Last edited Fri Jan 31, 2014, 05:18 AM - Edit history (1)
Bipolar is one type of depression; unipolar is a second. Suicide is part of depression. It is not separate. It is what makes mood disorders lethal. The fact that you say "why bring up bipolar and suicide" in a discussion of depression makes clear to me you know very little about the subject. The disorders are called Bipolar Depression and Unipolar Depression (aka Major Depression). Suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts are among the criteria that make up a diagnosis of depression. It's like saying feelings of worthlessness or trouble sleeping are separate from depression, when they are part of the disease. Or it is like saying why bring up death when we're talking about cancer. Cancer kills, and so does Depression. The illnesses are understood as starting at adolescence because diagnosis starts at adolescence; psychiatrists rarely diagnose children with Depression but have recently begun to rethink that approach.
It is not my OPINION that depression is biological. It is a scientific FACT. Environmental stressors play a role but so does genetics. The brains of depressives, whether bipolar or unipolar, are physically different from the general population, as is evident in brain scans. The stressors may indeed be gendered--as poverty is, btw. Whatever you think on the fly really means nothing if it isn't substantiated with research, and it appears to me you don't care enough to look. I've suffered from Major Depression most of my life and have had to educate myself in order to survive. Your post trivializes serious and life threatening diseases, diseases that kill people, and a disease that has caused havoc in my own life.
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