---
title: "Mood Disturbances | Abnormal Psychology"
description: "Mood disturbances are significant shifts in emotion, like sadness, anxiety, or irritability, that can worsen eating disorders in Abnormal Psychology."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/abnormal-psychology/key-terms/mood-disturbances"
type: "key-term"
subject: "Abnormal Psychology"
unit: "Unit 13"
---

# Mood Disturbances | Abnormal Psychology

## Definition

Mood disturbances are significant changes in emotional state, such as persistent sadness, anxiety, or irritability. In Abnormal Psychology, they often show up alongside eating disorders and can make recovery harder.

## What It Is

Mood disturbances are noticeable, persistent changes in a person’s emotional state that go beyond an everyday bad day. In Abnormal Psychology, the term usually comes up when a person with an eating disorder is also dealing with depression, anxiety, irritability, or emotional numbness that affects school, work, relationships, and treatment.

These mood shifts are not just feelings in the background. They can shape how someone thinks about food, weight, control, and self-worth. For example, a person with anorexia nervosa may feel intense sadness or anxiety before meals, while someone with bulimia nervosa may feel shame, frustration, or agitation after bingeing or purging. The mood problem and the eating behavior can feed into each other, which is why the cycle can become hard to break.

A big idea in this topic is that mood disturbances can be both a symptom and a driver. Sometimes they are part of a broader depressive or anxiety pattern that existed before the eating disorder. Other times, the emotional strain of restriction, bingeing, purging, or weight preoccupation makes the mood symptoms worse. Low nutrition, sleep disruption, stress, and social isolation can all intensify emotional instability, so the disturbance is not just “in the person’s head,” it is often tied to body state and daily functioning.

In eating-disorder cases, mood disturbances also show up in behavior. A student may withdraw from friends, become unusually irritable at home, or seem flat and disconnected in class. They might use food-related control as a way to manage emotional pain, or they may feel overwhelmed by guilt after eating. This is one reason treatment usually has to address both the eating pattern and the mood symptoms at the same time.

It also matters that mood disturbances can remain after weight restoration or other physical improvements. If treatment only focuses on food intake, the person may still struggle with sadness, anxiety, perfectionism, or emotional regulation. That is why clinicians pay attention to the emotional side of recovery, not just the visible symptoms. A person can look physically better and still need support for the mood piece that keeps the disorder going.

## Why It Matters

Mood disturbances matter in Abnormal Psychology because they help explain why eating disorders are rarely just about food. They show how emotion, cognition, and behavior connect in a loop. If someone is anxious, depressed, or highly irritable, disordered eating may become a coping strategy, even when it creates more harm later.

This term also helps you read case descriptions more accurately. If a vignette mentions social withdrawal, persistent sadness, emotional numbness, or outbursts around meals, mood disturbance may be part of the clinical picture. That can point you toward comorbidity, treatment planning, or the reason a person is not improving as expected.

The concept is especially useful when comparing anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Both can involve serious emotional distress, but the mood symptoms may look different in timing and expression. A person may become tense and rigid with anorexia, while another may show shame, impulsivity, or mood swings connected to bingeing and compensatory behaviors.

It also connects to treatment because emotional regulation matters as much as nutritional rehabilitation. If a therapist ignores mood symptoms, the eating disorder can keep finding a way back. In class discussions, essays, and case analyses, this term gives you a sharper way to explain why recovery often takes more than changing meal patterns.

## Connections

### Anorexia Nervosa

Mood disturbances are common in anorexia nervosa, especially anxiety, irritability, and depressed mood. Restriction can intensify emotional distress, and the emotional distress can then make restriction feel like a way to regain control. When you read a case, look for how the person’s mood changes around food, body image, and weight gain.

### Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa often overlaps with mood disturbances like shame, guilt, and emotional volatility. Bingeing and purging can happen after a stressful mood state, and the cycle can leave the person feeling even worse afterward. This makes bulimia a strong example of how emotional discomfort and disordered eating can reinforce each other.

### Depressive Disorders

Mood disturbances can resemble depressive disorders, but they are not always the same thing. In some cases, sadness and withdrawal are part of a separate depressive disorder, and in others they are tied to the physical and psychological strain of an eating disorder. A good case analysis asks whether the mood symptoms stand alone or fit into a larger diagnosis.

### [Social Withdrawal](/abnormal-psychology/key-terms/social-withdrawal)

Social withdrawal often shows up when mood disturbances make someone less interested in friends, family, or activities. In eating-disorder cases, withdrawing can also protect the person from meals, comments about weight, or questions about behavior. That makes withdrawal a useful clue when you are tracing how emotional distress affects daily life.

## On the AP Exam

A quiz question or case vignette may describe a person who is sad, irritable, or anxious and also restricting food, bingeing, or purging. Your job is to connect the emotional symptoms to the eating disorder pattern, not treat them as unrelated facts. On essays, you might explain how mood disturbance can maintain the disorder by increasing control-seeking, shame, or avoidance.

In short-answer questions, use the term to show that recovery has both physical and psychological sides. If the prompt asks why treatment is not working, mood disturbance is a strong clue that emotional support, not just nutrition, needs attention. If you see social withdrawal, persistent low mood, or emotional reactivity in a scenario, that is often the signal to mention this concept.

## Mood Disturbances vs Depressive Disorders

Mood disturbances and depressive disorders can look similar because both may involve sadness, low energy, and withdrawal. The difference is that mood disturbances here are often discussed as part of the emotional fallout or maintenance of an eating disorder, while depressive disorders are a broader diagnostic category. In a case, ask whether the mood symptoms are secondary to the eating disorder, part of another disorder, or both.

## Key Takeaways

- Mood disturbances are significant emotional changes, like sadness, anxiety, or irritability, that interfere with daily life.
- In Abnormal Psychology, they are often discussed in eating disorders because emotions and eating behaviors can keep each other going.
- A person with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa may use restriction, bingeing, or purging to cope with emotional distress.
- Mood symptoms can remain even after physical symptoms improve, so recovery often needs both nutritional and mental health support.
- When you see social withdrawal, shame, emotional numbness, or intense irritability in a case, mood disturbance may be part of the explanation.

## FAQs

### What is mood disturbances in Abnormal Psychology?

Mood disturbances are significant shifts in emotional state, such as persistent sadness, anxiety, or irritability. In Abnormal Psychology, the term often comes up in eating disorders because emotional distress can shape eating behavior and make recovery more difficult.

### Are mood disturbances the same as depression?

Not exactly. Depression is a specific type of depressive disorder, while mood disturbances is a broader phrase for problematic emotional changes. Someone with an eating disorder may show depressed mood without meeting the full criteria for a depressive disorder, or they may have both.

### How do mood disturbances affect anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa?

They can make the disorder worse by increasing anxiety, shame, or irritability around food and body image. In anorexia nervosa, mood changes may reinforce rigid restriction, while in bulimia nervosa they can feed the binge-purge cycle.

### What should I look for in a case example?

Look for emotional symptoms like social withdrawal, low mood, agitation, or lack of control over emotions alongside disordered eating. Those clues often show that the problem is not just about food, but about how emotion and behavior are interacting.

## Related Study Guides

- [13.1 Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa](/abnormal-psychology/unit-13/anorexia-nervosa-bulimia-nervosa/study-guide/nIl5Urid3dvKpUP3)

## About This Document

Canonical Fiveable pages are available as Markdown at the same path plus `.md`.

- [llms.txt](https://fiveable.me/llms.txt): index of Fiveable's sections and URL patterns
- [llms-full.txt](https://fiveable.me/llms-full.txt): complete subject and unit listing
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