How to Deal With Mood Swings

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If you want to know how to deal with mood swings, they likely impact you or someone around you. Mood swings happen suddenly and can feel exhausting to the person experiencing them and their family, friends, and co-workers.

Renewal Oasis understands how to diagnose a person to understand the root cause of their changing moods. We determine if they are a sign of a mental health disorder and then match the individual with different types of therapy that teach them how to control mood swings. The people we treat learn to develop the power they hold to have better control over their moods and feel less stressed. 

What Are Mood Swings?

To determine how to deal with mood swings, it helps to understand how they are defined. While people do feel moody now and again, that is not the same thing as experiencing frequent mood swings. Mood swings can come on suddenly and then leave just as quickly. Alternatively, a person may feel stuck in a particular mood cycle for an extended time. For example, a person may suddenly feel angry, sullen, depressed, joyful, or sad. 

Furthermore, the individual may be able to pinpoint a trigger for their mood swings, but this is not always the case. When mood swings occur, the person cannot regulate them. Consequently, the person may feel wary of even peaceful moments because they may quickly change moods.

What Causes Mood Swings?

Part of learning how to control mood swings is learning what causes them. Some mood swings come out of nowhere, and their origins feel like a mystery. Sudden or ongoing stressful life events can trigger them. For example, this can include losing a job or starting a new one, going through a tumultuous breakup or divorce, having a medical crisis, and more. 

Mood swings often arise as a symptom of a mental health disorder. Someone who has depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, or other mental illnesses may find that mood swings happen often. Therefore, seeking a diagnosis from a physician or mental health counselor can determine if the person is struggling with poor mental health.   

Mood swings can also result from transitioning through a challenging life stage, such as puberty, going to college, moving, or retiring. In addition, these transitions can add to the emotional turbulence and contribute to the intensity of mood swings.

How to Deal With Mood Swings

Professional treatment programs teach people how to deal with mood swings, but we also have some tips for them to use to work on regulating their emotions on their own. Using relaxation techniques, such as yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, helps people relax and stay in the moment. If a person’s mood swings are tied to specific seasons of the year, they can try buying a light box and engaging in light therapy.

Anyone with mood swings should make sure they engage in proper self-care. This includes taking regular showers, eating healthy meals, exercising, and getting a good night’s sleep. Each of these activities helps them control their moods. Finally, using a journal or mood workbook can help determine what triggers mood swings and how to fully explore those feelings. This helps the person learn healthy coping skills that cause a reduction in mood swings. 

Treatment Options

How to deal with mood swings that result from a mental health disorder begins with seeking treatment. Different types of therapy help people understand what triggers their mood swings, and how to resolve many of the issues that cause them. These types of therapy include:

  • Individual Therapy
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
  • Trauma Therapy
  • Holistic Therapy
  • Group Therapy
  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
  • Neurofeedback Therapy

When a person has severe mood swings, a residential program may be their best choice. The individual lives in a comfortable, homelike facility while receiving treatment for the mental illness that causes their mood swings. During this time, therapists use a variety of therapies to teach the person how to deal with their moods in a healthy way and learn to regulate their emotions.

Outpatient options allow the person to live at home and travel to a facility for their therapy sessions. Outpatient options include:

  • Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP): The highest level of outpatient treatment, PHP provides structured care several hours per day on weekdays.
  • Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP): A step down from PHP, IOP offers therapy sessions for a few hours per day throughout the week. IOP can take place during the daytime or the evening.  
  • Outpatient Program: One or more sessions per week help the individual cross the bridge between more intensive type treatment and learning to graduate from therapy. 

Contact Us to Treat Mood Swings Today

Have you been dealing with fluctuating from anger to joy to fearfulness and other rapidly changing emotions? If so, learning how to control mood swings changes a person’s life and puts them on a more even emotional keel. Renewal Oasis employs a skilled and licensed staff of therapists. Who understand how to end the constantly changing mood cycle that challenges people with mood swings.

Therefore, If you or someone you care about needs professional help learning how to deal with mood swings. We can help. Contact us today and we can discuss our residential and outpatient programs and determine which one is the right fit for you. 

Published: 1/22/2025