We live in a world full of obligations and demands to which we must respond in some way. When patience runs out and we are going through a difficult time, certain ways of responding may present themselves that would be seen as inappropriate by others. These answers will depend on how the complexities of each person’s everyday life are understood. In this article we will provide you the list of 16 affective disorders with their characteristics.
Usually, emotions activate our deepest desires and allow us to achieve goals. However, in some cases feelings can generate problems with our surroundings. In this Psychology-Online article, we will give you information about affective disorders .
Before explaining in detail the different types of affectivity disorders that exist, we must start by understanding what affectivity is. In general terms, this term refers to a psychological quality that affects the way we experience our own emotions, thoughts and behaviors about our surroundings.
For this reason, affectivity is not only related to affection, but also to the different modalities of responses that a human being has in the face of external circumstances that may arise.
Below is the list of 16 affective disorders with their characteristics.
Depression corresponds with a mental disorder characterized by the absence of desires and projects in a person’s life. This fact produces a decline in the person’s bond with their social environment and gradually affects the professional and/or academic area.
Below, we will point out some characteristics of depression :
Dysthymia, also known as persistent depressive disorder, is another form of depression as a clinical condition. When we talk about dysthymia we are referring to a type of depression that happens over a prolonged period of time . Thus, although it shares the same characteristics as depression, it has certain differences in terms of the intensity of symptoms according to the person and the duration of the condition.
Symptoms of dysthymia are:
This affective disorder can appear at any time in a person’s life. Bipolar disorder implies the presence of moments linked to depression alternating with situations of euphoria and/or mania . It should be noted that the intensity of each of these moments is usually high, leading the person to perform actions that can harm others and/or themselves. In these cases, the causes are usually due to neurological components and psychological factors.
Below, we will expose some important points of bipolar disorder :
This pathological trait is manifested in people who have great difficulties in identifying and recognizing their own feelings. In turn, this generates a feeling of depersonalization , as the person diagnosed with alexithymia feels distanced from their own emotional factors. For this reason, it can seem complex for people with alexithymia to understand aspects of themselves and other people.
The main criteria for detecting this affective disorder are as follows:
As its name implies, this disorder corresponds to the period before menstruation that occurs in the menstrual cycle and that produces a series of changes in the mood state at that moment. However, the particular feature of this disorder is that it disappears once the menstrual period ends.
Below, we will point out the main symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder:
In this other article you can find out how menstruation affects the emotional .
Substance- and/or medication-induced depressive disorder shares characteristic features of depression. However, the crucial aspect of this disorder is that it occurs as a consequence of ingesting toxic substances or medications that produce significant changes in mood.
The main features of this condition are:
As mentioned earlier, depression has particular characteristics that make it possible to detect its symptoms. However, the causes that originate it can differ and infer in different clinical conditions. Another of the affective disorders related to depression is depressive disorder due to an illness. In this case, it shares the qualities of depression with the incidence that any organic infection that the person has suffered can have.
The main symptoms of depressive illness due to illness are:
This condition is characterized by the presence of high degrees of anxiety regarding various areas of a person’s life. In general terms, the concern for certain facts is disproportionate to the real impact and the person diagnosed with this condition usually has persistent ideas, confusion, as well as difficulties connecting with pleasurable activities.
Next, we will show the main symptoms:
This condition appears after being exposed to a traumatic event to which the person lacks the resources to respond. It is possible that after these types of episodes, post-traumatic stress disorder develops , as the condition originates after the accidental moment.
Some of the manifestations that arise on the physical, emotional and behavioral plane of a person with post-traumatic stress are:
This affective disorder relates to obsessions and compulsions that dominate the person’s life . For this reason, obsessive compulsive disorder is usually accompanied by rituals and actions that must be done in a specific way to avoid consequences considered catastrophic.
The characteristic symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder:
Specific phobia disorder corresponds to an irrational and exaggerated fear of a specific object and/or situation . It is necessary to clarify that the person with this type of disorder can take any element of reality as an object of fear. In this way, these phobias usually produce unfavorable consequences for the development of everyday life as a result of this fear.
The manifestations of this type of anxiety disorder are as follows:
This affective disorder is dominated by the presence of delusional ideas and hallucinations that generate a loss of reality in the person who suffers from it. In other words, in this type of disorder there is an involuntary disconnection from aspects of everyday life due to the consequences of the condition. However, the duration of brief psychotic disorder usually ranges from one day to one month .
The clinical presentation of brief psychotic disorder is usually as follows:
This class of disorder is related to the time of year it occurs. When we refer to seasonal affective disorder, we are talking about the mood swings that occur with the changes of seasons. In other words, they manifest at the end or beginning of spring, summer, autumn and winter.
It should be noted that the type of presentation will depend on the qualities of each person. The criteria to take into account to detect a seasonal affective disorder are:
Parathymia is a condition in which there is disagreement between the person’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors regarding the contextual situation. Therefore, it is common for there to be difficulties in understanding the emotions of others or in carrying out daily activities.
The main features of parathymia are:
Aprosodia corresponds with the difficulty of communicating emotions because of alterations in the use of language , such as the lack of variations in tones, rhythms and intonations in expression.
When someone suffers from aprosody, their affectivity becomes disorganized. Thus, the main manifestations of aprosodia are:
This quality is linked to the loss of the possibility of feeling pleasure in moments and activities that were pleasurable in the past. In this sense, anhedonia corresponds to an affective disorder caused by a change in emotions. Therefore, this condition can be present in other disorders such as schizophrenia or depression, among others.
The main symptoms that people with anhedonia experience are:
we hope that you have noted the list of 16 affective disorders with their characteristics.
If we go on vacation to some wild place, we will come across various types…
Ever wondered what it is? Or did you see a group of people somewhere around…
Do you wake up in a bad mood every day? While everyone is super happy and…
It is common to have conversations with yourself to make decisions or reflect on something…
When we feel unwell, we usually go to a healthcare professional so we can get…
It is often said that human beings are uncoordinated, not only in relating to other…