Mood Swing Era
Welcome to the Mood Swing Era.
More people today are depressed than ever before. More people seem frustrated, irritable and moody than ever before.
More people are on anti-depressants than ever before. This may or may not be a good thing.
If you really think about it, more things are out of your control that can affect your mood and ability to cope than ever before.
Consider our world with ongoing cultural, religious, and military wars, climate change, poverty, continuous prejudices, discrimination, injustices, violence and mass killings, countries globally in recession, political gridlock, accelerating information and technology, continuous innovation and change, and questionable ethics and practices of individuals, groups, governments and corporations.
We haven’t even gotten to your personal world with potential issues and concerns involving: relationship, marital, separation, divorce, abuse, domestic violence, family, children, parents, extended family, friends, social, sex, losses, legal, health, medical, educational, work, job, career, financial, and a host of other problems you may face on a day to day basis.
Are you depressed yet? The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that lead to feeling overwhelmed and depressed are often understandable. It is difficult to deal with the above stressors and problems that can lead to your own personal Mood Swing Era.
You can’t deal with everything at once and need to begin to break things down so they are more manageable. You also need to downsize the worry. Measured analysis and problem solving are useful.
Over analyzing and worrying are not productive and, in fact will make things worse. The “what if” becomes the “as if” and you will be creating a false narrative that begins to call the shots and take you further down. Problematic thoughts and moods in reaction to life’s stressors can feed on each other creating a spiral downward.
The first step is to look at the current reality of what you are facing in your life at this time that is so problematic.
- Is it something you have some influence or control over?
- Is it something you need help with to be able to resolve?
- Is it something requiring you to improve coping or self-regulating skills?
- Are your thoughts or beliefs about your situation making things better or worse?
- Is it something you need to gradually accept or let go of?
- Is a crisis or traumatic event or something else significant occurring?
- Are you feeling so overwhelmed or hopeless; that it is difficult to function on a day-to-day?
- Are you feeling as if you are running out of options for your life?
The next step might be to consider talking to a friend, family member or therapist to get some meaningful input and support to help improve your situation and mood.
Don’t make excuses or put this off, thinking you need to handle it by yourself.
Avoidance will only make things worse for you and those who care about you.
You need a game plan to help pull yourself up from your emotional rip tide.
It is your responsibility to get help and do everything you can to start to feel better so you can focus more on enjoying the meaningful aspects of your life.
(1)Mood Swing Era is a song by Stephen Yerkey.
M. Douglas Evans 2013
Copyright 2013, Mood Swing Era by M. Douglas Evans, All Rights Reserved.
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