Treating Mood Swings, Irritability, and Anger - What a Holistic Psychiatrist Wants You to Know
Do you find yourself having mood swings throughout the day?
Getting easily annoyed? Often snapping at people?
Do people say you’re irritable?
Do you have anger outbursts but feel bad afterwards, unsure where they came from?
And have you felt like you’ve had to struggle with these things by yourself, not knowing who to turn to for help?
Our healthcare system doesn’t do a great job of making it clear who to seek out for help with these types of problems. If you tell your primary care doctor about them, they’ll likely do nothing or refer you to a psychiatrist.
If you see a conventional psychiatrist and tell them you experience mood swings and irritability, they’ll most likely diagnose you with depression, anxiety, or PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder). You’ll likely feel that none of those diagnoses describe exactly what you’re experiencing, but regardless, the doctor will likely recommend an antidepressant like Prozac or Lexapro.
If you tell a conventional psychiatrist that you experience irritability and anger, they might diagnose you with Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (in kids), Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (in adults), or Borderline Personality Disorder. In light of this, they’ll tell you that although there’s no medication that has been specifically created for and tested in any of these diagnoses they still recommend an antidepressant, a “mood stabilizer” (like Lamictal or Depakote), or an antipsychotic (like Risperdal or Abilify) to try to address your symptoms. If the medication isn’t working to decrease the irritability or anger, they’ll increase the dose. If you’ve reached the max dose and still aren’t finding it helpful or have side effects, they’ll switch you to a different medication or add another one on. There are over 25 medications in these three categories, so it’s rinse and repeat, trying to find one or a combination that might help you.
In either scenario, they might tell you to see a therapist.
In either situation, they will NOT:
Tell you that “getting diagnosed” does not translate to finding the best treatment for you
Let you know that there are many different things contributing to your symptoms
Let you know that each contributor has a specific treatment associated with it, none of which include psychiatric medication
Let you know that we can test for and run evaluations to check which of these contributors are present or not specifically for you
Let you know that identifying your specific contributors leads to a personalized, comprehensive treatment plan, inclusive of medications or not
Here are some well-established contributors to mood swings, irritability, and anger:
Too high blood glucose/sugar (hyperglycemia) followed by too low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
Both use of and withdrawal from alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine
Medication side effects from: Clonidine, Guanfacine, stimulants (Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, Vyvanse), steroids (Prednisone), antidepressants (Bupropion), antiepileptics (Levetiracetam), benzodiazepines (Xanax, Klonopin), birth control pills, Accutane
Inadequate sleep quantity and/or sleep/wake time inconsistency (aka going to bed and waking up at different times)
Low Magnesium
Total cholesterol below 140
Low B12
Low Vitamin D
Low Omega 3 fatty acids
Protein indigestion
Bacterial overgrowth of Clostridium in the gut
High copper
High lead
Low lithium
Even though these contributors are research-based and clinically proven, checking for them is not common practice among conventional doctors. Why?
Conventional doctors, aka MD or DO’s with no training in treatment approaches outside of those taught in medical school and residency, take the “pill for an ill” treatment approach. This approach doesn’t encourage doctors to ask “why?” very much. The conventional medical system runs on a drug-centered model resulting in the following solutions:
You have acid reflux every day? Take an acid blocker.
You have headaches every day? Take a Tylenol.
You have irritability around the week of your period? Take birth control.
You have anger outbursts? Take a mood stabilizer.
Basically, in regards to treatment options, conventional medical training teaches doctors to prescribe medication or surgery without much looking for what contributed to the issue in the first place.
This works well in discrete, non-chronic conditions like appendicitis. You get antibiotics, they cut it out, and you’re good to go.
It’s not so good at addressing chronic conditions, especially those with symptoms in different organ systems. Conventional medicine separates treatment by organ system, as if the whole body doesn’t work together. People often have a cardiologist, an endocrinologist, and a gastroenterologist. Each of those doctors focuses on their own organ system (i.e., heart, hormones, digestive tract), but doesn’t zoom out to see if they might all be connected.
It does this with psychiatry too, acting as if the brain is separate from our bodies and not intricately connected. This most often leads to subpar results for the patient.
The good news is that for doctors interested in asking “why?”, there are plenty of medical treatment approaches outside of conventional medicine should they go looking for them, like I did.
After being disillusioned with the average to poor results of conventional medicine for most of those dealing with chronic diseases, both mental and physical, I looked for other medical treatment methods. I found functional, integrative, nutritional, lifestyle, orthomolecular, and mind-body medicine. I loved the different ways these treatment approaches helped people feel better, mentally and physically, most often without prescription medication and its side effects.
In my practice, I use all of the above treatment approaches, including my MD medical training, with every patient. I call it “holistic psychiatry”. I take the best of my conventional medical training (4 years of medical school + 4 years of psychiatry residency) and combine it with non-conventional treatments from functional, integrative, nutritional, lifestyle, orthomolecular, and mind-body medicine. The result is a wide-scope approach to mental health. I go beyond the “pill for an ill” approach of conventional medicine. Rather, I aim to find and modify the underlying cause of symptoms, from low stomach acid preventing proper digestion to nutrient levels to daily habits. I don’t give out a diagnosis and pill and hope for the best. I evaluate each person as a whole in order to provide the most comprehensive treatment path to feeling better, whether that includes psychiatric medication or not.
This holistic treatment approach has been helpful to many, especially to those who:
Want to avoid psychiatric medication
Have experienced little to no benefit from psychiatric medication
Have medication side effects
Want to come off psychiatric medication
Want more options for mental health treatment aside from medication
I created Brain-Body Psychiatry to bring you better mental health treatment through holistic psychiatry.
We all need support, guidance, and accountability in making and sustaining positive changes.
Brain-Body Psychiatry provides the tools and takes the time to guide you to your full potential.
If you’re interested in this approach, I am very excited to work on this together.
With care,
Dr. Luisa Cacciaguida
Disclaimer:
This blog post is intended to be informative and does not replace individual medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider or a professional for any personal medical decisions or concerns you may have. Everyone's health situation is unique and should be evaluated by a healthcare professional.
This blog post is designed as a general guide. This is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, nor is a patient-physician relationship established in this blog post.
