Understand the Depression
There are two major type of depression. In the first depression or unipolar depression, the patient’s mood varies between being either normal or depressed; he or she never becomes excessively elated. In the second, manic-depression or bipolar illness, the patient’s mood varies between being depresses and being “high” or “euphoric.” In the past manic-depression was sometimes called manic-depression psychosis. Psychosis is another word for “insanity,” including symptoms such as delusions (false beliefs) and hallucinations. The mostly people with manic depression are never psychotic.
Dysthymia refers to a state of mild chronic depression. Cyclothymia refers to a condition in which the person’s moods swing up and down for days, weeks, or moths at a time, with symptoms that are not as severe as those in manic depression.
There is also much confusion about whether these illnesses are produced by psychological experiences or by malfunctioning within the brain (a chemical imbalance). The major point is that depression, manic depression, dysthymic disorder, and cyclothymic disorder are disease, the product of abnormal biological functioning.
Understand the Depression
