What can you do to tell the difference between depression and bipolar type 2?

Unipolar vs bipolar: What most people refer to as clinical depression is a unipolar depression. This means that they may have normal states of energy and mood when they are not depressed. Bipolar type ii disorder has periods of clinical depression. Additionally the individual has periods of high energy level & mood. Hope this helps.

Important: Bipolar 2 disorder most often presents as depression because patients often don't come in for their hypomanic symptoms because those are not often troubling. For this reason, many people with bipolar disorder have been treated as though they are unipolar. It is important for the treating clinician to do a thorough history to rule out periods of hypomania. Treatment is very different for the two.