What are Mood Disorders

A Mood Disorder is a psychological disorder where there is an elevation or lowering of a person’s mood. A true clinical depression is a mood disorder which can have an impact on a person’s daily life. Life has its own share of highs and lows in everyone’s share, but people with mood disorders experience them with greater intensity and for longer periods of time than most people.

There are four major forms of mood disorders. They are Depression, Cyclothymia ( a mild form of bipolar disorder), SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and mania (euphoric, over inflated ego, hyperactive and unrealistic optimism).

• Depression: Depression is a major feature of mental illness or psychiatric disorder, whatever its nature and origin. A person having some psychiatric disorder has a very high chance of developing  a major depression. A person feeling depressed feels very low. The symptoms may include feelings of hopelessness, changing the eating habits, disturbed sleep, tiredness, thoughts of death snd suicide.

• Cyclothymia: People with bipolar disorder have periods of feeling low and periods of feeling unusually high or elated. At times of elation people often behave recklessly, and sometimes also have financial loss or have trouble with the law.At high times the symptoms are extreme irritability, overspending, decreased need for sleep, and sense of inflated self esteem. During the low phases people feel social disinterest, sad mood, and low energy and lethargy.

• Seasonal Affective Disorder(SAD): In this case people’s mood are affected by the weather. Sunshine elevates one’s  spirit while a dull, rainy day makes a person feel gloomy. Usually these variations do not affect our ability to cope with the daily activities. However, in some cases, people have depressions that show a seasonal pattern. This condition is known as Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD.

• Mania: In this condition people are often found to be suffering from hallucination and delusions. They are euphoric, hyperactive, have inflated ego or suffer from unrealistic optimism. They usually feel that they are being plotted against, want to broadcast their feelings so that others can hear them, seeing, hearing or feeling things that are not actually there, or show disorganised speech or behavior.

Mood Disorders greatly affect people’s personality. People are more easily demoralised by depression or mood disorder and slower in recovering from such depression. Most people under depression show signs of anxiety, which shows need for help. This turns into despair if they are dissappointed. Anxious people may also go in for drugs and alcohol that can further cause depression.

Depression is a major feature of mental illness or psychiatric disorder, whatever its nature and origin.A person having some psychiatric disorder has a very high chance of developing  a major depression. Depression not only affects adults but also affects children. Children may find it difficult to cope with the pressures of school and growing up. Depression in children may lead to loss of appetite, aches and pains and lack of energy.