This has happened to each of us at least once: it would seem that everything is fine, life is going according to plan, but then the mood suddenly deteriorates. And it is completely unclear why this happens.
Several factors are responsible for a good mood: our thoughts, psychological state, life situation, environment and people nearby. A change in one or more of these components can lead to emotional swings.
Psychologists have analyzed seven common scenarios of bad mood and told how to deal with it.
A friend complains about life and you start to feel sad too
This is where emotional contagion comes into play C. Herrando, E. Constantinides. Emotional Contagion: A Brief Overview and Future Directions / Frontiers in Psychology is a simple, even primitive psychological phenomenon. University of Hawaii psychology professor Elaine Hatfield explains that during a conversation, people naturally repeat the facial expressions, posture, and rate of speech of the interlocutor.
The movements of the muscles involved in this process (for example, when you frown) activate neural connections, and they give rise to the same feelings in you that the interlocutor is talking about. This feature of the brain is designed to help us empathize with others, thereby strengthening social connections.
How to cheer yourself up
Take a break from the conversation, say go to the restroom. Remind yourself that the bad mood you are experiencing at this moment does not belong to you, but to your friend. And the best thing you can do is listen to your loved one, and not solve his problems.
What is a sudden change in mood called: what kind of diseases, diagnoses?
A sharp change in mood
A sharp change in mood, not caused by external factors, suggests changes in the hormonal status and psyche of a person. Such mood swings do not last long and go away either on their own or after medication adjustment and are observed more often in women with the following conditions:
- Premenstrual syndrome
- Menopause period
- Thyroid diseases
More serious mental disorders in women and men with sudden changes in mood are a disease and have a long course. Here are some diagnoses with these symptoms:
- Cyclotomy is characterized by changes in often pronounced excitement and mild depression. It develops at a young age and has a chronic course, and its occurrence is associated with genetic factors.
- Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by sudden mood swings from confidence, increased self-esteem and excitement, to sadness and vice versa. The highs are periods of mania and the lows are periods of depression. Sometimes there can be joy, but in very exceptional cases. A person commits illogical actions, behaves too uninhibitedly and incorrectly builds logical chains when thinking. The phase of excitement passes and is replaced by apathy and depression. A person constantly experiences extreme fatigue.
- Mood swings can even become mixed, with a person feeling elated and depressed at the same time. This disease is appropriately called manic-depressive psychosis .
- Alzheimer's disease is a slowly progressive disease of the brain and is characterized by memory loss, disturbances in thinking, behavior and speech. Symptoms may vary in severity. The development of the disease is influenced by increasing age and genetics.
- tumors can provoke sudden changes in mood and other mental abnormalities. Diagnosis and treatment of such conditions must be carried out when the first symptoms appear, which will significantly increase the chances of a favorable outcome.
Remember: At the first manifestations of sudden conditions associated with psychosis and other nervous symptoms, you should consult a doctor. Many diseases associated with nerves can be easily treated at the initial stage of pathology development.
You think about a difficult situation for a long time, but still cannot find a solution.
Thinking carefully about life's big questions seems, on the surface, to be a very sensible approach. But sometimes, from searching for a solution to a problem, this process turns into marking time.
Sonya Lyubomirsky
Candidate of Psychological Sciences, author of the book “Psychology of Happiness. New approach."
It's hard to stop yourself from endlessly repeating thoughts about life because you feel like you're learning deeply about yourself in the process. In fact, this is not true. You are just spinning the wheels on a kind of psychological bicycle, but you just can’t get anywhere. This worsens your already bad condition and reduces your motivation.
Two signs indicate that you are marking time and not looking for a way to solve the problem. These are unpleasant emotions, such as anxiety or anger, and the inability to switch to other ideas due to constantly returning to the same thought.
How to cheer yourself up
Take a break. Read a book, watch a movie with an exciting plot, listen to music, take a walk in the fresh air.
Take 15-20 minutes and write down your thoughts on paper or talk about the problem with a friend, and then come up with a solution plan. This will move you from thinking to action. “You may realize that your life situation is not nearly as hopeless as you thought,” emphasizes Sonja Lyubomirsky.
The difference between a bad mood and depression
Sometimes people whose mood has deteriorated mistakenly interpret their condition as depression. Sadness, autumn blues or short-term depression - all this is a completely natural human state. A mentally normal individual cannot always have only a good mood (this is already a sign of some inadequacy). Negative events cause a decrease in emotional state, but it should not last more than 2 weeks. Experts recommend distinguishing sadness from depression, because a long period of life in a constantly bad mood indicates serious problems and requires immediate attention to a psychotherapist. In addition to constant bad mood, symptoms of depression may include:
- autonomic disorder and loss of strength;
- anxiety, nervousness, irritability, attacks of fear;
- constant or periodic feelings of guilt, loss of self-esteem, lack of self-confidence;
- loss of emotional sensitivity, indifference to the outside world, sloppiness;
- panic states;
- loss of interest in life, existentialism;
- suicidal thoughts;
- difficulty concentrating.
