Mood Issues
Depression
Some signs of depression include sadness and feeling down, a sense of hopelessness, crying for little or no reason, fatigue, irritability, thoughts of doom or death, poor sleep, inability to concentrate, appetite change, and social withdrawal. Depression can vary in duration and severity. Some depressive disorders are a reaction to an event; others are more long-standing.
Anxiety Issues
Anxiety issues range from general nervousness and worry to panic disorder or specific fears and phobias. A more general form of anxiety leads to constant worry and perfectionism or low self-esteem. When life events create stress on top of a predisposition to anxiety, the additive effect leads to feeling overwhelmed. Signs of anxiety include excessive worry, dread, tension, irritability, poor sleep, appetite change, reduced concentration, or physiological signs like difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, gastric distress, muscle tension, etc.
Other Mood Issues
Bipolar Depression: This more complicated mood issue generally involves changes in mood. Bipolar Depression more typically involves cycling between depression and elevated (manic or hypomanic) or agitated moods. Individuals can also move from Anxiety to Depression and back.
Treatment of Mood Disorders
Mood disorders (like those discussed above) can direct a person’s functioning or lead to the inability to function. The goal of counseling is to turn this around so that the individual is managing the mood (and one’s life) instead of the mood managing the individual.