Bipolar disorder mania and depression. What causes/controls the cycling?
In: Biology
This is extremely over simplified- what people usually think of as “regular” depression, is someone’s body not making enough of something (serotonin, dopamine, etc., depending on the specific person). Fun fact: serotonin is not as often the direct cause for depression as we used to think, which is why medicines are improving because the average anti-represent that increases serotonin levels doesn’t always help the patient.
With bipolar/cycling disorders, the persons body switches between not making enough of something, as mentioned above, and making too much of something. This can either be your body trying to re-balance itself after a depression, or it can be that your body reacts to everything in extremes. What usually triggers a person to get a little sad will trigger your body to react much more extremely and cause a depressive episode, and what usually would trigger a persons body to be happy by releasing feel good hormones, would make your body release way more of those hormones to cause a manic episode.
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