Behavioral and Mental Health
Discover how Main Line Health helps those who struggle with mental illness and substance use live healthy and fulfilling lives.
Mood disorders are a broad category of mental health conditions that drastically affect a person’s emotional state.
Two of the most common mood disorders are depression and bipolar disorder.
It's normal for everyone to have mood changes now and then. But unlike ordinary variations in mood, mood disorders are serious and can last for several weeks or longer. They can cause severe emotional disturbances that interfere with your daily life. You may experience prolonged periods of intense happiness, sadness or both. Some mood disorders also cause feelings of anger and irritability.
Mood disorder symptoms vary based on the type of condition. Here are some of the most common signs of a mood disorder:
Depressive symptoms generally include:
*If you have this symptom, it is critical to get help immediately.
Manic symptoms generally include:
Mood disorders can significantly disrupt your life, but they are manageable with the right treatment. Our behavioral health specialists are here to help you find the best treatment plan for you.
Researchers aren’t sure what exactly causes mood disorders. But there are several factors believed to contribute to depression and bipolar disorder, including:
There are several types of mood disorders that fall underneath depression and bipolar disorder.
29% of adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their life. Everyone feels sad or down sometimes, but depression is different. It can cause symptoms that affect the way you feel, eat, sleep and think.
While major depressive disorder is the most familiar of depressive disorders, other specific depressive disorders include:
Bipolar disorder (previously called manic-depressive illness or manic depression) results in extreme mood swings that can disrupt your life. These periods alternate between manic highs (sometimes called “mania”) and depression. More than five million adults in the U.S. have bipolar disorder.
While depressive episodes present with the symptoms of major depression, manic episodes are characterized by periods of intense energy (either happiness and enthusiasm or intense anger and irritability) that impair function. In these episodes, people can go days without needing much sleep or getting tired, and often make impulsive and dangerous decisions. In some cases, people lose touch with reality and experience bizarre or unusual thoughts, such as believing they are receiving divine messages or that they have special relationships with celebrities or famous people.
The two most common types of bipolar disorder are:
Anyone can develop a mood disorder, but certain risk factors may increase the likelihood. These include:
Any of these factors, or a combination of them, can make you more susceptible to a mood disorder. In some cases, depression can arise for no apparent reason.
People with mood disorders often have periods with no symptoms and live healthy, full, productive lives. Diagnosis and treatment are generally very effective at minimizing mood disorders' impact.
At Main Line Health, our behavioral health specialists will work with you to determine the best mood disorder treatment for you. Your care may include one or more of the following:
In order to diagnose a mood disorder, your behavioral health specialist will perform an evaluation through tests that may include:
Discover how Main Line Health helps those who struggle with mental illness and substance use live healthy and fulfilling lives.