Are these mood swings normal?!


Question: Are these mood swings normal?
I've never been diagnosed with any mental disorders, but I have ups and downs that vary wildly and are constantly fluctuating.

For example, all day today I was extremely depressed & feeling very hopeless. I found an inspiring speech by Alan Watts, and I immediately felt better.

A few hours later, I was depressed again... and for seemingly no reason. There is just no explanation for it. I just don't feel right and get gloomy. The next day I felt great again, and fluctuated between feeling excellent & feeling horribly depressed throughout the whole day.

I think it may be something to do with somewhat of an existential crisis, I'm not sure.

Do these just sound like ordinary, human ups and downs to you? Or something like bi-polar?

Answers:

Well, for a start, bi-polar isn't a situational mental illness so to speak. In other words, you wouldn't end up in a manic state because of an inspiring speech.

However, I think you might need to see someone. If you are feeling down, you should first look at what's going on around you, are you responding to your environment? Is that getting you down? In that case, there's some really good books out there to read, and I quite enjoy challenging myself to look at things differently.

Next, you might want to look at ruling out anything biological. Vitamin deficiencies, what you are eating through the day (make a food log), get blood tests for thyroid and deficiencies... Astraforte tablets, good quality fish oil capsules, zinc etc really help me keep on top of my demanding lifestyle. I also recommend Lithium Orotate to try. It doesn't require a prescription, but make sure you only take the recommended dose.

Next, perhaps looking at talking thing out with someone.

But I don't necessarily recommend seeking professional help like a psychiatrist until you've tried to rule the other things out, or if you are acting really uncontrollable, or you are suicidal.

The reason I say this, is that people are too quick to prescribe things that aren't necessarily going to help.

It's good not to think too much about being down, because it can exacerbate the problem. But it's kind of hard not to notice how you're feeling. I also recommend exercising. Everyone says it, if you're lazy like me you'll probably pretend you didn't hear it. But just a little bit, even a walk a day, taking care of yourself and treating yourself to something nice once in awhile, reading good books... See how that goes.

Oh, and excessive computer use can make you feel emo. Log what goes on in your day. The world is a demanding place these days, we are bombarded with a lot of useless, negative s*** that our ancestors never had to worry about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urQPraeeY…
http://www.assetbasedthinking.com/cramer…



May be depression. These symptoms can come an go even within the space of a day.
People with bi-polar seem to have manic moments where they obsessively seek or collect a certain item or get obsessive over a particular thought or idea.

What you are explaining seems to be more depression/anxiety. Check out www.beyondblue.org and read up on what it could be and then approach your doctor for help.



that happens me sometimes but it is perfectly fine.



Based on the information you provided, it sounds possibly like bipolar disorder (or manic depression, whatever you choose to call it). The same thing happens to me and I was diagnosed as a bipolar case. Most people would recommend going to a psychiatrist. It all depends on the general nature of the town you live in and whether businesses in general tend to treat their customers on whether they can properly diagnose and treat you and find out what triggers your depression. I would try to stay off of Paxil (highly addicting, extremely rough withdrawal symptoms, and it can ultimately make your depression worse) and Zoloft (apparently known to cause alot of problems in pregnant women (the born baby can develop many different health defects) if at all possible. Wellbutrin is a good drug (it's not addictive) and once you get past the initial phase of emotional zombie mode, you begin to feel a bit more alive and normal. But either way, find something that makes you happy even with the medication. Medication can't cure everything and just taking medication alone and unless you have a hobby to interest you and keep you busy it's pretty counterproductive. At least in my experience. Antidepressants are very risky drugs in the sense that alot of them can actually make your depression much worse then it was before. Like I said, visit a doctor and they can get you the right medication you need. In some cases, a doctor may not even be required to send you to a therapist/psychiatrist.




The consumer health information on answer-health.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007-2011 answer-health.com -   Terms of Use -   Contact us

Health Categories