Mood Disorders

You can find heaps of information online about Mood Disorders – a broad term referring to the Category of Mental Disorder where low mood frequently occurs. Most of this online information is a regurgitation of symptoms from the classification ‘bible’ DSM-5, which lists the features of different diagnoses like the ingredients of a cookbook! Despite these ‘descriptions’ being easily available, all the publicity about how common ‘depression’ is has led to any state of low mood as being perceived as a homogenous condition – as if there is just one type of ‘depression’.  A big reason for how dissatisfied many people are with the quality of information available about Mood disorders is that the DSM-5 classification system does not provide any ‘explanations’ or ‘causes’ and hence there is a lack of education about causes to the general public. Even Psychiatrists have not categorised causes in a way that is easily understood by the public, beyond using the term ‘biopsychosocial’ amongst ourselves, which refers to the biological, psychological and social factors contributing to any individual case of disorder. Because we have failed to adequately educate the public about these causes, I have ‘given a go’ to fill this gap in my eLearning education program! 
 
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In fact, there are 6 different ‘types’ of ‘Depression’ that we psychiatrists diagnose to help treat our patients. And an individual with ‘Depression’ might have a mixture of more than one cause. Hence, those with more severe types of Depression often get the best outcomes from a ‘management package’ of combined approaches, sometimes by more than one type of Help-Provider. Despite this, the treatment approach many people receive is often dictated by the setting where the person goes for help or the type of Help-Provider a person seeks help from. Some Help-Providers only offer medication, others only psychotherapy, some only life coaching, some only positive lifestyle factors. Whilst in many cases that may be adequate, what if it doesn’t adequately facilitate recovery? 

Because each type of depression tends to have a dominant cause, I’ve gone ‘Beyond DSM-5’ to divide all the common 6 Categories of Disorder (Mood, Anxiety, Personality, Psychotic, Substance Use and Eating Disorders) into 3 Explanatory SubTypes that reflects how most Psychiatrists conceptualise Mental Health problems. 
 

For Mood Disorders, I have placed each of the 6 different types of ‘Depression’ into 1 of their 3 causative subtypes: 1. The Mind Subtype due to an underdeveloped or immature capacity for decision-making and Coping Skills and Unhelpful Scripts. This tends to explain 2 Mood diagnoses: (1) Reactive Depression (a.k.a. Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood) and (2) Mood Instability (a.k.a. Affect Dysregulation, Borderline personality traits, Cyclothymia, Bipolar disorder type 2)2.  The Body subtype is due to ‘runaway feedback loops’ causing physical distress due to anxiety, pain, fatigue or nausea. This covers 1 diagnosis: (3) Mixed Anxiety-Depression (a.k.a. Major Depressive disorder with anxiety features) where there is a combination of low mood with anxiety and somatization (pain, fatigue and nausea).3.  The Brain subtype is due to malfunctions, injuries & glitches. This explains 3 diagnoses: (4) Melancholic Depression (a.k.a. Major Depressive disorder with Melancholic features, physical or mental slowing or agitation) (5) Psychotic Depression (a.k.a. Major Depressive disorder with psychotic features) (6) Bipolar Depression (a.k.a. Depressed phase of Bipolar Disorder Type 1 or 2, manic depression, manic psychosis, bipolar affective disorder)
 
Ok, but what is the common mechanism that leads to low mood? Well, you fall into Depression when what I call your ‘Mood sSwitch’ is flicked down and fails to reset, switching your ‘brain gears’ into being unfocused; overwhelmed with emotional distress, and over-thinking about negatives and stressors. This may activate one of two ‘Depressive Scripts’: to ‘Hide’ or ‘Submit’. I have depicted all of this information  pictorially, conversationally and pragmatically in MindSkiller® eLearning.  

 

Mood Disorder is a broad category of Mental Disorder where someone is frequently in a ‘bad’, ‘negative’ low or ‘low’ mood. This is often described generically as ‘Depression’, but there are many different types of low mood or depression.
The Health Practitioners Classification handbook for Mental disorders is DSM-5 and identifies X number of disorders. 
However this system does not provide any causes or explanation for each Mood Disorder. In an attempt to explain the causes for each disorder, three ‘explanatory’ subtypes have been developed by MindSkiller®: Mind, Body and Brain.
MindSkiller® has placed each of the 6 different types of ‘Depression’ into one of the subtypes;. These subtypes are incorporated and explained in the MindSkiller® elearning programme.
Watch this video to hear Dr Gary Galambos explain this approach in more detail. Click here to see get an overview of the relevant MindSkiller®  elearning unit for this disorder, or register and get started on the course
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