Have you ever looked at your frequently used emojis list on your cell phone after you’ve let a young child text emojis to someone? After the grinning and proud child hands back your phone, the emojis in the frequently used list vary from pizza to unicorns to high-heeled shoes to dinosaurs to countless other images that seem to have zero connection to each other. This is a visualization for sudden mood swings, which PsychCentral defines as “a noticeable change in one’s mood or emotional state.”
Combating Mood Changes
Unlike the jump from pizza to unicorns to high-heeled shoes to dinosaurs in the above analogy that make the child giddy with happiness, mood swings do not typically make the producer of the change happy. In fact, for some, mood swings are embarrassing and something that leaves the producer of those changes feeling incapable of keeping the reigns of their emotions under control, which can lead to another mood change.
Although Healthline points out that “severe changes in mood happen from time to time” and if “your shifts in mood interfere with your day or you think they’re becoming more problematic, talk with your health care provider,” what do people do if they experience mood swings but not to the extent that they feel they need a health care provider? Or how about the individuals who want to rule out tackling the issue on their own before approaching their health care provider?
Healthline suggests the following for dealing with mood changes:
- Get regular exercise
- “When you exercise, your body produces feel-good hormones and endorphins that can help alleviate stress and boost mood. Aim for 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days per week.”
- Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and sugar
- “These stimulants and depressants can alter your natural state, making mood shifts worse or causing them in the first place.”
- “Caffeine can make you feel less fatigued, but it can also exacerbate anxiety and nervousness.”
- “Alcohol is a depressant that can worsen bad moods or make you behave irrationally.
- “Sugary foods… can cause swings in your blood sugar level.
- “These stimulants and depressants can alter your natural state, making mood shifts worse or causing them in the first place.”
- Try calcium supplements
- “… calcium supplements may help ease symptoms of depression, anxiety, and emotional fluctuation from PMS.”
- Healthline simply says ‘try calcium supplements,’ but it’s important to find supplements that pack the largest boost to your overall health and mood and to not just pull the first bottle from the shelf with the word calcium slapped across the front.
- The following are two supplements that go the extra mile when it comes to boosting overall health and mood:
- BMD Advanced combats deficiencies of Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Zinc, Copper, and Selenium. It also reduces the risk of developing osteoporosis and helps maintain healthy cartilage, teeth, and gums. BMD Advanced is a bone mineral developer that does much more than just boost one’s daily calcium intake.
- EMPowerplus Advanced is clinically proven to aid in the reduction of anxiety, depression, and mood swings. It is the most-studied micronutrient formula in the world.
- The following are two supplements that go the extra mile when it comes to boosting overall health and mood:
- Change your diet
- “Smaller meals, divided throughout the day, may help stabilize your blood sugar to keep these extreme shifts in mood at bay.”
- Practice stress management
- “Stress and anxiety can make symptoms of several conditions, including PMS, worse.”
- Consider meditation, deep breathing, yoga, massage therapy, or talk therapy.
- “Stress and anxiety can make symptoms of several conditions, including PMS, worse.”
- Get better sleep
- “Aim for 7 to 8 hours per night [for an adult].”
Mood Swings Aren’t Always Emotionally & Internally Rooted
Mood swings are not just emotionally rooted.
VeryWellMind points out that mood swings can occupy medical conditions such as dementia, concussion, stroke, diabetes, sleep disorders, multiple sclerosis, thyroid disorders, and Parkinson’s disease. VeryWellMind also points out that mood swings are a normal part of development for children and adolescents and that external factors like diet, allergies, sleep, and medications can lend themselves to mood swings. What this means is that every single person has at one time experienced a mood swing in their life.
Mood swings aren’t a foreign concept, and there are strategies you can adopt to try and lessen and possibly even alleviate them from your life. New strategies aren’t always easy to adopt but living and dealing with mood swings often prove to be even harder.
Author: Evelyn Lindell
Certified Health & Wellness Coach