The Role of Mania in Bipolar Depression

Learn how the presence of mania differentiates bipolar depression from depression.

In order to understand bipolar depression and how it most significantly differs from depression, you have to understand mania. A person can get depressed for many reasons. A person gets manic for one reason- bipolar disorder. Because of this, the main treatment difference between the two depressions is how the treatment will affect mania. Mania is much trickier than depression often because most of us have felt a form of depression at some time- breakups, loss of a job, etc, but very few people have experienced mania, so they don't know what to look for and it goes undiagnosed.

Depression after Mania

Another main difference between the two types of depression is that for many people with Bipolar Depression, the depression comes after a manic episode. This is a further example of how bipolar depression can be a result of abnormalities in brain chemistry and not provoked by stressful situations. The depression that comes after a serious mania can be very intense and often suicidal and yet, unless the person understands mania and what happened, they will get help for the depression only.

Mixed Episodes: Depression and Mania at the same time

A mixed episode, where mania, depression and often psychosis are combined is one area where bipolar depression differs greatly from depression. A mixed bipolar disorder episode is often very dangerous due to the physical intensity behind the mood swings. It can be very, very uncomfortable and can often require a combination of medications to get the mood swings stabilized.