What do these terms mean to you?

A well known Jimi Hendrix song.

A less well known Jimi Hendrix song.

Manic depression is usually a reoccurring case of depression. Depression is a mental ‘disorder’ that all people can suffer from. Manic depression is where it returns regularly. It can be reduced with therapy.
I’m not so sure about bipolar disorder.

I only use the phrase “manic depression” when describing deliberately untreated bipolar disorder. Or if I’m trying to seem artistic.

@soundedfury: NO! You’re going to throw off the curve….

Manic depression makes me think of clinical depression and a state a person can get to (not born with) and bipolar disorder makes me think of someone not well adjusted, which could well be something they’re born with, not a condition they ‘contract’ or ‘develop’
These are just my associations and highly uneducated descriptions.
Mind you, both remind me of the most delightful employee I’ve had.

they both mean the same thing and that I get to take medication

I agree with soundedfury. Bipolar is the new PC term for manic depression. They are the same thing.

I’m thinking Zoloft and Prozac….
And/or getting a job at the Post Office….

I thought Manic Depression was someone who had severe low periods. And someone with Bipolar had severe high’s and low periods. For instance meet a new male/female friend and one minute wanting to marry that person and giving them everything you own. To the other end of the scale not being able cope, maybe wanting to commit harry carry.

Scamp and soundedfury got it. Clinically it’s Bipolar now.

@Beware; no one wants to carry Harry; do you mean hari-kari or hari-kiri?

Gail, you ruined my experiment :(

Nik: you have to select a better control group for the next experiment :-)

I appreciated your experiment. I now know to watch what I say about myself to people and how I say it. Thank you.

Ok, experiment over. They are indeed the same thing.

Just to clarify on the born with/not born with issue: bipolar disorder has a strong genetic component. I can provide a great deal of scholarly literature to back myself up if you’re interested.

ok

I’m not sure I am fond of answering questions with a hidden agenda. In the future, please make the true purpose of your question clear so I can decide whether of not I want to participate..

@scamp, I really was just curious what other people thought the terms meant. I work in a research setting where we use them interchangeably and was surprised to find that some people didn’t realize they meant the same thing. I wanted to know if this was such a widespread phenomenon that we should alter our materials. But it’s hard to get an idea of what a group of people think if one person “gives away” the right answer. That’s all.

But you asked “What do these terms mean to you”. Doesn’t that imply you want our own individual answer. You did not specify not to answer if one knows the info, which I did.

You have to realize this is a touchy subject for some people. Those that suffer from the condition or have a loved one who does would not be happy to feel like they were tricked into answering for an ‘experiment”. You didn’t give people much of a chance to state what they thought, before you said that someone ‘gave away’ the right answer. Then you popped on us that this was an “experiment.” I think you could have gone about this in a completely different way. Explaining what you did and why, then saying “that’s all” seems to me like you don’t seem to be bothered by the fact that you may have offended some people here. Please, just let us know ahead of time if you ever choose to do something like this again.

What’s offensive about asking what the general idea of terminology is? I never said anything degrading about either condition.

You really can’t see it? It’s not what you said, but what you didn’t say. You treated the people responding in this thread like guinea pigs, and I for one am not fond of being treated that way without my consent.

What’s the difference between asking people “what does this word mean to you” and asking them any other question that we ask on here? People frequently don’t explain their rationale for asking a question. I don’t see why this is any different.

C’mon Niki. You are an intelligent woman. Let’s not play games here and bang our heads against the wall over this. I have explained why offense could be taken by someone responding to this thread. How would you like it if I asked you about something personal in your life, and after you answered I told you I was doing an experiment on you? Fluther is not your personal lab for finding unsuspecting test subjects. If you can’t see that, you are not the intelligent person I thought you were.

Just because we disagree doesn’t mean I’m unintelligent. If someone posts an open question on a public forum it’s your choice to answer that question or not. If you have concerns regarding why that question is being asked or how that information is being used you’re welcome to not answer or to inquire.

Scamp, it might behoove you to note that niki works (right now) specifically with individuals with depression. She’s a neurologist.

The question, although couched in general terms, was very misleading, however. Nik said twice (answers #4 and #10) that the people who knew the answer (sounded,loser, scamp and I) and sent it in “ruined the experiment ” and threw “off the curve.”

What was “misleading” about having a purpose behind my question? Many questions are asked with an agenda behind them, whether that agenda is to win an argument with someone or to simply collect information. I was curious what the general understanding of these terms was and I stated that in the initial question.

It sounds to me like the objectors here are put off by the terminology “experiment”. I am using the term loosely to mean “an effort to gather information”. Why is it an offensive word?

You were curious to know “what people think:” and then got miffed when several of us came up with the correct answer. That is the antithesis of an experiment, it seems to me. And I personally did not read that question as “peeping or prying into people’s personal lives.” Why did my response either ruin your experiment or throw off your data? You asked, I answered.

It’s like when you’re working on a puzzle and someone shouts out the answer. Then each individual puzzle-solver doesn’t have a chance to arrive at or give his/her own answer.

My issue wasn’t that you came up with the right answer so much as declaring it correct and preventing others from giving their own answers. And I was teasing soundedfury because I knew he knew the “correct” answer. I didn’t actually mean that he shouldn’t answer.

@beware: I can take her! :)

You guys win. I am wrong. I am a bully. I have my claws out. I still have the same relatives; (it’s on my profile.) My goal is to sabotage this site. Guilty as charged.

@Beware:Oh, and for the record, I am not Andrew’s aunt, so how could I “always tell everyone” that? Altho I would love to have him as an honorary nephew. You got the wrong family, FWIW.

did anyone notice that I’m bipolar? I was quite surprised by some of those answers!!!

Loser was I close in what I said on this subject?

No, beware, you’re not. Bipolar disorder and manic depression are the same thing. One is just an older term that has been phased out of medical use. And it’s not a moment by moment disorder, it’s periods and cycles that last days, weeks or months.

Also, it’s spelled hara-kiri.

Sorry did’nt mean any offence. I just thought Depression ment feeling real low, and Bipolar from extreme high’s to extreme lows.

No offense, just clarifying for you.

[mod says]: Beware, @beware….Gailcalled has friends in high places. Fluther frowns upon personal attacks.

@brown: thanks – and for the record, I wrote to @Beware privately (and did not get a response.) I should also note that I did not flag anything here. And in spite of my friends and family, as you might have noted, the pen is mightier than the sword. I am pretty good with the pen. And given my reasonable responses here, why should Niki feel the need to “take me?”

If she had written her question more precisely, we would have not gotten into this verbal imbroglio.

“My issue wasn’t that you came up with the right answer so much as declaring it correct and preventing others from giving their own answers.” I would have needed to be clairvoyant.

Much love to you Gail. You are one classy lady!

uh… never mind.

Both terms are (more or less) “schizophrenia lite”, & if the person suffering from these does not get some manner of help – they will spiral into full-blown “paranoid schizophrenia”.