{"id":275,"date":"2014-07-30T06:17:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T06:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/?p=275"},"modified":"2014-06-27T19:32:53","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T19:32:53","slug":"mood-disorders-and-lack-of-concentration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/mood-disorders-and-lack-of-concentration\/","title":{"rendered":"Mood Disorders and Lack of Concentration"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I was diagnosed with a mood disorder about five years ago.\u00a0 Since then my ability to concentrate has changed.\u00a0 I find it almost impossible to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. Is this loss of concentration typical of mood disorders.\u00a0\u00a0 If so, what can I do about it?”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, there are a number of different mood disorders, ranging from mild depression (dysthymia) to full blown type 1 bipolar disorder (hypermania).\u00a0 Since you do not specify which in particular you were diagnosed as having, it is difficult to answer specifically.<\/p>\n

However, to a varying degree, difficulty in concentration and memory are common with all mood disorders.\u00a0 This is often a symptom of the disorder.\u00a0 Also it may well be an unwanted side effect of medication.\u00a0 Since it has been five years since your diagnosis, what has been the course of your treatment?\u00a0 Was medication prescribed?\u00a0 Was it effective in relieving symptomatic behavior?\u00a0 Has the medication been changed since initial diagnosis?\u00a0 Are you routinely seeing a psychiatrist for continued treatment?\u00a0 Have you discussed this loss of concentration with the psychiatrist?\u00a0 Are you seeing a therapist as well?<\/p>\n

I ask these questions because they are all the first things you should be doing to take an active role in your treatment.\u00a0 It is not uncommon for it to take more than five years since initial appropriate diagnosis for significant positive results.<\/p>\n

What else can you do?\u00a0 The following are strong suggestions:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0 You can participate in regular dialectical or cognitive-behavioral therapy to learn ways to adjust the level of loss of concentration.\u00a0 This would include homework, exercises and other activities to enhance memory and concentration<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0 You can adjust your eating habits to reflect a healthy diet.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0 You can adjust your sleep patterns to get between 7-9 hours of sleep, going to bed and arising within one hour of the same time.\u00a0 For instance, to bed between 10-12PM, and up between 6-8 AM.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0 You can adjust your exercise, to include 45 minutes to an hour of exercise 3-5 days a week.\u00a0 This might just be a brisk walk, or a regular routine at a gym.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0 You need to keep a list, made up each night of what you need to do the next day.\u00a0 The list may be short or long, you may or may not get everything done.\u00a0 But, you will have a written reminder of what you have to do.<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0\u00a0 There are also exercises, best practiced while in therapy, to enhance your level of concentration.<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, there are prescription nutritional supplements that can enhance concentration and memory.<\/p>\n

I encourage you to try some, if not all, of these suggestions.\u00a0 Good luck.<\/p>\n

~Dr. Manuel\u00a0S. Silverman, PhD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I was diagnosed with a mood disorder about five years ago.\u00a0 Since then my ability to concentrate has changed.\u00a0 I find it almost impossible to concentrate on anything for more\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,81,97,83,80],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mood-disorders","tag-concentration","tag-healthy-living","tag-mood-disorders","tag-side-effects-of-mood-disorders","tag-symptoms"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locustherapy.com\/askthedoctor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}