How Mood Disorders Affect Daily Life: Insights from Mental Health Professionals

Did you know that 20.9 million American adults suffer from mood disorders? Mood disorders are complex mental health conditions that significantly affect you both mentally and physically and disrupt your everyday life. Most people are unaware of it. So, it’s important to learn about the effects on the body and get treated before it leads to life-threatening actions like suicide. Learn how mood disorders affect daily life in this article. Visit the best Mental Health Clinic in Brooklyn at Doral Health & Wellness or log on to www.doralhw.org

Effects of Mood Disorders
Mood disorders affect our everyday life and cause physical and emotional symptoms. It includes:
1. Depression:
Depression is one of the most common mood disorders that cause emotional and physical symptoms, including:
Emotional symptoms
• Loss of interest: People lose interest in the activity they once enjoyed.
• Unyielding anxiety, sadness, and emptiness inside: It can make you feel anxious, sad, and feeling of emptiness about life.
• Feelings of helplessness, worthlessness, or guilt: It can make you feel worthless, helpless, and guilty of the life situation you’re in.
• Low self-esteem: Most people develop low self-esteem and lose their value in life.
• General pessimism: Most people become pessimists in every aspect of life and always feel negative towards everything.
• Become aggressive or irritable: They get annoyed even by insignificant things so aggression and irritability in their behavior.
• Feeling of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts: It can make you lose hope in life and lead to suicidal thoughts.
Physical symptoms
• Low energy or fatigue: It makes you feel low on energy and fatigued.
• Headaches, body aches, pains, cramps, or digestive problems: Depression causes anxiety and negative thoughts that trigger headaches, body aches, cramps, or digestive problems.
• Difficulty in concentration, remembering details, and making decisions: Most people are not able to remember things that have happened to them recently and are not able to focus on work due to negative thoughts and lack of energy.
• Overeating and appetite loss: Most people, when they feel negative and anxious, either lose their appetite or start eating too much.
• Excessive sleepiness or insomnia: To overcome their feelings, most people start sleeping too much. However, some people lose their sleep and try to do something to distract them.

2. Bipolar disorder:
Bipolar disorder causes episodes with a combination of mania and depression. That’s why it was previously known as manic depression, which is characterized by one or more manic or mixed episodes and in some cases, may include a major depression episode.
During depressive episodes, you experience similar symptoms as depression episodes. Mania episodes cause different effects on mental and physical health, including:
Emotional symptoms
• Excessively good mood: Most people feel a particularly good mood during the mania phase and do everything they like.
• Irritability and agitation: Most people have uncontrolled emotions during this phase which makes them irritable and agitated.
• Feelings of hyperactivity: The mania phase makes them hyperactive to do things they want to do.
• Being easily distracted: As the mind works hyperactively, they are not able to focus on anything and are distracted easily.
• Forgetfulness: Being hyperactive, they easily forget the things they are doing.
• Become overly defensive: They become defensive due to their uncontrollable emotions and energy for the things they do.
• Impulsive, risky, or hedonistic behavior: Due to uncontrolled emotions and hyperactivity, a person can become impulsive and take risks while doing things to seek pleasure.
Physical symptoms
• Racing thoughts: Due to the mania phase, the mind runs from one idea to another very fast and it is also seen in their behavior.
• Pressured or rapid speech: Due to racing thoughts, people speak very fast and intensify their words as well.
• Increased goal-directed activities: As the mind wants to feel good, the mind increases its goal-directed activities.
• Insomnia: As the mind is hyperactive and feels energetic, it’s really difficult for them to sleep during the episode.
• Heart palpitations, rapid heart rate, or increased pulse rate: Mania episodes lead to anxiety which affects the cardiovascular system and causes these symptoms.

3. Persistent dysthymic disorder, or PDD
This is a type of depression that’s less severe than depressive mood disorder. Even with this mental illness, a person can go about their regular lives normally. However, the depression never completely goes away. The patient is perpetually depressed, sad, or even gloomy.
Low serotonin is associated with PDD among all mood disorders. This hormone in nature regulates feelings and moods that are favorable. Psychotic incidents may set off PDD. PDD can result following a breakup, the death of a loved one, or from being the victim of a violent crime, just like other mood disorders. The following are a few of this disorder’s symptoms:
• Poor perception of oneself
• Changes in sleep patterns- Too much or too little sleep
• Low or excessive appetite (changes in appetite)
• inability to concentrate
• Feeling weary and tired
• Issues at job or school
• Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, or loneliness

Mood disorders can severely affect your daily life depending on the severity. However, most mood disorders are treatable with medications and behavioral therapies which help to manage the conditions and to live a better life.

If you need help with a mood disorder, visit our behavioral health specialist in Brooklyn clinic to get professional medical help. Call us to book your appointment now!!!
Book your appointment with the best mental health professionals in Brooklyn where doctors and staff ensure you get the best results. Call us on +1-347-384-5690 to get a consultation. If you need help learning coping methods, register your information and make direct contact with our doctors and psychiatrists to learn those methods, log on to www.doralhw.org. Visit us at 1797 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212.