3. Dysphoria is a psychological state that is often caused by or accompanies a mental health condition. Stress, grief, relationship difficulties, and other environmental problems can also cause dysphoria.

Most often, dysphoria is a mood, which means someone can have fleeting moments of dysphoria. People can also experience long-term dysphoric states, and long-term dysphoria is often strongly associated with mental health conditions that affect mood, such as major depression, mania, and cyclothymia.

Nutritional deficits and health conditions can also cause dysphoria. For example, people with hypoglycemia sometimes report feelings of dysphoria, and the stress of a chronic illness can cause feelings of unhappiness and frustration, which can be considered dysphoria.

4. dysphoria vs. dysmorphia: While the words “dysphoria” and “dysmorphia” sound similar and are sometimes used interchangeably, each term has its own distinct meaning.

People often use dysphoria in the context of gender dysphoria. Dysphoria by itself refers to a general sense of unease and dissatisfaction (and to distress related to one’s gender identity in the case of gender dysphoria). Dysmorphia, on the other hand, refers to irregularity in the shape or size of a body part. It’s often used in the context of body dysmorphic disorder, in which an individual has a distorted body image.