Severe Depression
As the mood continues to deteriorate from depression into severe (acute) depression, symptoms will include feelings of hopelessness and sometimes extreme guilt. The person may make little movement and find everything a struggle.
The most significant impact for people who experience bipolar is the link to suicidal ideation, and people often think about suicide when they get to this extreme low. They can become anxious that others around them may die. They can become preoccupied with thinking about death and this in turn can often lead them to think about their own death.
At this stage people very often feel like it will always be this way and cannot remember what it was like to feel any other way.
**IMPORTANT NOTE**
People experiencing the severe ends of the scale i.e. acute mania or depression, will require medical support to enable them to recover. This can take place either in hospital or at home by ‘home care teams’ who visit regularly to support the person. Medication will be introduced, changed, increased or decreased at this point by a G.P. but more frequently by a Psychiatrist.
