What is the difference between Depression and Manic Depression?

Manic depression is often called bipolar disorder, which includes clinical depression as part of it’s a diagnosis. Depression includes feeling sad or unhappy for an uninterrupted period of at least two weeks. It includes feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness, crying for no reason, and even losing interest in activities you once enjoyed. Mania is the distinguishing characteristic of bipolar disorder, and it is different from clinical depression.

A person who is bipolar has experienced one or more manic episodes of feeling overly happy, excited or confident, feeling exceedingly irritable, aggressive and wired, having uncontrolled thoughts or speech, or engaging in unsafe behavior or taking more risks than you usually would. The hallmark of manic depression is a severe episode of elevated moods followed by a period of feeling very down.