PSYC 3140 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Major Depressive Episode, Bipolar I Disorder, Learned Helplessness
Document Summary
Depression is a low, sad state in which life seems dark and its challenges overwhelming. Mania: state of breathless euphoria, or at least frenzied energy, people may have an exaggerated belief that the world is theirs. Mood problems of these kinds are at the center of two groups of disorders depressive disorders and bipolar disorders. People with depressive disorders suffer only from depression, a pattern called unipolar depression. They have no history of mania and return to a normal or nearly normal mood when their depression lifts. In contrast, those with bipolar disorders have periods of mania that alternate with periods of depression. You might logically expect some people to display a third pattern of mood difficulty, unipolar mania, in which they suffer from mania only, but this pattern is uncommon. Depressive disorders, on the other hand, have no redeeming characteristics. They bring severe and long-lasting psychological pain that may intensify as time goes by.