Mood Swings and Mental Health Substance Abuse

Those who abuse substances like alcohol already have to contend with a variety of side-effects that can include paranoia, anxiety and depression. Naturally, these side-effects can drastically affect a person’s mood – alienating the abuser from those who may work or live with them, when an addict could need them most. If a person also suffers from poor mental health, the mood swings that could occur could even be more violent, with the side-effects that appear as a concoction of a mental illness and alcoholism being disastrous in some instances.

When a person is drinking alcohol with their friends or with their family, they can find that they have a heightened sense of sociability which can make their drinking session more enjoyable. However, as someone begins to transition into the phases of addiction, they can find that they start to drink alone more, and that these drinking sessions are more damaging to their mood than anything else.

Some mental health substance abuse disorders can include alcohol-induced mood disorders, where a person’s mood can be very temperamental when they are consuming alcohol. Even though depressive moods are common during drunkenness and irritability can also be common when there is a lack of alcohol in the bloodstream, there are other moods which can be considered. These moods can include hyperactive moods in some cases, which can make a person exceptionally restless. 80% of those who enter rehabilitation to remove an alcohol addiction present with fluctuating moods as they begin to get treated. As you can see, this can be more common than most people think.

As the same suggests, these types of mood disorders are mainly alcohol induced, and this means that rehabilitation is the recommended route in order for the mood swings to begin to disappear from an addict. Negative moods can become frequent as an addict becomes more and more deprived from the alcohol which they have been dependent on, but the disorder can begin to fade away two to four weeks after the last period of alcohol consumption.

Naturally, a person who is in a bad mood frequently is going to be less socially engaging – which is one of the main warning signs that can suggest mental health substance abuse is prevalent. Those who have an addiction are less likely to hold an interest in the hobbies which they once held, and their personality can change. Those who are around an addict the most will naturally note these acute changes in demeanor when they arise.

A person’s mood always changes when they become addicted to alcohol, irrespective of how much they drink and how frequently they drink that amount. The fluctuations in mood can also vary, with some people experiencing more severe lows than others. Every case is different, and this means that the treatment a mental health center would require to give a person in order to ease their alcoholism would need to be adapted to suit a patient’s needs. Gone are the days of ‘one size fits all’ treatments.