“Recurrent mood disorders,” “major affective disorder, major depression” and “manic depressive illness” are terms used to describe the most common group of serious psychiatric conditions. These conditions involve periodic disturbances in mood, concentration, sleep, activity, appetite, and social behavior. In the United States alone more than 20 million people will experience a mood disorder during their lifetime. Unfortunately, many cases go unrecognized and untreated.
The most common types of these illnesses are:
Major Depression (non)-bipolar or unipolor) and bipolar disorder (manic depression). Modern treatments are effective and safe and usually allow persons with a recurrent mood disorder to live useful and productive lives.
WHAT IS AFFECTIVE DISORDER?
The term
“affect” refers to one’s mood or “spirits.”
Affective disorder refers to changes in mood that occur during an episode of illness marked by
extreme sadness (depression) or
excitement (mania) or both.
“Mania” describes periods of abnormal elation and increased activity, while
"depression” describes an abnormal degree of sadness and melancholy. The same person may have periods of mania and depression. Occasionally, the disease presents a combination of manic and depressive symptoms. If untreated, these episodes tend to recur or persist throughout life.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
The most common symptoms are changes in sleep pattern, level of daily activity and energy, appetite, mood, self-esteem, thinking, speech, sex drive, and interpersonal relations. In periods of (hypomania) an exaggerated sense of well-being (euphoria) or irritability may be experienced. The rate of thinking is markedly increased. Intellectual activity takes place with lightning speed, and there is great frustration with family and friends who do not immediately accept or become engaged with such “flights of ideas.”
During a period of depression there may be persistent feelings of sadness and emptiness, tearfulness for no apparent reason, or irritability and hostility toward others. Mental speed and activity are usually lowered; ideas are fewer. There is a poverty of thought, and responses to the environment are painfully slowed. Family members may be surprised by dramatic changes in mood that seem to have no obvious association with life events. Although nearly everyone experiences periods of sadness as well as periods of well-being, people with affective disorders during an episode of illness experience these emotions to an extreme degree. There are two basic types of episodes – periods of depression and periods of mania.
Periods of depression are characterized by:
In the bipolar form of affective disorder, both depressive and manic cycles occur. Usually a period of depression follows a period of hypomania or mania, or the reverse. Sometimes they are separated by periods of normal or near-normal functioning.
DOES IT GO AWAY?
The onset of the first episode of an affective disorder may not be obvious. Some people have infrequent brief, mild episodes and do not seek treatment or even recognize that they are ill. Typically, episodes of illness are time-limited: they come and go, last from several days to several months, and are followed by relatively normal periods of mood behavior. Without treatment, the frequency of illness, as well as the severity of symptoms, tends to increase over the years. Less often, a person may have only rare episodes of illness. Manic and depressive episodes present differently in different persons, and there are even differences in one person from one episode to the next.
Do not wait for self-improvement. Seek professional help.
