Is it right that mood disorder is diagnosed much later than the symptoms started to show off clearly? It can cause changes in your behavior and affect your ability to deal with routine activities, such as work or school.
Mainly two of the most common mood disorders are depression and bipolar disorder.
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Is a Bipolar Disorder Symptom a Mood?
It’s typical to experience a mood shift that lasts only a few hours or even days. According to the American Psychiatric Association, mood episodes that last days, weeks, or even months are a distinguishing hallmark of bipolar illness (APA).
According to Marham, a person with bipolar disorder can feel manic (extremely cheerful or irritated) or depressed (very sad) throughout a mood episode. Sometimes their mood fluctuations are sudden, and sometimes they aren’t. It’s also worth noting that persons with bipolar disorder can have periods of neutral mood between episodes of mania and even have regular mood swings.
The kind and frequency of mood episodes differ depending on bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder may be classified into three categories:
- Bipolar 1: Such bipolar disorder happens when a person’s manic episodes are so severe that they cause apparent issues in normal life and may require hospitalization. Depressive episodes are common in people with bipolar 1. Manic and depressed symptoms might occur at the same time in certain people.
- Bipolar 2: A person with this form of bipolar illness has depressive periods and hypomanic episodes, which are phases with lesser mania symptoms that, compared to full-blown manic episodes, don’t usually impair their capacity to work.
- Cyclothymia: is a lower variant of bipolar disease that features less severe emotional ups and downs than bipolar 1 or 2.
- Major depressive disorder (MDD): MDD leads to feeling extremely sad for an extended length of time. Clinical depression is another name for MDD.
- Dysthymia: It is often known as persistent depressive disorder (PDD), which is a kind of depression that lasts long.
- Personality disorders: You may experience fast mood shifts in a short amount of time if you have certain personality disorders.
- Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD): Children are easily diagnosed with DMDD. Your youngster has outbursts that aren’t appropriate for their developmental level in life.
In some exceptional cases, a person’s bipolar symptoms might not fit neatly into any of the categories described above. It can lead to other specified and unspecified bipolar and related disorders.
Mood shifts are sudden changes in your mood or emotional state that are a natural part of life. They might, however, be caused by a mental health condition such as borderline personality disorder or bipolar disorder, which are marked by severe high and low moods. Rapid or extreme mood swings can be confusing, and they can disrupt your everyday life and relationships.
What is a Mood Disorder?
We define a mood disorder as a mental illness that affects a person’s emotional state. It’s a mental illness where a person has prolonged periods of excessive happiness, misery, or both.
It’s natural for someone’s mood to shift based on the circumstances.
Possible Causes
Mood swings in children and adults have different reasons. Working with a mental health expert to figure out what’s causing the problem demands being open and honest with yourself and others about what’s going on in your life.
1. Life Changes
Although change is inevitable, some life transitions, such as relationship breakups, school, job, career changes, relocation, and divorce, can generate enough stress to induce mood swings.
2. Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs
While using psychoactive substances or drinking alcohol, significant mood fluctuations can happen. If people grow hooked to mood enhancers, they may turn to them even more, to cope with their emotions, energy levels, cravings, and withdrawal symptoms.
3. Hormonal Conditions
Hormones can also affect one’s mood, and it has to do with hormones influencing brain chemistry. Due to hormonal changes connected with this stage of their bodies’ development, teens and women who are pregnant, suffering premenstrual syndrome, or going through menopause may experience mood swings.
What Can You Do?
Consult your doctor if you don’t know what’s causing your mood swings if they’re interfering with your career, relationships, or any other aspect of your life. Simple modifications may help you cope with moderate, unsettling, and irritating (to you or others) mood fluctuations.
Regular workouts — even a daily walk — can help take the edge off depression and anxiety because they’ll trigger your body to make feel-good endorphins. Plus, exercise can improve your sleep.
Conclusion
There is nothing wrong with mood swings, but they shouldn’t detract from the quality of your existence. Make an appointment with psychiatrist if your mood swings don’t improve or worsen.
FAQs
1. Does having mood swings mean you are bipolar?
Mood swings can be part of bipolar disorder. Mood swings are mood changes; the difference in mood swings in regular people and bipolar disorder is the severity and duration. In regular people, mood swings usually do not interfere with your life.
2. What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder?
Symptoms of Bipolar disorder are:
- Feeling sad, hopeless, or irritable most of the time.
- Lacking energy.
- Difficulty concentrating and remembering things.
- Loss of interest in everyday activities.
- Feelings of emptiness or worthlessness.
- Feelings of guilt and despair.
- Feeling pessimistic about everything.
- Self-doubt.
3. Does bipolar worsen with age?
Bipolar may worsen with age or overtime if this condition is left untreated. As time goes on, a person may experience episodes that are more severe and more frequent than when symptoms first appeared.