Adolescence is a time of big changes for teens. They undergo physical, mental, and emotional changes. Due to this, they can have strong, reactive emotions that can be concerning. It is common for teens to be happy one minute and slam doors the next. These rapid shifts in mood can be a serious problem. They may lead to emotional dysregulation or can be a sign that your teen has an undiagnosed mental health disorder. As a parent, you should not ignore rapid mood swings by saying they are part of normal development, as they can also signify something deeper.
This article aims to help parents, caregivers, and educators understand mood swings, their causes, and how to address them. It will also highlight the importance of healthy coping mechanisms and what types of therapies can be used to help teens with severe mood swings.
However, if you need immediate support for your teen’s mood swings, contact NexStep Teen Academy today. We can offer expert insight and advice for your situation.
Understanding Teen Mood Swings
Moods are part of everyday life. During adolescence, teens experience emotional ups and downs that can be hard to understand. Teens undergo various changes that can cause them distress. They are experiencing many things for the first time, such as having a romantic partner and increasing academic pressure. These emotions can be hard to handle, causing your teen’s mood to be erratic and unpredictable.
Mood swings are normal as long as they do not disrupt your teen’s life. However, they can signify an underlying struggle. Teens with rapid or extreme mood swings may have an undiagnosed mental health condition such as bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or depression. It is not normal for teens to have extreme emotional responses to everyday stressors. As a parent or guardian, you should not downplay your teen’s emotional shifts. Address them as soon as you notice they may be harmful or unhelpful.
Causes of Teen Mood Swings
A variety of factors can cause teen mood swings. These factors include the following:
Hormonal Changes
Your teen’s body is constantly changing during puberty. Adolescence causes the body to produce hormones that cause strong feelings that can be confusing for your teen. For example, teen girls produce hormones like estrogen, a hormone that affects the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin in the brain. These hormonal levels keep fluctuating throughout the month and cause teens to become moody and irritable.
In teen boys, the release of testosterone may cause them to be irritable and frustrated. The development of secondary sexual characteristics in both boys and girls can cause them to become moody and confused.
Physical Changes
The development of secondary sexual characteristics causes your teen’s body to change rapidly. They may begin feeling self-conscious about how they look compared to their peers. During adolescence, teens also become overly self-critical and are obsessed with their physical appearance. The constant self-criticism can cause them to become irritable and have erratic and shifting moods.
Social Life
As teens enter adolescence, they want to fit in with their peers. It can be difficult to socialize as a teen because of self-worth issues. If your teen tries to make friends and fails, they feel socially rejected and become moody and irritable.
Factors like family dynamics can also affect a teen’s social life. Teens can experience a lot of bullying because of their identity, self-expression, or family dynamics. A teen’s social life is directly tied to their confidence and self-worth. If their peers reject them, they will likely experience negative and erratic mood shifts.
Stress
Teens experience a lot of stress in their day-to-day lives. They experience anxiety due to academic challenges, relationships, and family pressure. If your teen experiences high stress levels, they will likely become irritable and moody.
Mental Health Conditions
Mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder (BD), and borderline personality disorder (BPD) may cause your teen to exhibit erratic emotional shifts. Conditions like BPD are emotional regulation issues that may make your teen have trouble controlling their emotions. On the other hand, bipolar disorder is characterized by long periods of mania followed by depression. When these periods are short and unpredictable, you may feel like your teen is being unnecessarily moody. It is important that parents pay keen attention to their teen’s moods to ascertain the root cause of their moodiness.
Drug and Substance Use
Teens who use drugs may have erratic behaviors and moods. Drugs like alcohol, ketamine, cocaine, and psilocybin are known to cause erratic behaviors in teens. Drugs affect how your teen’s brain functions and can cause them to become more dissociated or erratic. This can become more prominent if substance abuse leads to the beginning stages of addiction.
Hormonal vs Emotional Changes in Teens
When teens enter puberty, their bodies start producing hormones that cause the development of secondary sexual characteristics. At puberty, the brain releases gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which triggers the release of other hormones like luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). These two hormones are present in every teen’s body.
For teen girls, the primary sex hormone is estrogen, while for boys, it is testosterone. Fluctuation of these hormones causes teens to experience varying moods. A surge in testosterone levels can cause your teen boy to become more impulsive and emotional. In girls, a dip in estrogen and progesterone levels can cause them to become irritable and moody. The cyclic nature of girl hormones makes them more likely to have mood shifts throughout the month.
Emotional and Psychological Changes in Teens
Emotional changes can also cause rapid mood swings in teens. As they age, they become more independent and want to experience life as adults. This may cause friction at home as they become more independent and defiant. Brain development causes teens to be more impulsive and take risks. Since they do not know how to control their impulsiveness, it can be misunderstood by many as moodiness.