If a person experiences at least half of the listed symptoms, consulting a doctor is necessary.
Depression
You are constantly stressed
Sometimes stress is a side emotion, a kind of reaction to other feelings. Imagine that the deadline for an important project at work was suddenly pushed back or that your loved one set you up. In both cases, you will experience stress, but it will only be a secondary emotion. In the first option, the main feeling will be irritation or despair, in the second - resentment.
Susan David
Doctor of Philosophy, author of the book “Emotional Flexibility. How to learn to enjoy change and enjoy work and life.”
Emotions are an important source of information about your life and what worries you. Correctly identifying emotions helps you understand what is really going on inside you and why you experience certain feelings.
How to cheer yourself up
Ask yourself what other emotion your psychological state is similar to. Identify the underlying feeling of stress and try to understand why you have that feeling.
People often experience strong emotions when someone insults their dignity. You may be stressed because you feel unappreciated at work or at home. When you find the root of the problem, you will also find the solution.
Susan David notes that even if nothing can be done about the situation, correctly identifying the primary feeling will help relieve stress.
Biology of emotions
I will explain why there is a bad mood,
The next fact is that a person’s own ego is depleted. What does this look like in practice? People constantly set some limits for themselves, for example, they go on a diet for a long time, and do not allow themselves to fully rest and relax. As a result, brain exhaustion occurs, aggression, irritability and discontent arise.
The more stringent the restrictions are set and the longer the period of their existence, the stronger the feeling of dissatisfaction. The phenomenon is accompanied by high blood pressure, which increases the secretion of the hormone cortisol. The latter is the provocateur of the deterioration of the general condition.
You feel guilty that you could be happier
Meta-emotions, that is, feelings that arise due to other emotions, are a fairly common psychological phenomenon. If you were sad because you felt anxious, or embarrassed because you wanted to cry, you were experiencing meta-emotions.
Kristin Neff
Professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas, author of the book “Self-Compassion. About the power of compassion and self-kindness.”
People perceive emotions as part of their personality. The brain works this way for a number of reasons. As children, boys and girls are often taught that completely normal human emotions, such as anger, are bad. Because of this, the child begins to believe that when he is angry, he himself becomes “bad.” In fact, emotions come and go. And they have nothing to do with your personality and character.
How to cheer yourself up
In order to learn to understand your feelings, and not judge yourself for them, you need to seriously work on yourself.
Kristin Neff
Get rid of the illusion that you always have to control your feelings. Think about what you would say to your friend if he came to you with the same primary emotion. Most likely, you would respect his feelings, show that you care about his suffering, and reassure and support him.
Reminding yourself that it is completely natural to feel what you feel will help you stop worrying about feeling bad.
General information
Most often, negative emotions have a clear explanation that is fairly easy to identify. The methods of fighting are also simple - you need to do something that brings moral satisfaction - get a good night's sleep, turn on your favorite song, chat with loved ones, eat a delicious dinner or cry a lot. However, the more serious the reason for the loss of emotional balance, the longer the period of time required for recovery. Severe shocks often provoke the development of many mental disorders - depression, neuroses.
Constant bad mood is a type of mental illness. It is divided into the following groups:
- Suppression is the most common type of illness, with which almost everyone is familiar. The patient feels melancholy, sadness and sadness. Tearfulness may occur, and hatred of oneself and others may appear.
- Pessimistic – manifested by total self-flagellation and lack of faith in one’s own strength. Thoughts often enter my head: “How bad everything is, but it will get even worse,” “I won’t succeed,” “The weather is disgusting, and tomorrow it will get even worse.” A pessimist sees negativity everywhere and is dissatisfied with everything.
- Apathetic - complete ignorance of what is happening around. A person is passive, he no longer has the desire to do anything. The disorder can be combined with a depressed and pessimistic mood.
Understanding where normality ends and pathology begins is quite difficult. It is believed that one can speak of an illness if bad emotions persist for 2 weeks or more. And if the appearance of such a condition was preceded by deep emotional upheavals - separation from a significant other, death of a loved one, dismissal from work - the person will need the help of a highly qualified psychiatrist.
You constantly replay the worst possible scenarios in your head.
When your brain imagines the worst thing that could happen, it tries to prepare you for it. However, this approach only increases anxiety, so changing your thinking is important and necessary.
