One thing that gets ignored a lot when it comes to mental illness is conflicting symptoms. I sleep both too much and not enough. There will be weeks or months where I’m averaging three to four hours of sleep on a weekday, but on weekends I sleep until 1 pm. Some days I don’t eat my first meal until 4 or 5 pm, while other days I comfort eat all day. All of those are symptoms of depression, and none of them invalidate each other. Manifestation of symptoms can change as a person ages, but it can also change day to do depending on other factors in a person’s life.
one of the key traits of mental illness is dysfunction. Even the same disorder can manifest very differently in different people and situations, but the presentations tend to have at least this in common: they get in the way of a balanced lifestyle. Things like sleeping too much, too little–such symptoms may be seen as ‘opposites’ but are in fact extremely similar, in that they are characterized by imbalance. Two sides to the same coin.