Mood Swings: What You Know That Just Ain't So

Mark Twain once quipped, “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” I suggest in today's complicated health arena, much of what we think we know for sure actually is quite different when we look at the underlying facts.

Perhaps you've experienced mood swings in small ways yourself or in others, and as a result, you assumed those bits of first-hand data fully defined what actually happened. In most cases, such belief can be far from the truth and more than a little confusing.

Before researching this topic, I thought mood swings just simply arose out of what happened around me. If something uncomfortable happened to my friend Jason, and he reacted in a strange way, then that event must have been the underlying cause for how he reacted. It made good sense for me back then to attribute such a cause and effect relationship to Jason when in fact one most likely did not exist.

So what was actually happening with Jason? That's what I wanted to find out.

You don't have to read far in any medical book to discover our body is basically a giant chemical engine. Those details easily numb your mind, so I'll keep it simple. When it's in its ideal state, your body conducts its usual business of cell renewal, metabolizing your food, and hundreds of other body tasks you never want to think about, and everything runs exactly like it should.

Sadly, that ideal body state is rarely what you have on a daily basis.

When you add your emotions and feelings into that picture, it gets pretty complicated in a hurry. And, if you're a woman or a teenager, no one needs to tell you how your hormones can send everything around you spiraling “out of control” just as quick.

It seems that Jason's new job was harder to adjust to than he'd imagined. His emotions and feelings were pushed to their limits each day. He had no idea how quickly the stress was building up inside of him. The signs were there. He just didn't know what to look for.

As his stress level increased, his brain surged new chemicals throughout his body. Each brought their own clues for how he was being affected. Still, he wasn't savvy enough to pick up on their intertwined messages.

At that point, Jason's new body chemistry would take him in one of two directions, either into a mania or a depression.

In a mania, he'd face heightened emotions, display anger more easily, feel his thoughts racing a mile a minute, be less able to relax, sleep far less at night, and some suggest he'd feel as “tight as a drum.”

In a depression, he would feel and act very different. His emotions would be subdued, he'd feel sad and dejected, he'd find major doubts around himself and in himself, and his confidence would sink toward zero.

Neither of these states is a personality disorder nor character flaw.

They are simply a person's individual body response to the current state of their inner body chemistry.

Many people feel these swings on a day to day basis, and their body easily adjusts and returns itself to normal. Jason was one of those people who couldn't do that. Instead, he suffered in silence.

So it goes without saying that mood swings often occur rapidly, and they are seldom in response to anything happening around the person feeling them. They are characterized by extreme emotional distress which can take many forms.

Feeling angry, frustrated, and powerless might also describe how the sufferer feels it. Over time, the sufferer feels alienated, lost, and very lonely, as if they are the only person going through such deeply painful things.

Statistics tell us that a very large percentage of the population on a worldwide basis are affected exactly this way. Mostly, it involves suffering in silence, and of those who suffer only about one-third ever build up the courage, or sink low enough into despair, to finally seek help for their symptoms.

For those who do seek help, the success rate is high, often 80-90%.

If you've suffered mood swings for a while now and have not sought help, you might be a chronic sufferer.

If that sounds at all like you, then ask yourself, “Do I have strong, persistent headaches, pains that won't go away, and digestion ailments?” If you're feeling any of those symptoms, then consider discussing them with your family and talking whatever action works for you.

Simply put, mood swings rise up from your body because your chemical engine isn't working exactly right, and with proper intervention, you don't have to feel that way any longer.

David O'Neal runs the website FindTheBetterYou. As an entrepreneur and ebook author, he now focuses on issues affecting us all in very private ways. Mood swings bring pain to so many lives. It doesn't have to be that way. His latest work on overcoming mood swings offers a first step in freeing you from depression and anxiety. If you suffer mood swings, you must visit his site and check things out.

http://www.findthebetteryou.com/