Affective disorder or mood disorder as it is more commonly known is a mental disorder characterized by disturbances in a person’s mood. Mood disorders can range from very severe like clinical depression or manic depression to mild like dysthymic disorder. In mood disorders, feelings of guilt, also when does pms become pmdd, sadness and irritability are heightened to extreme levels. However, the problem actually arises when these persist over long periods and affect a person’s behavior and thinking ability.
Mood Disorder Research
Research shows that mood disorders can be hereditary with a person having a 15% to 30% chance of having a bipolar disorder if one parent is diagnosed with it and a 50% to 75% chance if both parents are diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. A person also has a chance of suffering from a mood disorder if a sibling has been diagnosed with a mood disorder. It has also been seen that females are more likely to show traits of a mood disorder.
Mood Disorder Symptoms
Since the symptoms of a mood disorder, a similar to those of other mental health related problems they cannot be effectively diagnosed by a patient himself or his family. Mood disorders are a genuine medical disorder and so a psychiatrist or other mental health professional is needed to diagnose mood disorders by using a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation given under the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM V).
Treating Mood Disorder
The treating mood disorder is often effective and in most cases able to relieve the patient from that particular mental health problem.
The specific treatment for a particular mood disorder is determined by a number of factors including the patient’s age, the type of disorder and tolerance for different types of treatments and medical procedures.
Some common treating mood disorder methods include:
• Antidepressant medicines: These work extra well when paired with psychotherapy
• Psychotherapy: mostly cognitive or interpersonal, which aims at changing a person views about themselves and trying to remove the stressors around them.
• Family therapy: It has been seen that a family’s support is vital in treating a patient suffering from a mood disorder.
Recently another type of treatment for mood disorders has gained popularity. This is when mood disorders are treated using mood disorder natural remedies. Mood disorder natural remedies might include calming herbs like Rose Hips Benefits, Lavender and Passiflora Incarnata. Certain salts like Natrium sulphate are also said to help treat mood disorders. These mood disorder natural remedies are said to have restorative properties and they soothe the nervous system. This helps in balancing the mood of the patient meanwhile preventing mood swings.
Mood disorders can also be controlled by adjusting a person’s diet. People suffering from such disorders should avoid alcohol, eat a balanced diet and stay away from caffeinated drinks like coffee and foods like chocolate. This is because such products temporarily tend to boost energy but then result in mental fatigue later on which could then result in depression.
People suffering from bouts of depression or mania need to realize that while treatment for these disorders is available natural remedies and psychiatric drugs should not be used simultaneously as cure as they might be incompatible with each other.