If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
One thing that many of our mental health issues and addictions have in common is the very difficult symptom of intense mood swings. We can go from feeling like we’re on top of the world, invincible and flying high, to feeling like our life is over. We go from loving ourselves and loving life, to wanting to die. We experience manic episodes of recklessness, hyperactivity and over-excitement, that are followed by painful depressive episodes and crashes that can feel like nervous breakdowns. We can go from being able to sleep a full night to having relentless insomnia. We can go from having a healthy appetite to struggling with eating disorders. We might now know what each day will bring. We might not know what mood we’ll wake up with, or how we’ll get through the day. We might have uncontrollable crying fits followed by bouts of laughter. We might feel at ease and nonchalant to then feel overcome with worry and stress. The unpredictability of our mood swings, how destabilizing and unsettling they can be, can wreak havoc on our mental and emotional health. We often will turn to our addictions to escape the turmoil and uncertainty of our ever-changing mental and emotional states. Our dependence on our drugs of choice can deepen as our mood swings worsen. Similarly, our mood swings can be exacerbated by increased drug use.
Dealing with our mood swings might involve medication for some of us, particularly if we’ve been diagnosed with a mental illness. For others of us, we can learn to control them in other ways, with meditation, yoga, regular exercise, and transforming our diet. Certain foods, especially those with a lot of sugar, are known for increasing our anxiety, for pushing us into overdrive and giving us extra energy, only to leave us feeling depleted and causing us to crash.
We can also learn to navigate and manage our mood swings by investigating what our triggers and sensitivities are. We want to explore what it is that brings on such intense changes in our thoughts and emotions, what things are most troubling us and causing us so much instability and lack of groundedness and peace. We may also want to explore the possibility that we might have an underlying medical condition we’re not aware of, such as a hormonal imbalance that is throwing our system out of whack and causing us intense changes in our moods.
The Guest House Ocala provides unparalleled, premier-quality treatment to those who suffer from self-defeating behaviors brought on by trauma and its underlying issues. We are uniquely equipped to help our guests heal from trauma-induced substance abuse, process addiction, anxiety and depression in a safe, comfortable and confidential setting. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.