What Causes Mood Swings?
There are plenty of common causes for a bad mood, but when do your mood swings have a more serious underlying cause? Learn when to seek help.
Why so moody?
Do you ever ask yourself, “Why am I in such a bad mood all the time?”
While it’s normal for the challenges of daily life to cause occasional changes in your mood, sometimes there may be a more serious underlying cause.
“It can be hard to tell what normal fluctuations in mood are versus changes due to something more serious,” says Dr. Douglas A. Misquitta, a psychiatrist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. “If changes are subtle or gradual over time, it could be easy to miss an underlying contributor.”
A bad mood can also be perceived a little differently by each individual.
“Some may define sadness as being in a bad mood, while for others it may be more irritation or feeling tired,” says Dr. LaTasha Seliby Perkins, assistant professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Jennifer Caudle, an osteopathic family physician near Philadelphia and an associate professor at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, will often hear patients say things such as, “I’m just not feeling myself,” “I’m irritable” or “I’m annoyed.”
That’s when Caudle does some detective work. If she can rule out serious mental health conditions, like clinical depression, and verify the patient is not at risk of hurting themselves or others, she then begins to look elsewhere for causes.
There are a host of medical conditions that could cause or contribute to mood swings.
Here are some examples:
- A thyroid disorder
- Sleep
- Bipolar disorder
- Stroke
- Parkinson’s disease
- Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
- Allergies
- Vitamin deficiencies
- When to see a health care provider about your bad mood
- Tests to help identify bad mood causes
- Ways to prevent a bad mood
Some final words on identifying and improving mood swings
Some common contributors or causes to bad moods or mood swings include:
- Thyroid disorders.
- Sleep.
- Bipolar disorder.
- Stroke.
- Parkinson’s disease.
- Premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
- Allergies.
- Vitamin deficiencies.
You don’t have to live with chronic mood swings or a persistent bad mood. Seek help from a health care provider to find out if there’s an underlying health issue that requires treatment.