What is Manic Depression?

By: Kitty Barker
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:18:42
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Manic depression is that state of depression in which the patient suffers from mood swings which go between extreme elation and depression. So while one minute the patient may feel on top of the world the other minute there will be feelings of despair and helplessness. Although there are many factors that cause this kind of depression genetic reasons are the most prominent ones. This means that two thirds of the people suffering from manic depression have someone in their family also suffering from the same. It is not only the moods of the person that get affected by this but there are also physiological changes, there will be heightened activity at some time, sleeplessness at another and it also impacts once social rhythms and thinking abilities.

Varying forms of Manic Depression

Bipolar Depression

There are varying degrees of manic depression which means in some cases the ratio of a person being depressed may be 3:1 while in other cases it could be as great as 37:1. What this means is that a person who has a ration of 3:1 will spend three times as much time depressed than elated. Researchers are also if the opinion that the condition of depression that the patients of Manic depression feel is quite more than that of normal depression and indeed the chances of a person committing suicide is twice as much as someone who is suffering from only depression or unipolar depression as it is called.

Mixed Mania

Manic depression is also known to manifest itself in a Mixed state, this means that the people suffering from it will experience mania and depression at the same time. So they may experience agitation, anxiety, fatigue, guilt, impulsiveness, insomnia, irritability, morbid and/or suicidal ideation, panic, paranoia, pressured speech and rage all at the same time. A typical example would be someone tearful or even crying even when seemingly appearing very cheerful or excited. Such states are the most dangerous and are prone to induce the maximum chances of drug abuse and even suicides.

Rapid and utltradian cycles

Rapid cycling means that the individual tends to swing between one mood and the other quite frequently so while you may find them to be in a euphoric state at 10 in the morning as if the world belonged to them you can see them at 11 and feel that they are the most helpless people in this world, although such type of hour cycling is not known to afflict a lot of people there are fairly large number of cases who have greater cycles of a day or a month.

Famous people having manic depression

Although manic depression is a mental disorder and one must take all steps to ensure that one is treated of this condition there are several famous people who have had this kind of illness. And at the same time these people also attribute the reason for their creativity to having some sort of mania which helped them in the creative work they did. Indeed this is not to mean that you should not get yourself treated. If you were suffering from this disorder as it is a dangerous situation and many people like Kurt Cobain who was the lead singer of the rock band Nirvana have ended up committing suicide because they could not control it.

While most such celebrities have had turbulent life they were able to control it and live a more or less normal life. It would surprise most to know that it is thought that a large number of artists, writers and other celebrities like Vincent Van Gogh, Mark Twain, Axl Rose of Guns n Roses, Ozzy Ozbourne, Edgar Allen Poe, Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Jimmi Hendrix, Ralph Waldo Emerson and even Winston Churchill were suffering from it.

In the end with proper treatment this illness can be controlled and taken care of and the list of successful people who have gone through their lives with this disorder should give the patients comfort that not only are they alone, people suffering from similar disease have lived happy and successful lives as well.

Author: Kitty Barker - Kitty often writes for and with Depression-Assistance. You can also see more information on this subject at Manic Depression - should this link be inactive, you can paste this link to your browser - manic-depression-assistance.com/

Article source: Expert Articles

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