The last part of the brain to fully develop is the pre-frontal cortex. This part of the brain is responsible for emotional regulation and is underdeveloped during teen years. Teens experience bigger feelings at this stage and can have trouble regulating their emotions. This may cause their emotions to be erratic and unpredictable.
When Are Mood Swings a Cause for Concern?
Although mood swings are normal, severe and rapid shifts in mood can disrupt your teen’s day-to-day life. Mood swings can make it difficult for your teen to concentrate in school or tackle their daily activities. At this point, they become a source of concern. As a parent or guardian, you should assess the intensity and duration of your teen’s shifting mood. Does the shift last a long or short time? If the change lasts for a short time, it can be a source of concern and signify an underlying issue.
Another way you can recognize your teen’s moods is through behavioral changes. If your teen becomes more withdrawn and exhibits negative behavior such as self-harm, their mood shifts can signify an underlying issue.
The following are some of the things you need to look out for if you are worried about your teen’s moods:
If your teen’s mood swings are occurring more frequently
Mood swings that lead to stronger emotions
Difficulty sleeping or insomnia
Oversleeping
Disinterest in activities they once enjoyed
Social withdrawal
Engaging in risk-taking behavior
Feeling out of control
Thoughts of self-harm
Academic decline
Mood swings that affect interpersonal relationships
Coping with Teen Mood Swings
What can your teen do to cope with mood swings? There are several things your teen can do to regulate their mood, including the following:
Regular Exercise: Exercise and physical activity release endorphins into the bloodstream. Endorphins help stabilize mood and reduce anxiety. Teens can stabilize their mood by adding physical activity to their daily routine. Some exercises they can do include jogging, hitting the gym, or engaging in sports.
Nutrition and a Balanced Diet: Overly processed foods can wreak havoc on your teen’s mood. Ultra-processed foods with added sugar raise the risk of developing depression or anxiety. Teens should be encouraged to eat more proteins and colorful vegetables to stabilize their mood.
Deep Breathing Exercises: Deep breathing exercises calm the mind and reduce anxiety. They help teens process their emotions instead of reacting explosively and negatively. Breathwork is among the most important skills teens should learn if they struggle with anxiety.
Getting Outside: Nature has a calming effect on the brain. Going on hikes and nature walks helps teens clear their minds and process their unresolved feelings.
Mindfulness and Meditation: Meditation helps relieve stress and it is important for teens to practice meditation to stabilize their moods.
Treatment Options for Severe Mood Swings
There are many treatment options that can be utilized for teen mood swings, including the following approaches:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a type of psychotherapy that helps teens identify the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It allows teens to break the cycle of negative thoughts and maladaptive behaviors.
CBT is based on the idea that thoughts affect emotions, and emotions influence behavior. This means that negative thoughts eventually lead to negative behavior. CBT helps teens identify their distorted thought patterns and work on achieving a positive mindset. It also allows teens to restructure their thoughts into more positive ones. The ultimate goal of CBT is to enable teens to shift negative thoughts into more productive ones.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is quite similar to CBT but was developed to treat emotional regulation issues. It helps teens accept their negative behavior while working to achieve more positive outcomes. Denial can be a hindrance to treatment. DBT helps teens get out of the denial phase and work on reaching a positive outcome.
DBT utilizes techniques like mindfulness and distress tolerance. Mindfulness allows teens to appreciate the present and not dwell on the past. It teaches teens to slow down their thoughts and analyze the appropriate response. By becoming more aware of their feelings, teens can better regulate their emotions.
Group Therapy
Group therapy helps teens regulate their emotions by sharing their issues with their peers. A typical session involves six to twelve teens facilitated by a therapist. The therapist allows them to share their issues and work together to find a solution.
Group therapy helps teens form strong emotional connections with their peers through shared struggles which also improves their social skills since they interact constantly with their peers.
Pharmacological Interventions
NexStep may utilize medication to treat underlying mental health conditions like Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. Our highly qualified staff will ensure the diagnosis is correct before prescribing any medication.
If you are concerned about your teen’s mental health and mood swings, contact us today to get them the help they need.
Tips for Parents to Support Teens with Mood Swings
What can you do to support your teen? The following are useful tips for parents of teens with severe mood swings:
Create a Safe Space for Expression: Using open communication techniques, you should make your home a safe space for emotional expression. Use a non-judgmental tone and ask open-ended questions to encourage self-expression.
Setting Consistent Routines: Routines help teens stabilize their mood. They understand their responsibilities, and the structure of a routine helps them focus on the present.
Encouraging Outdoor Activities and Healthy Social Interactions: Physical activity releases hormones that stabilize mood. Endorphins reduce anxiety and help deal with physical pain. It is important to encourage physical activity if your teen struggles with emotional regulation.
