A patient's emotional response seems disproportionate. Before revealing the answer, decide what distinguishes an abnormal emotional reaction from a morbid disorder of emotion.

Ask whether the disturbance remains tied, even disproportionately, to a real triggering event, or whether it has become a sustained state independent of circumstances. An abnormal emotional reaction differs from a morbid disorder of emotion, which is a more severe, sustained, and often less clearly reactive disturbance: the abnormal reaction is excessive in degree or duration, but the patient can usually still identify the real event or situation that set it off, sitting at the mild end of a spectrum. A morbid disorder of emotion, by contrast, is a sustained disturbance of the underlying mood or emotional state itself that often persists or worsens regardless of changes in external circumstances, representing the point at which a disturbance of emotion becomes an illness requiring treatment in its own right. Whether the disturbance remains a proportionately-connected, if excessive, reaction versus a sustained state detached from circumstances is the key distinguishing feature.