How do you tell the difference?

I've only been feeling bad for the past two days but promised myself that if I got seriously depressed one more time I would try mood stabilizer (then again, have made this promise many many times...)

Things were going great and then had a few very minor conflicts with family (common) which seemed to really get me down for some reason. Since then I've been much more sensitive and angry and just want to be quiet and alone.

Then last night I was reading some old medical records from when I was a teenager (for a book project) and saw some stuff that bothered me - like notes from my psychiatrist about him trying to get my mother involved and her not taking my problems seriously or returning calls etc. he even suggested I be voluntarily hospitalized but I never knew this until now. My mom is amazing and I know she feels guilty about this now, but I still feel angry about it because I was made to feel like a faker/drama queen and haven't been able to take my problems seriously since.

My heart is aching in that familiar way, I am unmotivated, and rather hopeless when I think about the future. I still enjoy reading tho, and am able to go to work etc.,, so that's good.

I guess my question (buried in my venting) is: where / when do you draw the line between a bad mood and an episode?

[goldenglitters]

I have the same struggles, got some critical feedback on an essay and that spiraled me down in some really bad feels, lasting for some days now. Not sure it will get better or if I will feel like this for some time now, I guess we can only wait and see.

Something I realised though is that no matter what, the feelings we're having are still valid. You had some arguments and got reminded about some forgotten conflicts, of course that will affect how you feel! The sadness need to be attended to as if they have a reason. Talking to people help, getting support, maybe cry a bit. I recognised the returning sadness but I still attended to it, talked to my family about how I felt, cried some, got some supporting words and I felt better. I mean I'm still sad but it helped. I don't know how to tell how long it will last for, but I think isolating oneself or thinking it's all just a part of the episode, will not make it better. When feeling like this we need even more support and care! And whatever we feel is for a reason, if so an exaggerated one. Maybe talk to your mum about this to resolve some old things? A big hug to you and hope it's only a bad mood after all

[Crazy Hitch]

When I'm depressed it comes with other physical and mental symptoms. Usually lack of energy, want to sleep all the time, cry over nothing and generally I just don't give a damn about anything (except my kids of course).

I can be in a bad mood and not cry; or be in a bad mood but still have energy for the day to not sleep.

Or; of course; I can get in a bad mood when I'm depressed; but then it will come with the other symptoms I mentioned above.

[LucyG]

As a parent let me offer you a bit of insight you about what your mother did by not having you hospitalized as a teen. She saved you from ending up in the mental health system at a young age, and be labeled as mentally ill. Now obviously I have no idea what your issues were as you don't mention them, but I can assure you that being in the mental health system isn't a good thing any more than having the police know you by name. If that offends you, I'm sorry. I'm speaking as a parent who wouldn't want my child needlessly hospitalized for behavior that might be questionable. And again, since you don't tell us what happened, this is just a general opinion based on vague statements.

As far as the difference between a bad mood and bipolar goes, it's hard to say, but being upset at old family issues don't prove anything other than that you're hurt by things that happened to you. Do you have anyone to talk to this about who can give you some insight or anything?

Don't go on meds just because you're in a bad mood. There are so many nasty side-effects associated with all psych meds that you'd be much, much wiser to try to work this out by taking to someone about it and the like.

If you feel you need to take something for your mood, do yourself a favor and look into alternative treatment for depression such as amino acids that are used by the body to produce neurotransmitters in the brain keeping your mood stable. I've been using them for over 9 years with great success. The only side-effect is that one I take raises my blood pressure about 10 points which isn't much of an issue as I have good blood pressure. They don't cause weight gain like so many meds do.

Here's a couple of links for you to research:

This is a brain function questionnaire:

http://drjolee.com/Brain-Function-Questionnaire.pdf

This is a good article about treating depression naturally:

Treating Depression Naturally Is Possible ? Clean's The New Black

Originally Posted by Crazy Hitch

When I'm depressed it comes with other physical and mental symptoms. Usually lack of energy, want to sleep all the time, cry over nothing and generally I just don't give a damn about anything (except my kids of course).

I can be in a bad mood and not cry; or be in a bad mood but still have energy for the day to not sleep.

Or; of course; I can get in a bad mood when I'm depressed; but then it will come with the other symptoms I mentioned above.

yeah, I'm sort of the same way. I've never been the type to sleep excessively though, no matter the mood/episode, but I definitely feel sluggish...like I don't have the desire/will to do anything. Sometimes it gets so bad when I'm walking home or something that I honestly don't think I can take another step. This usually results in me crying on the sidewalk until I regain enough strength to drag myself to wherever I need to go.

Originally Posted by LucyG

As a parent let me offer you a bit of insight you about what your mother did by not having you hospitalized as a teen. She saved you from ending up in the mental health system at a young age, and be labeled as mentally ill. Now obviously I have no idea what your issues were as you don't mention them, but I can assure you that being in the mental health system isn't a good thing any more than having the police know you by name. If that offends you, I'm sorry. I'm speaking as a parent who wouldn't want my child needlessly hospitalized for behavior that might be questionable. And again, since you don't tell us what happened, this is just a general opinion based on vague statements.

As far as the difference between a bad mood and bipolar goes, it's hard to say, but being upset at old family issues don't prove anything other than that you're hurt by things that happened to you. Do you have anyone to talk to this about who can give you some insight or anything?

Don't go on meds just because you're in a bad mood. There are so many nasty side-effects associated with all psych meds that you'd be much, much wiser to try to work this out by taking to someone about it and the like.

If you feel you need to take something for your mood, do yourself a favor and look into alternative treatment for depression such as amino acids that are used by the body to produce neurotransmitters in the brain keeping your mood stable. I've been using them for over 9 years with great success. The only side-effect is that one I take raises my blood pressure about 10 points which isn't much of an issue as I have good blood pressure. They don't cause weight gain like so many meds do.

Here's a couple of links for you to research:

This is a brain function questionnaire:

http://drjolee.com/Brain-Function-Questionnaire.pdf

This is a good article about treating depression naturally:

Treating Depression Naturally Is Possible ? Clean's The New Black

I'm sorry, I tried to respond to this but it got me all worked up (probably because your approach is very reminiscent of my mother in this scenario...). But I thank you for taking time to respond and for the links.

[Unrigged64072835]

Usually my sadness is triggered by an event and it's sudden. My depression usually doesn't have a trigger and it comes in gradually. When I'm sad I can still do things; when I'm depressed I don't do anything at all.

[xRavenx]

With depression, I'll lose interest in things, feel slowed down, sleep a little bit more than usual, have a hard time focusing, and I don't want to socialize. I experience a crash, hopelessness, and feeling that the world is coming to an end. I isolate more and have a very hard time letting go of all the negative thoughts going through my head. These feelings will last days or weeks. Even if something good happens while in a depressive episode, I feel a dark cloud is following me everywhere and that I'll never see the light.

With regular sadness or a bad mood, it tends to be more of a natural reaction to something, and it's fleeting or only lasts for a couple of days tops. When sadness is not related to an episode, the sadness is easier to work through, in my experience. If the sadness persists for 2 weeks straight, that's usually a warning sign that it's time for me to talk to my pdoc.