Of course, you shouldn’t look at the world through rose-colored glasses and ignore problems. It is enough to objectively perceive what is happening and see the immediate future.
How to cheer yourself up
When bad thoughts take over, ask yourself two simple questions:
- Is there evidence that this can actually happen?
- How to look at the situation in a neutral or even advantageous light?
This approach is called cognitive restructuring Understanding Cognitive Restructuring / Verywell Mind, and it can have a positive effect on mood.
Then try to look for a solution to the problem and look at it more broadly - this will help you return to an active position again.
Adding activities
What to do when you're in a terrible mood? Many simply wrap themselves in a blanket, lie down on the sofa and begin to cry, feeling sorry for themselves. Forget about this “destructive” rule! Force yourself to move, charge your body with vigor. Jogging, dancing, fitness training, swimming - all active sports will help you forget about apathy forever.
Don't be afraid of getting tired. Of course, you will feel the consequences of physical activity, but you will immediately feel psychologically free and cheerful.
If you are not ready to be physically active, then walking is an alternative. However, you need to go quickly. Walking speed is directly proportional to the speed at which your mood improves. The faster you walk, the better oxygen saturates your blood. Consequently, dull, pessimistic thoughts go away from your life.
Do not think about bad things under any circumstances. Yes. This is hard. But you need to overcome yourself. To help you - positive dance music in headphones. Take advantage, you won’t regret it!
You feel sad from time to time
Changes in air temperature outside the window and early sunset in autumn and winter can negatively affect the psychological state and even change sleep patterns and eating habits. This happens because the body does not have time to adapt to new conditions. Scientists have found that sunlight also affects DC Fernandez, PM Fogerson, LL Ospri et al. Light Affects Mood and Learning through Distinct Retina‑Brain Pathways/Cell to areas of the human brain responsible for mood.
How to cheer yourself up
Try to walk outdoors more often on clear days. In winter, you can try using a special “joy lamp”, which replenishes the lack of sunlight for the body and helps Will a SAD Sun Lamp Actually Make You Happy? / Cleveland Clinic Coping with Seasonal Depression. The brightness of such lamps ranges from 2,500 to 10,000 lux, while a regular light bulb is up to 500 lux.
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You get angry and irritated for no apparent reason
You are probably familiar with this situation: the day is going great, but suddenly some little thing turns your mood upside down. If this happens often in your life, you need to understand what is the real trigger for these changes.
Perhaps it is a matter of physical health. American scientists identified S. Penckofer, L. Quinn, M. Byrn et al. Does Glycemic Variability Impact Mood and Quality of Life? / Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics the connection between the amount of sugar in the blood and the emotional state. The researchers noted that sharp fluctuations in glucose levels are often accompanied by low quality of life and poor mood.
Don't forget about your personal triggers: people, places or other factors.
History of the holiday Day of wishes for a bad day
You won’t be able to find anything about the history of the American holiday Day of Wishes for a Bad Day in publications, at least in domestic ones. Most likely, the celebration was invented as a counterbalance to the tradition of wishing everyone a good and successful day. True, this is not certain.
Today, November 19, is also celebrated in the United States as Rocky and Bullwinkle Day, Great American Smokey Camp Day, Equal Opportunity Day, and Caffeinated Soda Day.
Deep breathing
Thanks to this method, you can immerse yourself in yourself, clearing your mind of problems. Breathing should be adjusted according to the following instructions:
- We fill the diaphragm and stomach by inhaling slowly air through the nose.
- We hold our breath for 4-7 seconds.
- Finally, we exhale for a long time through the mouth.
During the exhalation process, we imagine how, together with the air, we are expelling a bad mood, bad thoughts and foggy consciousness from ourselves. While filling your body with air, think about the surge of vital energy, freshness and positivity. Or you can think about nothing at all, completely clearing your consciousness of worldly life.
Use meditation, it helps to cope with a bad mood and will return harmony to your life.
Getting enough sleep
Another lousy day? Go to bed - this is one of the best methods to quickly get rid of the blues. Much better than endlessly thinking about all sorts of troubles.
Adequate sleep has an effective and healing effect on the entire human body. When you wake up, you will be filled with vital energy, strength and optimism.
The main thing is to try to refrain from caffeine and watching television before going to bed, ventilate the apartment and change the bed linen to freshly laundered ones.
Creation
Any creativity, especially among friends, gives you a good mood. Try new hobbies:
- Writing poetry.
- Dancing to fiery music.
- Drawing.
- Cooking.
- Embroidery.
- Singing and so on...
Any new activity will brighten up your dull everyday life and lift your spirits, adding fun to your life.
