It’s a beautiful, sunny day, the weekend yet, and you’re up and ready to tackle anything that comes your way! First breakfast and then look out the world, here you come! Then you get out of the shower and you feel so exhausted!. Well, so much for the weekend. So feeling upbeat again, off you go. By the time you get back from the supermarket, you feel so irritable and down that you don’t even feel like unpacking your groceries. What’s causing these extreme mood swings that make you feel like you’re constantly on a roller coaster? What’s causing this disturbing behavior? Well, in this article we’re going to try and answer this question, along with many others for you.
What Are Mood Swings?
Mood swings are totally natural. They can be set into motion by stress or coping with a physical health condition. It’s nothing out of the ordinary to have days where you feel down, or sad, or elated. As long as these mood changes aren’t abrupt, and don’t disrupt your life, or upset those close to you, they are usually thought to be a normal, even healthy reaction.
On the other hand, certain types of mood swings can be a sign of mental illness. Furthermore, you could have a medical condition if you find yourself bouncing back and forth from extremely happy to unbearably depressed on a regular basis. Should you be experiencing serious mood swings on a recurring basis, you need to tell your doctor about this.
Don’t worry. No one is going to say that you are going insane. Telling your doctor will give you a professional to discuss the situation with and explore the possible reasons.
What Can Cause Mood Swings In Females?
There are many common causes of mood swings in women. For women, hormonal mood swings are not uncommon, such as :
- in periods
- with menopause
- mood swings during pregnancy
Another cause of mood swings can be a change in hormone levels, especially estrogen. Variations in hormones are normal and are known to affect mood, like changes in the menstrual cycle. For this reason, mood swings also take place as a reaction to other causes of shifting levels of hormones, for example, pregnancy and menopause.
For some women birth control pills are known to actually regulate hormonal imbalances, however, it’s a double edged sword, because they can also have the opposite on other women. This is one of the reasons that certain women find that they simply cannot take them.
The changes in mood associated with hormones are due to the fact that hormones affect the chemistry of the brain. Women tend to be more susceptible to changes associated with hormones than men. Some pregnant women experience mood changes during the first trimester which stop once the body has adapted to the varying hormone levels. There are, however, some women who undergo mood swings throughout their pregnancy.
What Can Cause Mood Swings In Males?
When the hormone testosterone is thought about it is chiefly as what makes men experience sexual desire. However, the hormone’s role in the body is more complicated than that. It can actually affect your state of mind, including the manner in which your brain functions. That’s why low testosterone has been tied to symptoms such as changes in mood, stress, and depression.
Another factor which can lead to changes in mood for males is stress. Since men tend to hold their feelings inside far longer and more often than women do, the pressure from keeping anger, tension, and general dissatisfaction with their lives bottled up like that can build up and lead to confrontations with their partners and loved ones, as well as their friends. They can experience moments of genuine depression, then fight it off and seem to be feeling fine, then go to work and feel like the world is closing in on them again.
Mental Illness as Cause
There are many mental illnesses that can cause mood swings. Among them are depression, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Out of these bipolar disorder is the worst when it comes to unpredictable changes in mood, however, all of these conditions can have effects on a person’s moods that can literally turn their lives upside down.
1. Bipolar Disorder
This mental illness, characterized by extreme mood swings from mild depression to despair, to mania, was at one time called a manic depressive disorder. Bipolar disorder is very serious and can lead to dangerous behavior, even suicidal feelings, but it can be treated with a combination of therapy and medication.
People with this mental illness may have difficulty coping with every day living. For children school may be hard for them, along with keeping up friendships. Adults may find that work has become unbearable, and that they have difficulty with relationships.
Correctly diagnosing bipolar disorder in children, or what can mood swings be a symptom of is difficult. Many bipolar symptoms that are experienced by children also overlap with those from various other disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) mood swings. There’s also the problem with children that doctors are reluctant to diagnose a child as depressed, or bipolar because they feel that this will label the child for life as a misfit. However, it’s more important to get that child the help they need than to protect their reputations.
Furthermore, it’s harder for a child to communicate exactly what it is they are feeling, especially the younger they are. Doctors need to make sure before they issue a diagnosis that they will be right.
2. Depression
An individual who is depressed can experience mood swings. They will certainly go through low periods, then they will feel fine, but they won’t suffer from the manic highs that those who have bipolar disorder do. Generally, depressed people feel fatigued, listless, sad, restless, unhappy, or hopeless. Often they are able to feel better for days, even weeks at a time, and they start to believe that there is really nothing wrong. That maybe the awful way they’ve been feeling is over with and they will get back to normal from now on. That not going to happen in a case of severe depression, and when the old feelings come back they can be even more powerful than they were the first time around.
3. Borderline Personality DIsorder
One trait of this mental illness is abrupt, intense mood shifts — for instance, worried to angry, anxious to depressed — normally minus the severe highs present in bipolar disorder. These frequently come about through basically normal, every day interactions with other people. An individual who has borderline personality disorder isn’t able to cope very well when they feel stressed. In fact, the problem can be so severe that they decide they want to harm themselves when they are feeling very disturbed or upset. This can manifest itself in self-cutting, or outright attempts at suicide.
4. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Traits of adults with this condition are a fierce temper, mood swings, rapidly becoming agitated. In addition, they are usually impulsive, irritable, and lack the ability to concentrate. Children with this disorder will find it impossible to sit still and focus while they are in school. Their teachers and most likely the other students will notice this behavior too. If it’s becoming a source of friction between the child and their teachers or other students as well, if they are causing a disruption, or are being made fun of for their behavior, then you need to get them to their doctor’s for a diagnosis as soon as possible.
When Is It Time to See a Doctor?
If an individual is having frequent changes in mood together with other specific signs and indications of what could be a mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety, etc.., and when these feelings start to interfere with your daily life, then it’s time to visit your doctor.
He will help you to understand what the root cause is.
He will help to find the most effective way to help you cope with mood swings.
Everyone who is undergoing the trauma and stress associated with unusual changes in mood and temperament should remember that the situation isn’t hopeless.
You can always find help, but the first and most important step you need to take is to trust your doctor enough to let him in on the situation. He can’t help you if he doesn’t know that something is wrong. The longer you hold such feelings inside, the worse the situation will get. Don’t prolong your suffering unnecessarily. Take action and start feeling like your old self once more.