Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
Major Depression Disorder is also referred to as clinical depression, unipolar depression or simply “depression”. It involves extremely low mood and/with a complete loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities along with feeling a large amount of the time. Productivity is at an all time low combined with withdrawing from close family and friends, there is the recurring thought of “what is the point?”. The symptoms are experienced most days and they interfere with all areas of a person's life including social, work and personal.
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.Bipolar disorder used to be known as 'manic depression' because the person experiences periods of depression and periods of mania, with periods of normal mood in between.
People with bipolar disorder experience periods of unusually intense emotion, changes in sleep patterns and activity levels, and unusual behaviors. These distinct periods are called “mood episodes.” Mood episodes are drastically different from the moods and behaviors that are typical for the person. Extreme changes in energy, activity, and sleep go along with mood episodes.
It can be relatively scary to endure these “mood episodes” as it can almost feel as if you have no control or that it is someone else that is calling the shots for your own behaviour. This can be an extremely troubling time so the individual and can be quite difficult for other people to attempt to understand.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Seasonal Affective Disorder is a mood disorder that follows the seasonal pattern. The theory behind it is that it depends on the light exposure in various seasons which means that during winter it is more likely that some people who are affected by SAD will feel more of a lack of engert, lethargic, sleep too much, overeat and gain weight.
For example, SAD is normally very rare in Australia due to the light exposure and more likely to be found in countries with shorted days with longer periods of darkness. It is important to be careful not to brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Attempt to take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.
