Pushing the Mood Swings
Social and psychological forces sway the course of manic depression
Manic depression, also known as bipolar disorder, has a well-deserved reputation as a biologically based condition. Wayward brain chemicals and genes gone bad seem to bully people back and forth between weeks of moderate-to-intense euphoria and comparable spells of soul-deadening depression. A few weeks of relative calm often separate these disparate moods.
Manic depression, however, may nurse a more sensitive side. Its intense mood swings increasingly appear to reflect a variety of social and psychological influences.