Mental health is complex, and conditions compete for your limited attention. A few conditions make mental health more complicated, and they fall between mood disorders and personality disorders, which are two broad umbrellas that can devastate your life.
Both disorders are about emotions, behavior, and relationships, but they are pretty different in the way they develop, their signs and symptoms, and their treatments. This post will help you separate mood disorders from personality disorders so that you can better appreciate the complexity of these conditions.
Understanding Mood and Personality Disorders
As we discuss mental health conditions, it is imperative to differentiate mood disorders from personality disorders, despite them both having some overlapping signs in nature. This part will provide a base for mood and personality disorders and compare both sections in the rest of the article.
What Is a Mood Disorder? Definition and Types
A mood disorder is indicated by extreme emotional crashes that are beyond the normal for an individual. The length of mood swings can last for a very long time and impact a person’s emotional state, behavior, and functioning.
There are several types of mood disorders, with depression and Bipolar Disorder being the most well-known.
- Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). This is when the depressed mood, feeling of helplessness, and lack of interest in things are experienced for a longer term.
- Bipolar Disorder. Bipolar Disorder is defined by extremes of mood, mania (very elevated mood), and depression (severely depressed mood). Mania can lead to losing self-control, abnormal behavior, high energy, risk-taking, or bad decisions.
- Cyclothymic Disorder. A less severe type of Bipolar Disorder, characterized by constant mood swings between hypomania and secondary depression.
One defining characteristic of a mood disorder is that the emotional changes are cyclic, occurring in cycles. The best practice is to treat many of these conditions with medication (i.e., SSRIs for depression and mood stabilizers for Bipolar Disorder) and psychotherapy.
What Is a Personality Disorder? Definition and Types
Personality disorders are traits that eternally consist of inflexible patterns of thought, emotional regulation, and behavior, which significantly differ from the social norm.
A diagnosis for this condition is a significant impairment in functioning during your daily life. Personality disorders (as opposed to mood disorders) are more stable and constant, as they are relatively stable over time. Some common disorder types of personality include:
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
People with BPD have a lot of emotionally intense things to do, relationships, and screwed-up egos. Impulsive behaviors, emotional instability, and fear of abandonment can be a consequence of BPD.
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)
This disorder is characterized by a lack of desire to be around other people. Individuals with this disorder do not work well with others and prefer to do tasks and live their lives without being around others.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)
Narcissistic personality disorder individuals usually have a sense of superiority and lack of empathy. Life-long conditions, though personality disorders are mood disorders, can often be better treated or managed by therapy and medication. Treatment for personality disorders, however, typically uses longer-term intervention to help people unlearn the behaviors that are now very automatic.
Common Examples of Mood and Personality Disorders
Here’s a quick comparison of some of the most well-known mood and personality disorders:
Mood Disorders
| Depression | A mood disorder in which sad hormones are constantly turning on, and you feel tired all the time and disinterested. |
| Bipolar Disorder | Characterized by alternating episodes of mania and depression. |
| Cyclothymia | A form of Bipolar Disorder where the mood swings are milder. |
Personality Disorders
| Borderline Personality Disorder | Borderline Personality Disorder is A mental illness with symptoms of mood instability and tumultuous relationships. |
| Antisocial Personality Disorder | Extreme lack of respect toward others. |
| Narcissistic Personality Disorder | Involves an inflated sense of importance and insensitivity |
Although all disorders come with their own sets of symptoms and treatment modalities. They usually demand different ways of managing as well as living a good life with those affected.
Key Differences Between Mood Disorders and Personality Disorders
Understanding of mood disorders vs. personality disorders involves the facts of differences in emotion regulation, symptom duration, and treatment plans. Let me dive into these differences a bit more.
Type of Problem: Emotional Regulation Vs. Enduring Patterns
The vast majority of mood disorders are about navigating feelings in some matter. Mood disorders are dominated by elevated and reduced moods that are out of phase from reality and characterized when they are unexpected by external events.
Bipolar Disorder about the lady experiencing highs of mania, an energy manic episode to deep depression, despair, and worthlessness? Emotional states are infuriating, but usually transitory and do not characterize an entire person.
Personality disorders are about longstanding patterns of thoughts and behaviors rather than situational ones. This pattern is usually long-lasting, many people start in their teens or early twenties and continue into relationships.
Duration and Stability: Chronic Vs. Episodic Symptoms
The duration and stability of symptoms are essential distinctions between mood disorders and personality disorders.
Episodic onset disorder symptoms come and go throughout a mood disorder. A case of depression can lead to an episode lasting weeks or months that eventually remits with treatment. Intermittent fluctuation of the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder can swing wildly between manic and depressive states.
An individual with an antisocial personality disorder may have been acting without regard for others and manipulating heavily for their whole life. These ingrained patterns are usually hard-wired without intensive long-term therapy to resist.
Impact on Functioning: Social and Occupational Effects
The difference in effect on the life of an individual is enormous between mood disorders and personality disorders. Mood disorder patients may have just the same kind of brief social or occupational disruption during their most dysphoric mood states.