Teen Mood Swing Treatment at NexStep Teen Academy
NexStep Teen Academy is Arizona’s premier outpatient mental health treatment facility. Tucked away in the desert of Arizona, the facility offers outpatient treatment for teens with mental health and substance abuse issues. The facility provides a five (5) days-a-week outpatient program for teens with severe emotional regulation issues. We aim to ensure that teens receive the highest quality mental health treatment. Our qualified staff will ensure your teen’s needs are cared for and customize our treatment approaches to fit your teen’s needs.
At NexStep Teen Academy, we offer a top-notch psychiatric evaluation to ensure we address the underlying issues that cause your teen’s mood swings. We utilize a variety of tools to ensure we correctly diagnose and treat your teen’s mental health condition.
It is difficult to ascertain whether hormones or other things cause your teen’s mood swings. However, encouraging communication lets you discover why your teen is irritated. Ask them why they are moody and help them solve their problems.
Teen Mood Swings and Hormonal Concerns
Table of Contents
Adolescence is a time of big changes for teens. They undergo physical, mental, and emotional changes. Due to this, they can have strong, reactive emotions that can be concerning. It is common for teens to be happy one minute and slam doors the next. These rapid shifts in mood can be a serious problem. They may lead to emotional dysregulation or can be a sign that your teen has an undiagnosed mental health disorder. As a parent, you should not ignore rapid mood swings by saying they are part of normal development, as they can also signify something deeper.
This article aims to help parents, caregivers, and educators understand mood swings, their causes, and how to address them. It will also highlight the importance of healthy coping mechanisms and what types of therapies can be used to help teens with severe mood swings.
However, if you need immediate support for your teen’s mood swings, contact NexStep Teen Academy today. We can offer expert insight and advice for your situation.
Understanding Teen Mood Swings
Moods are part of everyday life. During adolescence, teens experience emotional ups and downs that can be hard to understand. Teens undergo various changes that can cause them distress. They are experiencing many things for the first time, such as having a romantic partner and increasing academic pressure. These emotions can be hard to handle, causing your teen’s mood to be erratic and unpredictable.
Mood swings are normal as long as they do not disrupt your teen’s life. However, they can signify an underlying struggle. Teens with rapid or extreme mood swings may have an undiagnosed mental health condition such as bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or depression. It is not normal for teens to have extreme emotional responses to everyday stressors. As a parent or guardian, you should not downplay your teen’s emotional shifts. Address them as soon as you notice they may be harmful or unhelpful.
Causes of Teen Mood Swings
A variety of factors can cause teen mood swings. These factors include the following:
Hormonal Changes
Your teen’s body is constantly changing during puberty. Adolescence causes the body to produce hormones that cause strong feelings that can be confusing for your teen. For example, teen girls produce hormones like estrogen, a hormone that affects the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin in the brain. These hormonal levels keep fluctuating throughout the month and cause teens to become moody and irritable.
In teen boys, the release of testosterone may cause them to be irritable and frustrated. The development of secondary sexual characteristics in both boys and girls can cause them to become moody and confused.
Physical Changes
The development of secondary sexual characteristics causes your teen’s body to change rapidly. They may begin feeling self-conscious about how they look compared to their peers. During adolescence, teens also become overly self-critical and are obsessed with their physical appearance. The constant self-criticism can cause them to become irritable and have erratic and shifting moods.
Social Life
As teens enter adolescence, they want to fit in with their peers. It can be difficult to socialize as a teen because of self-worth issues. If your teen tries to make friends and fails, they feel socially rejected and become moody and irritable.
Factors like family dynamics can also affect a teen’s social life. Teens can experience a lot of bullying because of their identity, self-expression, or family dynamics. A teen’s social life is directly tied to their confidence and self-worth. If their peers reject them, they will likely experience negative and erratic mood shifts.
Stress
Teens experience a lot of stress in their day-to-day lives. They experience anxiety due to academic challenges, relationships, and family pressure. If your teen experiences high stress levels, they will likely become irritable and moody.
Mental Health Conditions
Mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder (BD), and borderline personality disorder (BPD) may cause your teen to exhibit erratic emotional shifts. Conditions like BPD are emotional regulation issues that may make your teen have trouble controlling their emotions. On the other hand, bipolar disorder is characterized by long periods of mania followed by depression. When these periods are short and unpredictable, you may feel like your teen is being unnecessarily moody. It is important that parents pay keen attention to their teen’s moods to ascertain the root cause of their moodiness.
Drug and Substance Use
Teens who use drugs may have erratic behaviors and moods. Drugs like alcohol, ketamine, cocaine, and psilocybin are known to cause erratic behaviors in teens. Drugs affect how your teen’s brain functions and can cause them to become more dissociated or erratic. This can become more prominent if substance abuse leads to the beginning stages of addiction.
