Therapy for Mood Disorders
Are low mood or emotional highs and lows hard to manage and impacting your quality of life?
Mood disorders can make everyday life feel heavy, overwhelming, or unpredictable. You’re not alone. These challenges can affect your energy, relationships, and overall well-being. Through therapy, you can gain tools to manage difficult emotions, enhance your coping skills, and create a life that feels more balanced and fulfilling.
Types of Mood Disorders
*Not an exhaustive list
Mood disorders are diagnosed based on the type and frequency of mood episodes a person experiences. Clinicians use these patterns to determine an individual’s specific disorder. The main types of episodes include depressive, manic or hypomanic, and mixed episodes.
Manic or hypomanic episodes involve elevated self-esteem, reduced need for sleep, increased talkativeness, heightened goal-directed activity, and impulsive engagement in risky behaviors. Depressive episodes are marked by persistent low mood or loss of interest, along with symptoms such as significant weight changes, sleep disturbances, fatigue, psychomotor changes, excessive guilt or worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, indecisiveness, and suicidal thoughts. Individuals experiencing suicidal ideation should seek immediate emergency assistance. Mixed episodes occur when manic and depressive symptoms happen simultaneously or in rapid alternation.
Depressive Disorders
Depressive disorders are the most common mood disorders and are often highly treatable. Major Depressive Disorder is defined by one or more major depressive episodes. A major depressive episode involves a depressed mood or loss of interest plus at least four additional depressive symptoms lasting at least two weeks. Dysthymic disorder involves a chronic depressed mood lasting two or more years, with symptoms that are less severe than those of a major depressive episode.
Bipolar Disorders
Bipolar disorders are less common than depressive disorders but are manageable with treatment. Bipolar I Disorder includes one or more manic or mixed episodes, often alongside major depressive episodes. Bipolar II Disorder involves major depressive episodes and at least one hypomanic episode. Cyclothymic disorder is characterized by ongoing hypomanic and depressive symptoms for two or more years.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is a depressive disorder characterized by severe mood symptoms that occur in the week before menstruation and resolve shortly after it begins. Common symptoms include marked mood swings, irritability, depressed mood, anxiety, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and difficulty concentrating. These symptoms significantly interfere with daily functioning, relationships, or work and are not attributable to another mental disorder. PMDD is cyclical in nature and typically improves once menstruation starts.
*Reminder: this is not an exhaustive list
Classifying and accurately diagnosing mood disorders is challenging because they arise from a complex interaction of neurobiological, behavioral, and psychological factors that vary across individuals. These differing pathways lead to a wide range of symptoms, which present both physiologically and cognitively, including:
Physiological Symptoms
Weight loss or weight gain (changes in appetite)
Insomnia/Hypersomnia
Psychomotor agitation or deferral
Fatigue or decreased energy levels daily
Cognitive Symptoms
Depressed mood
Impaired memory
Decreased interest or pleasure in activities
Excessive guilt or feelings of worthlessness
Difficulty concentrating or thinking clearly
Suicidal ideation-feelings of hopelessness
Persistent negative thinking patterns
Mood disorders are differentiated by the intensity and severity of symptoms, with diagnoses based on the pattern and course of an individual’s mood disturbances over time.
Identifying Mood Disorders
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
An evidence-based, structured approach that helps you recognize and reshape unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns.
Our Therapy Approaches
We use an evidence-based approach to help you find your path and work on your goals. Our treatment methods include:
Exposure & Response Prevention Therapy (ERP)
An evidence-based approach that helps individuals gradually face intrusive thoughts and fears, reduce compulsive behaviors, and build confidence in managing anxiety.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
An evidence-based approach that focuses on accepting internal experiences while committing to behaviors that align with personal values.
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
An evidence-based approach that helps individuals explore ambivalence, strengthen motivation, and make meaningful changes aligned with their values.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
An evidence-based approach designed to help individuals manage intense emotions, improve relationships, and navigate life’s challenges. more effectively.
Client Centered & Individualized
An approach that recognizes each person’s unique experiences, goals, and strengths. It tailors therapy to meet individual needs.
IS IT TIME TO CONSIDER THERAPY FOR MOOD
If your mood is having an impact on your activities of daily living, relationships, or getting in the way of how you want to live your life, then that’s reason enough to seek support. Book a complimentary consultation to see how our mood specialists can help