For example, while a key symptom of major depressive disorder may be a lack of motivation and aversion to social interaction, once the symptoms are adequately treated, that person can be expected.
Individuals with personality disorders have the hallmark difficulty in fostering stable relationships and high function within social contexts for a lengthy span. These ingrained behaviors, such as emotional instability or lack of empathy, can result in difficulties with others throughout their life.
Prevalence: How Common Are Mood Vs. Personality Disorders?
Mood disorders are more likely to be present than personality disorders. Depressive disorder is one of the most researched mental health issues that can not be neglected. It is safe to say it affects millions upon millions of people in every corner of the world.
Bipolar as well as Cyclothymia are pretty standard, too. Much like personality disorders, these are not as prevalent, but they do account for a sizable portion of the population. BPD is one of the most diagnosed personality disorders, but so are antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic pride.
Use of Medication in Treatment: SSRIs, Antidepressants, and More
Medication can be part of mood disorders or personality disorders, although the management of each differs:
Mood disorder medications (SSRIs – Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) or antidepressants are frequently prescribed as they can treat mood and additional depressive symptoms that exist across the varying mood disorders.
Mood stabilizers are used to treat manic and depressive episodes. Medications are sometimes used to treat co-morbid symptoms that go hand in hand with a personality disorder (e.g., anxiety, depression). Yet general psychotherapy (CBT or developmental-behavioral therapy in the case of BPD) is still the primary treatment for ETP.
Is Depression a Mental Illness or Disorder? Clarifying the Terms
Mental illness or mood disorder depression, the first question related to mood disorders, is when you mention depression. Is it a mental illness? It has to be clear that depression is a mental illness since pretty much everyone who experiences it can say that they have changed the way they think, feel, and act.
It is also a mental disease categorized like this because it does not fall under the criteria for the officially recognized disorder that causes severe burden and severe suffering.
Comparing Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
To illustrate the differences between mood disorders and personality disorders more, let us talk about two widely named disorders, Bipolar Disorder and borderline personality disorder (BPD), in some detail. Although they both feature emotional instability to a degree, they are very different.
Bipolar Disorder: A Mood Disorder With Manic and Depressive Episodes
Bipolar Disorder, a mood disorder, alternates between mania and deep depression. Manic episodes can be associated with feelings of euphoria, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Conversely, they will get sad, depressed, hopeless, and lose motivation when a depressive episode happens. Bipolar Disorder can only be managed by mood stabilizers and antidepressants.
Borderline Personality Disorder: A Personality Disorder With Emotional Dysregulation
For example, Borderline Personality Disorder is a type of personality disorder characterized by emotional dysregulation, fear of abandonment, and, therefore, erratic attachment. BPD often leads stress-prone people to have intense emotions that can roam hugely in range and be driven by impulsive actions. The most usual treatment for BPD is DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) and psychotherapy.
How Do These Conditions Overlap and Differ?
Although Bipolar Disorder and BPD share the common symptom of emotional instability, they are not the same. Bipolar Disorder is episodic, with clear-cut manic and depressive episodes.
BPD, on the other hand, is a chronic pattern of emotional dysregulation not tied to specific episodes. This affects your relationships, but the root causes and treatment pathways are primarily different.
Similarities Between Mood Disorders and Personality Disorders
There is a considerable divergence between mood disorders and personality disorders, but there are some similarities. Regardless of the kind, both of the conditions are exceptionally emotionally scarring (ending with a myriad of ruined relationships and problems living) much down the line. For symptom management, therapy, and medication might help alleviate and improve the quality of life in both cases.
Seeking Help and Treatment Options
The episodes of mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar illness, need to be treated not only with medication but by therapy as well. Personality disorders are based on long-standing patterns of endured behavior that require a time-lining therapeutic process.
Step one is to get help if you (or another person you know) have a mood disorder/personality disorder and get professional help from a mental health expert. Depending on the individual and the best strategy, this can include medications, therapy, or something different.
FAQ’s
- What are the main types of mood disorders?
There are three major classes of mood disorders, depression, bipolar, and cyclothymic disorder. Depression is the most typical, with bipolar cyclothymic disorder following in range.
- Can personality disorders be treated?
Personality disorders are treatable and often involve multiple years of psychotherapeutic work for treatment. CBT & DBT are among the most typical treatments for an ailment.
- How do mood disorders and personality disorders differ?
Mood disorders are disorders where there are multiple occurrences of the same extreme emotional state, depression, or mania. On the other hand, personality disorders are lifelong patterns of behavior that damage your ability to function and interact.
- Can mood disorders lead to personality disorders?
Although mood disorders are not responsible for personality disorders, some individuals with chronic mood deregulation may later have maladaptive coping styles that combine to be personality disorder traits.
- Are medications effective for treating mood disorders?
Actual antidepressants and mood stabilizers & antipsychotics do often help to treat mood disorders, mainly mood stabilization.
