Manic Depression Symptoms

Manic-depressive disorder is a psychiatric disorder that combines two types of episodes: the manic episodes and the depressive episodes. This dual nature of manic depression symptoms is why the disorder is also called bipolar disorder. In contrary to major depressive disorder which involves only depressive episodes that last for extended periods of time, manic depressive disorder consists of manic and depressive symptoms that follow each other with rapid succession.

Manic depression (or bipolar depression) is hard to correctly diagnose, especially in the beginning stages of the disorder. Manic-depressive disorder usually manifests itself near the end of the adolescence period and at the beginning of adulthood with several consecutive depressive episodes.

The episodes involve feelings of extreme anger, frustration and even suicidal thoughts; at this point, the difficulty of diagnosis is two fold: first, some – if not all – of these symptoms of depression may be confused with the hormonal changes that the individual goes through during adolescence and be completely ignored, and secondly, due to the consecutive depressive episodes without any manic episodes in between, the condition may be misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder instead of bipolar disorder.

For a psychiatric disorder to be diagnosed as manic depression, both episodes (depressive and manic or  hypomanic episodes) must be present and observed. The sequence of episodes changes from person to person; while one person may experience many depressive episodes for one manic episode, another person may experience the complete opposite situation where each depressive episode is followed by numerous manic episodes that last very long.

Manic Depression Symptoms: Depressive Episodes

Manic depression symptoms

The depressive episodes of a manic depression patient are basically identical to the general symptoms and signs of clinical depression (and that is why the condition may be diagnosed at first, especially if a number of depressive episodes are observed without a manic episode in between).
The prevalent symptoms of depression like continuous anger, sadness, loss of interest, hopelessness, feelings of guilt, insomnia or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping), loss of appetite and weight or sudden weight gain (patients may lose or gain up to five percent of their total body weight in a single month), having significant difficulty in concentrating, self loathing and suicidal tendencies are the tell tale signs of a depressive episode. If such a condition lasts for a few weeks and left untreated, its’ effects may extend to up to six months and can even involve hallucinations.

Manic Depression Symptoms: Manic Episodes

The manic episodes are the other part of the manic depressive disorder. In contrary to the sense of sadness and hopelessness felt during the depressive episodes, the patient starts to experience a high energy period that manifests itself with a much better mood (in comparison to the depressive episode and the normal mood of the person) and even with euphoria (intense excitement and happiness that is apparently baseless).

During manic episodes, affected individuals display extremely elevated levels of energy with little to no sleep or rest. Pressured speech and over-enthusiasm are also other signs of depression observed during the manic period. Even if these may seem positive at first, the patient will have a much shorter attention span and impaired judgment during this period causing abnormal behavior. The manic depression symptoms in both depressive and manic episodes will adversely affect the patient’s life (even cause life threatening situations due to suicidal tendencies during the depressive episodes) and hence should be treated immediately.