Q. I recently have been completely out of character for myself. I’ve had alot of excess stress, but I still don’t think it indicitive of how I’ve been acting. I’m usaully a shy and quite person. Lately I’ve been bouncing off the walls. I’ll have these extreme moodswings and the periods in which they happen keep getting closer and closer. I’ll be superhappy one minute and the next I’ll be very sad or angry. For no particular reason my mood will change instantly and I can’t remember why I was so happy or sad. When I’m happy thoughts will race through my head and I’ll be on one thought and then go to complete other one for no reason. It happens at no particular time, and I can’t seem to find an offswitch. I lose focus oneverything except the thought I’m focusing on intensely at the moment.The thoughts I have are vivid, sometimes scary. I’ll have this intense urge to write, and I do. When I go back to read it, what I wrote is complete it makes no sense, its mindless jabber. I HAVE to do things 2 or 3 times.I also get really antsy, wring my hands, tap my fingers, pace, and sometimes even bang my head without knowing it. I talk really fast, studder, and repeat my words. I was talking to friend the other day when this was happening, and she asked me if I was okay because I was twitching alot. I’ll start fights with people for no reason and become so agressive they tell me to calm down. I’ll feel really bad about and I can’t remember why I even did it in the first place. Then I’ll get sad like I have no reason to do anything. I’ll lay in bed for hours doing nothing. I’ll get very depressed, and to make myself feel better I’ll buy myself something no matter how much money I have. It’s imperative at the time for me to give myself a break even if I havn’t done a thing all day. Sometimes I’ll burn myself or cut little spots just to feel something or to kind of bring me back to reality. The worse time is when I can’t decide what mood I’m in, I feel like I’m happy, angry, and sad all at once; which agitates me even more. I had these things happen before but never so close togather or so pronounced. Before it was like years between these, and I didn’t think nothing of it. But now its forced me to pay attention, and I don’t know why I feel this way. Should I consult a physician about this, or should I just wait to see if it tapers out?
A. You should consult a physician or a psychiatrist about your behavior and rapid mood swings. None of the behaviors or mood swings you wrote about are normal or healthy and burning yourself and cutting is dangerous. The doctor may put you on a medication to stabilize your mood and may ask you to participate in therapy to address the unhealthy behaviors. Don’t wait until this tapers out. I would recommend that you make an appointment for a psychiatric evaluation and get help before these problems become more frequent and more difficult to address. Good luck.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 7 Oct 2005
