part epiphany, part musing - adx

[nosebeepbear]

Several of the people recently have described manic episodes, and the distorted thoughts that go with them. They were all convinced they were something invincible, extraordinarily important, way above everyone else and that everyone adored them. They believed they were totally in control of themselves and the world around them. It's clear to them

Comments

[vvalkyri]

I believe the name for 'hypodepression' is dysthimia, (disthymia?) but that may be a name for the condition rather than the mental state.

[nosebeepbear]

I believe that's the term for chronic depression. What I'm wondering is if depression can reach a psychotic state, and if even severe depression which does not cross that threshold is more the equivalent of hypomania, not mania.

[vvalkyri]

No . . . . Dysthymia is a milder form of depression: http://www.allaboutdepression.com/dia_04.html

But that's an interesting idea about psychotic depression; isn't that what's going on when someone becomes suicidal?

[nosebeepbear]

Ah. From the description it looks like both. It's not dysthymia if you have any episodes of severe depression, but it also only counts if you've had it for 2 years or more.

I don't know if suicidal depression counts as psychotic, but it's possible. I'm curious now...

[suecochran]

I believe that the woman in Texas who killed all five of her children because she thought that they were "posessed" or somehow "evil" was suffering from postpartum psychotic depression. I've never heard anyone say that "normal" depression, whether mild, moderate or severe was a psychotic state. All of the people I know or have heard about anecdotally who have been or are depressed don't lose their capability of being in touch with "objective reality" - although believing the awful things that depression lies about is sort of being out of touch with the reality of more subjective things, such as your own worth, or that nothing is good and never was, or that everything is hopeless. You can feel all of those things, believe all of those things, and still manage, however difficult it may be, to hold a job, have relationships, etc. I don't even think that suicidal ideation is considered to be a psychotic state. I have always heard however, that true mania is a psychotic state. I don't really know why there are those distinctions.

[nosebeepbear]

That's exactly what I'm saying. Many, many people have hypomania, but mania itself is rare. I'm wondering if the fairly common state we call depression is really more accurately the equivalent of hypomania. Your example is very good evidence that a rare psychotic state of depression is possible.

[selki]

Why does self-esteem continue to be negatively affected by those thoughts for a long time?

Partly, because we live in a consumer culture that encourages us to feel bad about ourselves so we'll buy more stuff.

Hugs.

[not_the_pope]

I agree, that has a lot to do with it. It's extremely pervasive. When was the last time you* were pleased to receive a compliment and did so without that little voice in the back of your* head whispering that it was undeserved (regardless of the circumstances)? How many times were confident people labelled "stuck-up" in school? How often did your* family bring up past mistakes in order to tease you* about them?

For a variety of reasons, it's much easier for most of us to believe the negative stuff. That nasty little voice-in-the-back-of-the-head is damn hard to stifle.

*"You" in general, not YOU personally.

[nancylebov]

I don't know how much of it is consumer culture, how much is holdovers from belief in original sin, and how much is some bad ideas that got embedded in the culture for no reason.

As for depression/mania, I believe that there's a sounds good to me/sounds bad to me function in the brain, and sometimes it gets broken.

Imho (and this is not just humble, it's just a guess), the reason the depressive thoughts don't quite go away when the major part of the depression is over is that the depression hasn't quite gone away, so the thoughts still seem somewhat plausible. Damn if I know why depression carries such certainty with it. At this point, I've had enough experience with mild-to-moderate depression that I identity some thoughts as an attack of the bleaks.

The other aspect to look at is how you've been treated--if you'd grown up with people who weren't comfortable with you feeling good about yourself, you may have developed some mental habits of self-degradation. (sp?) "Look! You don't have to attack me! I'm already attacking myself!"

[aliza250]

Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

It's easy to conclusively prove that I'm not invincible and infallible. Proving that I have value to the people around me is something that takes constant maintenance, because friends do come and go.