A mood swing is an extreme or sudden change of mood. Such changes can play a positive or a disruptive part in promoting problem solving and in producing flexible forward planning.Peter Salovey et al, Emotional Intelligence (2004) p. 1974 When mood swings are severe, they may be categorized as part of a mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, where erratic and disruptive mood swings are a defining feature.
To determine mental health problems, people usually use charting with papers, interviews, or smartphone to track their mood/affect/emotion. Furthermore, mood swings do not just fluctuate between mania and depression, but in some conditions, involve anxiety.
Terminology Definitions of the terms mood swings, mood instability, affective lability, or emotional lability are commonly similar, which describe fluctuating or oscillating of mood and emotions. But each has unique characteristics that are used to describe specific phenomena or patterns of oscillation. Different from emotions or affect, mood is associated with emotional responses without knowing the reason (being unaware).." Previous literature suggests that mood often has a greater duration and is associated with an internal state value, whereas emotions are sudden and intense and are associated with greater environmental information value (Larsen et al. 2000).
The dynamics of mood, mood patterns for long times are commonly erratic,Kahmann, Daan (2022) Emotion dynamics in Tibetan monks and healthy Westerners. Bachelor's Thesis, Artificial Intelligence.university of groningen."Emotions can be very turbulent and are constantly changing." labile or instable, also known as euthymic. Although the term of mood swing is unspecific, it may be used to describe a pattern where mood goes down from positive to negative valency immediately (without delay in baseline) at specific periods. And also generally have aperiodic patterns. This is because mood dynamics are influenced by various factors which can magnify or lessen fluctuations, such as when expectations become reality or not. Other terms for describing patterns are episodic, periodic, cyclothymia, rapid cycling, mixed states, short episodes, soft spectrum, diurnal variation, etc., although the definition of each term may be unclear.
Overview
Speed and extent Mood swings can happen any time at any place, varying from the microscopic to the wild oscillations of bipolar disorder,Sigmund Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (PFL 12) p. 164 so that a continuum can be traced from normal struggles around self-esteem, through cyclothymia, up to a depressive disease.Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 406 However, most people's mood swings remain in the mild to moderate range of emotional ups and downs. The duration of bipolar mood swings also varies. They may last a few hours – ultrarapid – or extend over days – ultradian: clinicians maintain that only when four continuous days of hypomania, or seven days of mania, occur, is a diagnosis of bipolar disorder justified.S, Nassir Ghaemi, Mood Disorder (2007) p. 243-4 In such cases, mood swings can extend over several days, even weeks; these episodes may consist of rapid alternation between feelings of depression and euphoria.
Characteristics
Changing mood up and down without knowing the reason or external stimuli,."Moods are affective states that are diffuse and unfocused, that is, not directed toward a specific object. They are continually present (tonic) and shape the background of our moment-moment experience, but fluctuate over time." in various degrees, duration and frequent, from high mood (happy, elevated, irritated) to low mood (sad, depressed).CAMH Bipolar Clinic Staff(2013)."Bipolar disorder: an information guide" Centre for Addiction and Mental Health www.camh.ca. "Everyone has ups and downs in mood. Feeling happy, sad and angry is normal...Their moods may have nothing to do with things going on in their lives." Sometimes it is mixed, a combination between manic and depression symptoms or similar with bittersweet experiences that last for a day. Mood swings in normal people appear like "climate changing" at mild to moderate degree. Thus, unless it happens at a moderate degree or more, some people need more high emotional intelligence to recognize their mood change.Wilhelm, Peter & Schoebi, Dominik. (2007). Assessing Mood in Daily Life Structural Validity, Sensitivity to Change, and Reliability of a Short-Scale to Measure Three Basic Dimensions of Mood. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. 23. 258-. 10.1027/1015-5759.23.4.258."Moods can be consciously experienced as soon as they gain the focus of our attention, and are then characterized by the predominance of certain subjective feelings." Mood swings in mental illness simply can be described by generalized complexity based on mood dynamics (patterns that characterize the oscillation) like intensity (mild, moderate, severe), duration (days, weeks, years), average mood and other features, such as:van Genugten, Claire. (2022). Measurement innovation: studies on smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment in depression. VU Research Portal.ISBN 978-94-93270-96-1."Mood dynamics are the patterns that characterize fluctuations in a person's mood . Mood dynamics are often operationalized by a combination of "mood variability" and "emotional inertia" [65,66].
