Mood Disorders

Almost forty million people in the United States suffer from anxiety disorders, making it one of the most frequently diagnosed psychological problems in the country. While there are several disorders that can be considered as anxiety disorders, all of them share similar symptoms or intense anxiety, and disruptions in the emotions or moods. Included under the umbrella of this disorders are phobias which is someone intense fear of a specific thing or situation such as flying or spiders and which stimulates a panic attack or intense anxiety in the person. The problem of generalized anxiety disorder or GAD is not related to any specific cause and can trigger feelings or exhaustion, inability to sleep, or other symptoms in its sufferers.When a person suffers for at least a six month period from extreme worry and other typical symptoms, he is diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. Other symptoms that go along with this disorder are inability to concentrate, tiring easily, muscle aches, irritability, and insomnia. When this disorder is diagnosed in a child, it’s referred to as overanxious disorder of childhood. What makes GAD different from other disorders of this type is that the anxiety can’t be traced to any one trigger such as social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder. The intense anxiety usually is attributable to many different things such as family problems, work, money, or the future which is where the name of the disorder comes from. Common to this disorder are worries about physical health as well as intermittent panic attacks.Women are the dominant sufferers of GAD as it occurs in two women to every one man. About half of the cases of this disorder begin to manifest themselves in childhood or the teenage years. Whenever a person is going through a stressful time in his life, the disorder will be more severe but will tend to decrease slightly when things settle down. A link hasn’t been established between GAD and families. There is a link, however, between first degree relatives of sufferers of generalized anxiety disorder and occurrences of different anxiety and mood disorders.

Are you sometimes so restless that it seems you are high on energy or hyperactive, then you wake up the next day and suddenly your mood is so low you don’t feel as happy as before?Do you sleep less at night and catch up on sleep during the day, or is your sleep pattern so awkward that you think you are turning into an insomniac?How is your concentration? Can you stay fixed on a subject long enough to remember, or do your thoughts race from one thing: conversation, movie, book, and imagination so fast that it could compare to the speed of light.Well, if your answer to these questions is yes, you just may probably be suffering from bipolar depressive disorder. This is a mental disease that commonly presents symptoms in the late teens and early 20′s. It is a mood disorder where there are unusual mood changes between extreme elation or happiness and severe depression.A bipolar person can experience altering moods in seconds, minutes, hours, or days. This usually is a cycle, and the person will find himself in much psychological distress because he or she would hardly understand why his moods and emotions are at different extremes of highs and lows.Similar to other mental illnesses, bipolar disorder cannot be identified physiologically. What that means is that there are no tests that can pinpoint the disorder. Diagnosis is made through symptoms, course of illness, and family history.In the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM – IV) adopted by the American Association of Psychiatrist, the essential feature of bipolar affective disorder is the occurrence of at least one episode of mania-usually but not necessarily accompanied by at least one depressive episode.Thus, any previously well person suffering from a first episode of mania (or hypomania), would be classed as suffering from this disorder. If a previously well person suffered from one or more depressive episodes, he or she is not classed thus till an episode of mania occurs.Symptoms of mania include euphoric mood, racing thoughts, restlessness, increased energy, and others. Hypomania, a mood state associated with bipolar disorder, is characterized by persistent and pervasive elevated or irritable mood.In some cases, people experience hyper-sexuality with extreme increased sexual urge or activity. Someone in this state craves sexual pleasure, and in some cases may do this through unconventional means. (Homosexuality and sadomasochism are not uncommon.)Your sexual urge is on hyper-drive, but you are not expected to live a risky sex life. Try bringing your urge under control and seek healthy relationships; it would help if you told your partner about your condition: That way there is an understanding of your needs.On the other hand, when the mania falls, depression follows and that’s when the low associated with bipolar disorder occurs.Signs of depression include loss of interest in daily activities, sleeping too much or inability to sleep, inability to concentrate, loss of interest in studies, anxiety, thoughts of death and suicide, confusion, seclusion, irritable mood, and fatigue.Anyone with bipolar depressive disorder necessarily needs counseling and care; but the condition can be managed successfully. However, that’s if the person sees a doctor, is diagnosed and from then on take control his or her life.