Anxiety Mood Swings

Causes: Why Anxiety Causes Mood Swings

1. Anxiety-Activated Stress Response

Anxious behavior, such as worry, activates the stress response, which secretes powerful stress hormones into the bloodstream, where they travel to targeted locations to bring about specific physiological, psychological, and emotional changes that enhance the body’s ability to deal with a threat—to fight or flee. This survival reaction is often referred to as the fight or flight response.[1][2]

Visit “The Stress Response” article for more information about the many stress response changes.

Some of these changes include:

• Quickly converts the body’s energy reserves into “fuel” (blood sugar) so that we have an instant energy boost.
• Increases heart rate, respiration, and metabolism due to the boost in energy.
• Stimulates the body into action.
• Stimulates the nervous system, increasing nervous system activity.
• Increases activity in the fear center of the brain (amygdala and others) and decreases activity in the rationalization areas of the brain (cortex and others).
• Heightens most of the body’s senses.

To name a few.

Many of these changes can contribute to unstable emotions. For instance:

• Hormone levels affect mood, and stress hormones affect other hormones, which can cause emotional regulation volatility.
• Emotional regulation is linked to nervous system activity. A stress hormone-stimulated nervous system can affect emotional regulation.
• Increased amygdala activity can affect mood since it also plays an important role in emotional regulation.
• Stress hormone stimulation can tax the body’s energy resources harder than normal, which can lead to fatigue and exhaustion. Fatigue, especially mental fatigue, is a common cause of emotional instability.

The higher the degree of the stress response, the more dramatic the changes, which can have a greater impact on emotional regulation.

Our emotions can be affected as long as the stress response is active.

Many anxious people experience unstable emotions, such as mood swings, due to an active stress response, especially stress responses in the moderate and above degree ranges.

2. Hyperstimulation

Frequent activation of the stress response can leave the body in a state of semi-stress response readiness, which we call “stress-response hyperstimulation” since stress hormones are powerful stimulants.

Hyperstimulation is also often referred to as “hyperarousal,” “HPA axis dysfunction,” or “nervous system dysregulation.”[3][4][5]

Hyperstimulation can cause the changes of an active stress response even though a stress response hasn’t been activated.

Visit the “Hyperstimulation” article for more information about the many ways hyperstimulation can affect the body and how we feel.

While acute activation of the stress response can cause acute mood swings, hyperstimulation can cause chronic emotional instability.

Furthermore, research has shown a tight mind/body connection. Since our emotions are primarily caused by how we think, and the body’s physical health can influence how we think, our emotions are caused by a complex combination of biological and psychological factors.

For example, some biological factors that influence our emotions include hormone fluctuations, neurotransmitter levels, energy levels, blood sugar levels, stress levels, and the state of our physical health, to name a few.

Some psychological factors that influence our emotions include our beliefs, preferences, attitudes, how to behave (think and act), habituated patterns of behavior, and spiritual influences.

Because the states of our physical and psychological health influence each other — our psychological well-being can influence our physiological well-being, and vice versa — many variables influence our emotions.

When the body and mind are healthy, we typically experience emotions that fall within the “normal” range of stability and predictability. However, if the body, mind, or both become unhealthy, such as from hyperstimulation, our emotions can be dramatically affected.

For example, hyperstimulation can negatively affect our physiological and psychological well-being. As such, the stability and predictability of our emotions can be strongly affected.

Moreover, hyperstimulation is especially hard on the nervous system, which is primarily comprised of specialized cells called “neurons.”

Neurons have an electrochemical property – the combination of chemistry and electricity – which allows them to communicate via nerve impulses (electrical signals).[6]

When the nervous system is healthy, it performs normally. However, when the nervous system becomes hyperstimulated, it can cause all sorts of abnormal, erratic behavior,[7] affecting our emotions.

Furthermore, an erratic behaving nervous system can also affect hormone levels. Fluctuating hormone levels are another common cause of unstable emotions.

The combination of abnormal and erratic nervous system behavior and random hormone fluctuations can wreak havoc on our emotions.

Consequently, hyperstimulation is a common cause of emotional instability.

3. Behavior

Anxious behavior can also cause unstable emotions. For instance, the following behaviors can negatively affect emotional regulation:

• All or nothing thinking
• Catastrophizing
• Overreacting
• Fear of having a serious mental health problem
• Fear of having a serious medical health problem
• Overwhelmed attitude
• Fear of the strong feelings of anxiety
• Crisis living
• Negative role play
• Over responsibility
• People-pleasing

To name a few.

Unhealthy anxious behavior is a common cause of feeling emotionally unstable.

4. Diet

Consuming stimulants, alcohol, high sugar, high fat, highly processed, and fast foods can affect emotional regulation. Food coloring (for some people), MSG (for some people), and other artificial additives can also play a role in regulating emotions.

5. Medication

Some anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications can cause mood swings as a side effect. If you suspect your medication is contributing to your emotional instability, talk with your doctor or pharmacist.

6. Other Factors

Other factors can create stress and cause anxiety-like symptoms, as well as aggravate existing anxiety symptoms, including:

• Recreational drugs
• Stimulants
• Sleep deprivation
• Fatigue
• Hyper and hypoventilation
• Low blood sugar
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Dehydration
• Hormone changes
• Pain

Select the relevant link for more information.

Feeling emotionally unstable scared me (Jim Folk) when it first occurred. My emotional changes were so dramatic and seemingly out of control that I feared I was on the verge of a mental and emotional breakdown. As you know, fearing your symptoms and what you think they might do only makes things worse.

This is a common scenario for many anxious people, with many placing a high value on how they feel.

When you combine unusual and unstable emotions with worry, it doesn’t take long for an anxious person to become even more symptomatic and concerned, exacerbating the problem.

While emotional instability can be unsettling, thankfully, it isn’t harmful and isn’t an indication of something more serious.

Feeling emotionally unstable is another example of how anxiety and hyperstimulation can affect our physical, psychological, and emotional health.