Mood swings in cyclothymia: Mood swings occur episodically and aperiodic within 2 years or more at a moderate degree and frequently.Miklowitz, D. J., Gitlin, M. J. (2015). Clinician's Guide to Bipolar Disorder. Amerika Serikat: Guilford Publications."The mood swings of individuals with cyclothymia occur most of the time (in the DSM-5 definition, no more than 2 consecutive months have been symptom-free within a 2-year period) and never exhibit the number of symptoms or the length of ..." Characterized by coexisting with anxiety, persistence, rapid shift, intense, impulsive,Rhoads, J. (2021). Clinical Consult to Psychiatric Mental Health Management for Nurse Practitioners. Amerika Serikat: Springer Publishing Company."Mood changes in cyclothymic disorder can be abrupt and unpredictable, of short duration, and with infrequent euthymic episodes." heightened by sensitivity and reactivity to external stimuli. Mood swings in bipolar II: Episodic, hypomanic (severe degree) episodes occur continuously for 4 days, depression episodes for weeks, and sometimes erratic episodes at moderate degree in between episodes. Mood swings in bipolar I: Episodic, manic episodes (severe degree) occur continuously for 7 days, depressive episodes for weeks,Last, C. G. (2009). When Someone You Love Is Bipolar: Help and Support for You and Your Partner. Ukraina: Guilford Publications."Research indicates that bipolar II depressions persist for longer periods of time than bipolar I depressions, nearly twice as long (1 year versus 6 months)." and sometimes erratic episodes at moderate degree in between episodes. Alterations in bipolar I and II can be rapid cyclic, which means changes of mood happen 4 times or more within a year.Fink, C., Kraynak, J. (2011). Bipolar Disorder For Dummies. Amerika Serikat: Wiley."Rapid cycling isn't a separate type of bipolar disorder, but your doctor may use the label to describe a particular subtype of Bipolar I or II. To qualify as a rapid-cycling sufferer, you must experience the following: You must ..." Symptoms of manic and hypomanic episodes are similar between bipolar I and bipolar II, just different in degree of intensity.Clinical Handbook for the Management of Mood Disorders. (2013). Amerika Serikat: Cambridge University Press."While both mania and hypomania are phenomenologically similar in that they occur as discrete episodes ... " Mood swings in Premenstrual symptoms (PMS): Episodically at mild to severe degree in the menses period, occur gradually or rapidly, start 7 days before and decrease at the onset of menses. Characterized by angry outbursts, depression, anxiety, confusion, irritability or social withdrawal. Mood swings in borderline personality disorder (BPD): Mood changes erratically with episodic mood swings.Southward, Matt & Semcho, Stephen & Stumpp, Nicole & MacLean, Destiney & Sauer, Shannon. (2020). A Day in the Life of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Preliminary Analysis of Within-Day Emotion Generation and Regulation. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. 42. 702-713. 10.1007/s10862-020-09836-1."Graph" Mood swings fluctuate in rapid shifts for hours or days, not persistent, sensitive and heightened negative mood (e.g. irritability) by external stimuli. Mood appears in the form of high intensity of irritability,Reich Brad. (2012).Affective Instability in Borderline Personality Disorder.McLean Hospital."Graph" anxiety, and moderate degree depression (characterized by hostility, anger towards self, loneliness, isolation, related with relationships, emptiness or boredom). Mood swings in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) : Mood changes erratically and mood swings occur episodically, sometimes several times a day in rapid shifts.FW, Reimherr & Marchant, Barrie & Olsen, John & C, Halls & Kondo, Douglas & ED, Lyon & Robison, Reid. (2010). Emotional dysregulation as a core feature of adult ADHD: Its relationship with clinical variables and treatment response in two methylphenidate trials. Journal of ADHD and Related Disorders. 1. 53-64. "Graph" Characterized by a mild to moderate degree of irritability, related to the environment, impulsiveness (impatience to get rewards). In adult ADHD, high mood appears as excitement and low mood appears as boredom. Mood swings in schizophrenia: Although schizophrenia has flat emotions, a study in 2021 based on measures using the Affective Lability Scale, Margrethe Collier et al., found that the score pattern of schizophrenia is similar to bipolar I. The alteration being related to delusions or hallucinations, mood changes that occur internally may be difficult to express externally (blunt affect), and heightened by external stimuli. Mood swings in major depressive disorder (MDD): Various mood patterns, and mood changes erratically. Mood swings occur episodically and fluctuate in moderate high mood and severe low mood. Characterized by having high negative affect (bad mood) most of the time, particularly in melancholic subtype. And also positive diurnal variation mood (bad mood in the morning, good mood in the evening), sensitivity to negative stimulation and mixed symptoms in some people, etc. Mood swings in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Mood changes erratically with episodic mood swings rising in the period of recovery process. Characterized by temporary fluctuations in negative affect (anxiety, irritability, shame, guilt) and self-esteem, reactive to environmental reminders, difficulty to control emotions, hyperarousal symptoms, etc.
Causes There can be many different causes for mood swings. Some mood swings can be classified as normal/healthy reactions, such as grief processing, adverse effects of substances/drugs, or a result of sleep deprivation. Mood swings can also be a sign of psychiatric illnesses in the absence of external triggers or stressors.
Changes in a person's energy level, sleep patterns, self-esteem, sexual function, concentration, drug or alcohol use can be signs of an oncoming mood disorder."Bipolar Mood Swings, Stabilizers, Triggers, and Mania." WebMD. WebMD, 3 May 0000. Web. 29 February 2012.
Other major causes of mood swings (besides bipolar disorder and major depression) include diseases/disorders which interfere with nervous system function. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), epilepsy, and autism spectrum are three such examples.