How to stop mood swings

Once you’re in the throes of a mood swing, it can be difficult to take a step back from the situation. Many menopausal women go through these episodes, whether they be manic highs or depressive lows. How can you stop mood swings before they wreck everything in your path? Read on to find out.

Walk away

Sometimes mood swings can be triggered by environmental stimuli. Whether it is a difficult task that you just can’t seem to complete or a conversation that’s making you angry or sad, once you start to feel yourself slip, it will do you a lot of good to step back from the situation. Give yourself time to think about your underlying feelings toward the stimulus and try to figure out a way to move past it without exploding.

Engage yourself in something else

Once you walk away from the situation, keep busy. Keep your body busy with an enjoyable exercise like walking or biking to get your blood flowing and to produce endorphins, which make you feel better. In the future, you can even use exercise as a way to prevent extreme changes in mood and to fight fatigue and anxiety, two things that are prone to cause mood swings.

Improve your diet

Even if you’re already a healthy eater, everyone has room for improvement. You can’t sufficiently take the steps you need to take to avoid a mood swing if you’re running on no energy. As a rule of thumb, always eat breakfast, and take time out for healthy snacks during the day. If you’re craving comfort food, like carbohydrates, go for the complex carbs that take longer to break down, thus releasing energy all day instead of putting you on a sugar high.

Reduce alcohol and caffeine intake

Just like it’s important to avoid simple sugars that can send you on a “sugar high” and subsequent crash, you’ll want to stay away from too much alcohol and caffeine.These stimulants, along with nicotine (if you smoke), can make you jittery and increase your likelihood of having a mood swing.

Hit the sack

One of the most important things you can do to stop a mood swing in time is to be well-rested. Fatigue, in addition to making you more irritated in general, can cause you to react negatively to stimuli in your environment. If you have the mental energy to spot potential triggers from far away, however, you can gain control of your mood again.

More information about mood swings:

If you’re suffering from this symptom, you’re in good company. More than half of all women experience mood swings during menopause.