The “mood swing” phenomenon is a common concept used to describe rapidly and intensely fluctuating emotions. People often describe mood swings as a “roller coaster” of feelings from happiness and contentment to anger, irritability, and even depression. A person may recognize something that has triggered a shift in their mood, such as a stressful event at work. But it’s also not uncommon for mood swings to occur without an obvious cause. People may even experience changes in mood if they have an underlying mental health issue.

CAUSE

Everyone experiences mood swings from time to time, but if you seem to get them frequently or they are so intense that they disrupt your daily life, including work and relationships, it may be a sign of an underlying condition that needs treatment. Internal changes that take place throughout our lives influence our mood, but it’s not just what’s happening inside that determines how we feel; we also respond to what’s happening around us. External changes to our lives and in our environments, such as increased stress at home, school, or work, also can influence our emotions.

ILLNESS AND INJURY

Even though the term “mood swings” implies an emotional root, the shifts also can be associated with chronic diseases or acute injuries that affect the brain, such as dementia, concussion, or a stroke.

• Diabetes
• Multiple sclerosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Sleep disorders
• Thyroid disorders

TREATMENT

It is possible to stabilize your mood and improve your health to avoid future changes in mood and emotions. The following treatments for mood changes focus on lifestyle or alternative treatments that you can try at home. Other treatments, including prescription drugs, are sometimes used. 1) Exercise regularly 2) Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and sugar 3) Try calcium supplements 4) Change your diet 5) Practice stress management 6) Sleep better

Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:

• Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
• Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
• Loss of energy or increased fatigue
• Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., inability to sit still, pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech (these actions must be severe enough to be observable by others)
• Feeling worthless or guilty
• Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
• Thoughts of death or suicide

Symptoms must last at least two weeks and must represent a change in your previous level of functioning for a diagnosis of depression.

Also, medical conditions (e.g., thyroid problems, a brain tumor or vitamin deficiency) can mimic symptoms of depression so it is important to rule out general medical causes.

Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can occur at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. There is a high degree of heritability (approximately 40%) when first-degree relatives (parents/children/siblings) have depression.

Depression is among the most treatable of mental disorders. Between 80% and 90% percent of people with depression eventually respond well to treatment. Almost all patients gain some relief from their symptoms.

Before a diagnosis or treatment, a health professional should conduct a thorough diagnostic evaluation, including an interview and a physical examination. In some cases, a blood test might be done to make sure the depression is not due to a medical condition like a thyroid problem or a vitamin deficiency (reversing the medical cause would alleviate the depression-like symptoms). The evaluation will identify specific symptoms and explore medical and family histories as well as cultural and environmental factors with the goal of arriving at a diagnosis and planning a course of action.