Hormonal vs Emotional Changes in Teens
When teens enter puberty, their bodies start producing hormones that cause the development of secondary sexual characteristics. At puberty, the brain releases gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which triggers the release of other hormones like luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). These two hormones are present in every teen’s body.
For teen girls, the primary sex hormone is estrogen, while for boys, it is testosterone. Fluctuation of these hormones causes teens to experience varying moods. A surge in testosterone levels can cause your teen boy to become more impulsive and emotional. In girls, a dip in estrogen and progesterone levels can cause them to become irritable and moody. The cyclic nature of girl hormones makes them more likely to have mood shifts throughout the month.
Emotional and Psychological Changes in Teens
Emotional changes can also cause rapid mood swings in teens. As they age, they become more independent and want to experience life as adults. This may cause friction at home as they become more independent and defiant. Brain development causes teens to be more impulsive and take risks. Since they do not know how to control their impulsiveness, it can be misunderstood by many as moodiness.
The last part of the brain to fully develop is the pre-frontal cortex. This part of the brain is responsible for emotional regulation and is underdeveloped during teen years. Teens experience bigger feelings at this stage and can have trouble regulating their emotions. This may cause their emotions to be erratic and unpredictable.
When Are Mood Swings a Cause for Concern?
Although mood swings are normal, severe and rapid shifts in mood can disrupt your teen’s day-to-day life. Mood swings can make it difficult for your teen to concentrate in school or tackle their daily activities. At this point, they become a source of concern. As a parent or guardian, you should assess the intensity and duration of your teen’s shifting mood. Does the shift last a long or short time? If the change lasts for a short time, it can be a source of concern and signify an underlying issue.
Another way you can recognize your teen’s moods is through behavioral changes. If your teen becomes more withdrawn and exhibits negative behavior such as self-harm, their mood shifts can signify an underlying issue.
The following are some of the things you need to look out for if you are worried about your teen’s moods:
Coping with Teen Mood Swings
What can your teen do to cope with mood swings? There are several things your teen can do to regulate their mood, including the following:
Treatment Options for Severe Mood Swings
There are many treatment options that can be utilized for teen mood swings, including the following approaches:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a type of psychotherapy that helps teens identify the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It allows teens to break the cycle of negative thoughts and maladaptive behaviors.
CBT is based on the idea that thoughts affect emotions, and emotions influence behavior. This means that negative thoughts eventually lead to negative behavior. CBT helps teens identify their distorted thought patterns and work on achieving a positive mindset. It also allows teens to restructure their thoughts into more positive ones. The ultimate goal of CBT is to enable teens to shift negative thoughts into more productive ones.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is quite similar to CBT but was developed to treat emotional regulation issues. It helps teens accept their negative behavior while working to achieve more positive outcomes. Denial can be a hindrance to treatment. DBT helps teens get out of the denial phase and work on reaching a positive outcome.
DBT utilizes techniques like mindfulness and distress tolerance. Mindfulness allows teens to appreciate the present and not dwell on the past. It teaches teens to slow down their thoughts and analyze the appropriate response. By becoming more aware of their feelings, teens can better regulate their emotions.
Group Therapy
Group therapy helps teens regulate their emotions by sharing their issues with their peers. A typical session involves six to twelve teens facilitated by a therapist. The therapist allows them to share their issues and work together to find a solution.
Group therapy helps teens form strong emotional connections with their peers through shared struggles which also improves their social skills since they interact constantly with their peers.
Pharmacological Interventions
NexStep may utilize medication to treat underlying mental health conditions like Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. Our highly qualified staff will ensure the diagnosis is correct before prescribing any medication.
If you are concerned about your teen’s mental health and mood swings, contact us today to get them the help they need.
Tips for Parents to Support Teens with Mood Swings
What can you do to support your teen? The following are useful tips for parents of teens with severe mood swings:
Teen Mood Swing Treatment at NexStep Teen Academy
NexStep Teen Academy is Arizona’s premier outpatient mental health treatment facility. Tucked away in the desert of Arizona, the facility offers outpatient treatment for teens with mental health and substance abuse issues. The facility provides a five (5) days-a-week outpatient program for teens with severe emotional regulation issues. We aim to ensure that teens receive the highest quality mental health treatment. Our qualified staff will ensure your teen’s needs are cared for and customize our treatment approaches to fit your teen’s needs.
At NexStep Teen Academy, we offer a top-notch psychiatric evaluation to ensure we address the underlying issues that cause your teen’s mood swings. We utilize a variety of tools to ensure we correctly diagnose and treat your teen’s mental health condition.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It is difficult to ascertain whether hormones or other things cause your teen’s mood swings. However, encouraging communication lets you discover why your teen is irritated. Ask them why they are moody and help them solve their problems.
Yes, fluctuation in hormones can cause severe mood swings like Premenstrual Syndrome.