can people suffering from mood disorders lead normal lives?
Absolutely. As a general rule, people who suffer from mood disorders tend to have more or less complete remission between episodes. With successful treatment, future episodes can be prevented or greatly ameliorated. However, it is absolutely critical that treatment be continued between episodes. Often when a person feels better, they discontinue their medication. Long term clinical trials indicate that the time to relapse disorder, the number of relapses is greater, the severity of the relapse is greater, and the response to treatment is less when medication is frequently started and stopped. [1] “In September 1809, after much difficulty in trying to mediate between the Natives and commercial interests, Lewis fled St. Louis for Washington to plead his case before the new administration. He caught a riverboat to Memphis, during which his feelings of melancholy were enhanced by his continued drinking, and he twice attempted to take his own life. Later, while staying in a roadhouse along
