Steps for Change

Coaching and resources to raise your emotional intelligence

  • Home
  • About
  • Get Tested
    • The EQ-i 2.0
    • Myers Briggs Step II
  • Blog
    • Latest Posts
  • Members
    • The 12 Skills Videos
    • Relaxation Training
    • Worksheets
  • Contact
  • Login
You are here: Home / Thoughts and Tips / Bipolar Depression Symptoms: Are They Any Different?

August 3, 2011 By Dr. Greg Hamlin

Bipolar Depression Symptoms: Are They Any Different?

Bipolar disorder can be tricky to uncover because the symptoms can easily be mistaken for other disorders and diagnoses.  For example, bipolar depression symptoms often look the same and feel the same as the common Major Depressive Disorder.  Bipolar depression symptoms can be recognized, however, not by their unique character, but by looking at other symptoms with which they are combined.

If a man or woman shows signs of mania or hypomania, than there is a good chance that the signs of depression are part of bipolar disorder.  However, even this is tricky because a person who has bipolar disorder may also experience a reactive depression.

While all this may seem like splitting hairs, it does speak to an important issue in mental health treatment today.  Diagnoses must be made carefully with plenty of data about a person’s life and how they experience life.  The patient must be known so well that alternative explanations of his or her bipolar depression symptoms are ruled out.  Sadly, many medical professionals make snap assessments based on too little data.

Filed Under: Thoughts and Tips Tagged With: bipolar depression symptoms

Free Membership

Get access now to the 12 Skills Course, Relaxation Training and more when you register!

Register Now!

Follow Me on Social

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Hamlin Coaching

hamlin-coaching-logo

Are you looking for coaching with any of the contents of this site. Look no further! I'm here to help!

Start Now

Blog Categories

  • Emotional Intelligence

Recent Posts

  • Focus on Therapy Shifts to the Steps and Tools Website
  • Reducing Stress Using 12 Skills and Tools
  • Follow Me on Twitter
  • Robin Williams Teaches Us
  • How to Speak to a Narcissist

Choose Your Steps Wisely

Making life changes requires effort. It's as if we all have a stack of "effort chips" that we can spend on a problem.

People who say they have "tried everything" to change usually mean that they have spent all their effort chips on the problem.

The key is to spend your effort chips strategically. When you find leverage, the problem gets fixed before your effort chips run out.

The 12 skills are about spending your "effort chips" wisely.

Copyright © 2023 · Gregory E. Hamlin

Web Design & Development by Hire Jordan Smith