MY LIFE AS A BIPOLAR | MENTAL HEALTH SERIES

My Life as a Bipolar — Chapter 2

Depressive symptom #1 — intense sadness and loss of interest

Photo by Clémence Bergougnoux on Unsplash

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Kathy K

MY LIFE AS A BIPOLAR

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So, in this first chapter about depression, I want to look at the first two symptoms of this troublesome mood swing. In fact, these symptoms are a necessary criteria for diagnosing and treating bipolar disorder.

There are nine symptoms of depression and a person will experience FIVE of them for TWO WEEKS OR LONGER in order to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The five symptoms must include these first two, always. I’m going to talking about intense sadness and/or loss of interest.

DSM-5 depressive symptoms in Bipolar Disorder — dsm-5-criteria-depressive-episodes-in-bipolar-disorder-l.jpg (1024×768) (slideserve.com)

INTENSE SADNESS —

There is no official word for intense sadness, but there are many adjectives…