Dysphoria is the opposite of the euphoric state. It manifests itself in a depressed mood and emotional disturbances that hinder normal functioning. Dysphoria may be the result of a mental illness, including depression or personality disorders, therefore its treatment depends on the causes of this condition.
Dysphoriais not a disease, but an abnormal emotional state. It can be a symptom of mental disorders, so in order to determine the cause of dysphoria, one should take a holistic look at the patient's problems. Dysphoria is a mood close to depression, full of negative feelings. These emotions are the result of exaggerating certain situations or stimuli. This leads to inadequate reactions governed by negative feelings, e.g. anger, regret, anger, discouragement, violence, volatility, irritability, explosiveness, aggression.
Dysphoric behavior has a bad effect on the patient's psyche, but also badly affects his relationships with other people, so it is worth trying to cure the dysphoria. The more that people with dysphoria are not able to go beyond their "negative reasoning" on their own, they are not able to suddenly change their approach to life. They need the help of a specialist.
Dysphoria: symptoms
Symptoms of dysphoria are negative feelings that lower your mood. They are inadequate to the situation, exaggerated and too intense.
Dysphoric person:
- is grumpy and irritable - it is easy to throw her off balance, few things make her happy, most causes irritation and nervousness;
- can be variable in its feelings - it easily moves from one negative emotion to another;
- is explosive - negative emotions are violent, sudden and very intense, in extreme cases aggressive behavior may appear;
- negatively perceives the situations she finds herself in - she feels humiliated;
- feels angry and pity herself;
- does not see the solution to the situation - assumes in advance that it will not work, that it is a bad idea and it is not even worth trying;
- looks at his past critically - he is unable to objectively assess himself;
- expects help in solving their problems - because she cannot deal with them herself, she often forces others to make a decision;
- feelsanxiety and constant tension that obscure an objective view of reality.
All dysphoric symptoms distort the assessment of reality and take away the joy of life from a person. Faced with so many negative emotions, it is difficult to see the positives of many situations. You close yourself off from positive feelings, which has a destructive effect on the psyche. Mental illnesses may be the result of increasing dysphoria.
Dysphoria: causes
There may be various causes of dysphoria. Each dysphoric disorder can mean something completely different. Dysphoria can be a symptom of diseases such as: depression, characteropathy, personality disorders, psycho-organizational syndromes, psychoses, schizophrenia, neuroses.
Dysphoria can also be the result of injuries (severe damage to the brain or nervous system), but also a complication of poorly treated epilepsy. Disorders may accompany dementia syndromes, e.g. Alzheimer's disease. They are also often a reaction to cocaine withdrawal.
Dysphoria as a mood disorder can also have a social background and occur as a result of inadequate preparation for life. A person with such disorders has not been taught how to react to difficult situations, so dysphoria becomes his specific defense mechanism.
Dysphoria - treatment
Treatment of dysphoria depends on the cause of the disorder. If dysphoria is an element of a serious mental illness, the treatment is selected appropriately to this disease entity, e.g. in epilepsy, antiepileptic drugs are administered. Curing the patient's main illness will usually also eliminate the problem of dysphoria.
Patients in whom dysphoria is simply an expression of life helplessness are treated differently. The most effective form of treatment for such people is psychotherapy, which is to teach the patient to cope with negative emotions and to see positive aspects. Depending on the severity of dysphoria, treatment with pharmacological agents may be added. Most often, antidepressants and sedatives are used, the task of which is to calm down the accumulated negative feelings.
See the gallery of 10 photos