There are a lot of mood disorders that people with mental health issues suffer from. Common symptoms of those that have a mood disorder are, feeling sad a lot, not feeling like carrying on with parts of their life that are usually considered as important, experiencing mood swings like being extremely happy and then all of a sudden dropping to be extremely sad.
Types of Mood Disorders
Depression- This is a serious mental disorder; it has severe implications on the brain and is not just about feeling a little out of touch for a few days, it goes on for weeks, months, even years. Depression is sadly a very common mental disorder and interferes with the lives of people on a daily basis. Symptoms of depression are feeling sad, not enjoying things you used to, losing or gaining weight, not sleeping, or sleeping a lot, not feeling energetic anymore, feeling like you are not worth anything, also in extreme depression sufferers can feel like killing themselves.
Bipolar Disorder- A very serious mental disorder, those that have the problem suffer from very bad mood swings. They can be on top of the world one moment, and rock bottom the next. Normality can kick in, in-between. It is not really know what is the exact cause of bi-polar disorder, but it is know that it does seem to run in peoples families, so therefore may be genetic. It can start at any time during adolescence and early adulthood. Younger kids can suffer from the disorder too, as can older adults. It is something that suffers have to deal with for life.
SAD- This is quite literally a mental disorder that makes suffers feel sad. Although the abbreviation of the health problem actually stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder. It kicks in during the winter months, when the sun is not as active and the change in weather causes a change in mood for suffers. It is very similar to depression and can have suffers feeling down in the dumps, not feeling to do anything, and in extreme cases suffers can even feel suicidal. Sometimes SAD is treated with light therapy alongside counselling.
Self-Harm- A terrible disorder where suffers turn to hurting themselves, to try and feel relief from things that are upsetting them. Suffers can resort to using knifes to cut their wrists, pulling their hair out to try and feel better, snorting spray cans, hitting themselves, and making themselves sick. In fact there are many forms of self-harm and it can get terrible. Usually those that suffer with the mental disorder really do not want to kill themselves; they are harming themselves as a means of trying to get a little escape from the pain they feel inside. If it is not treated though, self-harm can cause death because some suffers decide to do things that inflict more and more pain upon themselves, and sadly in the end, they may die.
Mood disorders are really not as uncommon as you may have thought, and if you or anyone you know is suffering from any of the above mood disorders, there really is nothing to be ashamed of. The first steps towards getting better, are of course by seeking help for your problem. Thankfully there are a lot of useful medications, support groups and of course counselling available that can help with the above mood disorders.
The first step to getting better is seeking medical advice.