The other extreme of depression, mania

We all know that the main symptom of depression is obvious depressed mood, but there is a disease that is completely opposite to the depressed mood manifestation of depression. Individuals with this disease often appear to have excessive emotional highs that last for a longer period of time, feel happy for no reason, and feel that their minds are very flexible and responsive, talk significantly more, often sleep only a few hours at night, but still have a lot of energy during the day; also Often appear to over-evaluate themselves and think they can easily do something far beyond their ability; behave recklessly and impulsively, such as spending money indiscriminately, easily lose their temper over small things impulsively, behave frivolously and act irresponsibly. If this situation lasts for more than 1 week and has a certain impact on the individual’s life, work or study, we consider this to be a mood disorder, and the name of this disorder is called mania. The manifestation of mania and depression is opposite. Depression has “three low symptoms”, i.e. low mood, slow thinking and reduced activities, while mania shows “three high symptoms”, i.e. high mood, active thinking and increased activities. The impact of mania on patients’ life is not as obvious as depression, only a very small number of manic patients may appear some impulsive and hurtful behaviors under the situation of extremely high mood. Even the degree of high mood of many manic patients is not very obvious, usually most of them are in the state of light mania. At this time they are full of energy, active thinking, strong self-confidence, and often can achieve some achievements more easily than ordinary people. In this case, manic patients often can not recognize their own emotional abnormalities, and naturally will not go to the hospital. Only when the manic patient’s high mood is obvious and has caused certain influence on his life, he will be sent to the hospital by his family for consultation. In real life, mania is less common than depression, and the recurrence of manic episodes alone is even less common. What is more common clinically is the repeated alternation of mania and depression, the patient shows obvious depressive mood at a certain time, and after a period of time the depressive mood is relieved, but after a period of time the manic mood appears again, and then after a period of time it turns to depression again, in between the obvious depressive mood and manic mood episodes there is usually an intermediate remission period of several months, this situation repeatedly alternates, that is, the patient simultaneously With the manifestation of depression and mania, this disease we call bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is more difficult to treat than depression or mania alone, and the treatment methods are different when the patient is in a depressed mood and in a manic mood. Moreover, the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder is more closely influenced by biological factors, so pharmacological interventions play a major role in the treatment of patients with bipolar disorder. Many patients need to take medication for a longer period of time to stabilize their fluctuating moods.