreme highs and extreme lows like bipolar disorder. And that’s pretty much the difference. There is a video to further explain the difference between the two.

I hope my entry clarifies what bipolar disorder is and the difference between it and depression. Again, this hit close to the heart because I have bipolar disorder as well BPD. WITHOUT meds, there are days I would go without sleeping, excited, ready to take on the world, splurge a little on my shopping, and take other risky behaviors. There would be days that I just cry and want to stay in bed. I just wish I was never born and have a lot of suicidal idealizations. It’s tough to manage without taking my meds AND seeing a therapist. These things plus self care, like eating healthy, exercise, meditate, and etc, is very vital to the treatment. Do you have bipolar disorder or do you have a love one with bipolar disorder? What are your experiences? Is there anything new you learned from the entry? If so, what? Is there anything I am missing on this post? Please share! I love it when people comment and participate on this discussion. Please scroll below to follow my social media accounts. Until then, remember to adult one day at the time! xoxo