17 Sep Have You Ever Wondered About Mood Swings?

Emotion Dysregulation and Rapid Mood Swings: How Psychologists can Help

A mood swing is a sudden or intense change in an emotional state. During a mood swing, a person may quickly switch from feeling happy and upbeat to feeling sad, irritable, or angry. Such mood swings can play a positive part in promoting problem-solving and in producing flexible planning. However, when mood swings are rapid, intense, and frequent, they start to be disruptive, all-consuming and significantly interfere with your daily living.

Positive Wellbeing Psychology is here to support you and collaboratively work in consultation to identify potential triggers to the mood swings. You may benefit from identifying when disproportionate emotional responses are causing disruption and exploring evidence-based strategies to assist with emotional symptoms.

By going through this within a safe and supportive and non-judgemental setting you will feel more empowered and able to focus on the most important parts of your life. We understand it can be challenging and anxiety-provoking to reach out for support for the first time, but we do know that intense and frequent emotional problems can impact our self-perception, and interpersonal relationships and cause overall disruption to the most important parts of our life.

Our highly skilled psychologists at Positive Wellbeing Psychology are trained to assist clients with exploring triggers and implementing proven strategies to assist with emotion regulation.

• anger
• anxiety
• disgust
• excitement
• fear
• happiness
• joy
• sadness
• …to name a few.
  

How can disproportionate emotional responses impact my day-to-day life?

Emotional symptoms may be positive or not so positive. The symptoms may be triggered and come from within or be a reaction to your environment. Emotional changes can be very normal, temporary responses to a range of events or triggers. This is experienced by all individuals and therefore is a normal human response. We all need this function to protect ourselves from time to time. To shift our mood and therefore result in setting boundaries with certain people or provoke anxiety to consider making a change or getting things done.

How to identify when emotional symptoms are causing problems and disruptions in my life?

It usually raises concern when your emotional response is disproportionate, extreme, persistent or unstable. At these times, our emotional responses can cause problems in our life and interpersonal relationships. Emotional symptoms can cause legal or financial problems, relationship difficulties and problems at home, school or work. They can be associated with aggression, agitation, feelings of emptiness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness as well as loss of pleasure.

Not all emotional responses result in a negative nature. Individuals also experience feelings of enthusiasm, grandiosity and hopefulness. These disproportionate emotional symptoms may also be excessive and therefore lead to inappropriate behaviours, increased risk, impulsivity, accidents, poor judgment, self-harm, violence, and suicide.

Can emotional symptoms indicate a mental health difficulty?

Whilst emotions can serve as a normal and protective function, abnormal emotional symptoms can be associated with several psychiatric conditions including:

• anxiety disorders
• bipolar disorder
• dysthymic disorder
• major depression
• postpartum depression
• seasonal affective disorder
• substance abuse
• personality disorders
• attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
  

Why does it take so long to reach out for support?

It is normal to experience a little bit of reluctance to seek help for emotional difficulties. This is understandable as it can be difficult to discuss personal and disproportionate emotional responses and/or the impact of these on our personal life. Most individuals with emotional symptoms do not seek assistance from a psychologist but continue to visit their GP. This is a great starting point as your GP can assess your eligibility for a Mental Health Treatment Plan. Medicare can provide a rebate for up to 10 sessions per calendar year to start with exploring useful strategies.

How Can Positive Wellbeing Psychology Help?

At Positive Wellbeing Psychology, we are trained in a range of proven techniques to help improve, understand, and manage disproportionate emotional responses, thereby improving your confidence, interpersonal relationships, and overall life satisfaction. You may benefit from talking to a warm and caring psychologist at Positive Wellbeing Psychology to explore the predisposing factors and maintaining factors of emotional problems.

Our Melbourne-based psychologists in clinical practice are available online Australia-wide. By working through these challenges, you will feel empowered and in control as well as start to improve your interpersonal relationships and life satisfaction. To enquire about an appointment with Positive Wellbeing Psychology, please complete our Online Contact Form for new clients (click here). We’ll be in touch shortly to answer any of your questions.

Need more immediate help?

If you need immediate help, or your life is in danger, please call ‘triple zero’ (000). If you are thinking of harming yourself, it is important to reach out for immediate support. If someone you know is at immediate risk of harm, please also call ‘triple zero’ (000) as a matter of urgency.