Posted by BarbaraCat on May 30, 2002, at 0:47:17
In reply to Re: Bipolar/Unipolar depression - differences? » jazzdog, posted by Ritch on May 29, 2002, at 23:23:19
I am so totally confused about all these different brands of depression. It's like splitting hairs. I get two kinds of depression, 1. the dreary gray sludge kind, 2. the panic world is coming to an end anguish kind. I can understand the first as being garden variety depression, but I don't know what the second kind is. It's the second kind that is particularly horrible and scary and brings me close to the edge. I wish I knew what it was so I could treat it. It feels like an electric nightmare.
Anyone remember those series of cat paintings done by someone at the beginning and last stages of a psychotic episode? The first is a nice little kitty cat and the last one is this jagged edged psychotic wild-eyed haunted cat. My 'bad depressions' for lack of what else to call them are like that last cat. The first kind I can stand, but these last-cat kinds are unbearable. They're not getting addressed or treated (except by default) cause everything's getting lumped into a one size fits all depression category. Hey, if I have psychotic depressions, then fine, give me some anti-psychosis meds. I have a hunch that it's cortisol toxicity caused by an overamped nervous system. Wasn't it RU-486 still in development drug that supposedly addressed the whole HPA axis cortisol thing? - Barbara
- > > It's my understanding that unipolar depression is the anxious, insomniac, losing-weight variety, and bipolar depression involves sleeping too much, having no energy, and gaining weight. But there are also mixed states, anxious hypomanias, etc., so who knows?
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> Yes, and unless you write it all down (mood chart, journal, whatever) while it is ocurring it is really tough to remember what your depressive episodes are *really* like! I was just reading the tranylcypromine monograph (interesting how depression semantics seem to "change"), and it now talks about the difference between "melancholic" depression (which is supposed to be the same as "endogenous" depression) and NON-melancholic depression which is characterized as "atypical" "reactive" "neurotic", etc. So now I am even more confused. All I know is that I *never* get hypomanic spells during the winter and that is when I have one of my seasonal major depressions. It is characterized by eating more (with distinct carbohydrate cravings), sleeping more, and a dreary weepy sadness and disinterest in everything. Well, I have a 2nd episode that is seasonal and it has been starting early this year (summer episode) and it is the same as the winter one except I tend to feel a lot of anxiety and a lot of screwed up interrupted sleep associated with it. Fortunately, it hasn't progressed to the sleep screwup stage-because when it gets to *that*-that is when it becomes a major problem.
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> Mitch
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:107896
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020525/msgs/108010.html