Depression Symptoms

Please find below the “lows” of bipolar disorder:

• Extended sadness
• Decreased energy
• Pains and aches that can not be explained
• Important alterations in appetite and sleep patterns
• Relentless lethargy
• Being unhappy and pessimistic
• Worrying most of the time
• Being pessimistic and thought of being hopeless
• Feeling angry
• Lasting sad
• Feeling anxious or empty mod
• Irritability and agitation
• Loss of concentration
• Experiencing difficulty to decide
• Feeling worthlessness
• Loss of energy
• Feeling guilt
• Crying without having a reason
• Feeling of being slowed down
• Being unpleasant for previous hobbies, interests that once enjoyed
• Loss of interest to sexual activity
• Feeling exhausted and restless
• Social withdrawal
• Loss of concentration
• Sleeping more than the average or having trouble with sleeping
• Struggling with making decisions
• Feeling of fatigue
• Uncontrolled weight gain or weight loss
• Irritability
• Chronic pain or other persistent bodily symptoms that are not caused by physical illness or injury
• Considering suicide
• Alterations in appetite
• Feeling helplessness
• Thinking about death

How patients are diagnosed with a depressive episode of bipolar disorder?

The patient with bipolar disorder may diagnosed with a depressive episode if 5 or more of the depression symptoms last most of the day, almost every day, for a period of two weeks or longer. The criteria for a major depressive episode include symptoms that cause distress significant enough to impair social, occupational, or other areas of functioning. These symptoms, which include depressed mood, markedly diminished interest or pleasure in activities, significant weight loss or weight gain, insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation, fatigue or loss of energy, and feelings of worthlessness, must have been present during a 2-week period.