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Julie Answers: Ups and Downs: What’s Normal?
Leah asked: I have a lot of up and down moods. I recently gained a lot of weight after restricting my food for years and being very underweight. I struggle with food and body image. Some days I feel like I’m doing great and other days I feel absolutely terrible. I feel depressed to the point where it feels like the world is caving in. The next day I feel like I’ve snapped back into reality and almost laugh at myself because it feels weird that I was being so negative. Are these just normal up and down mood swings?
Dear Leah,
You bring up a couple of important issues in your question. One is the need to assess feelings of depression, and how actual clinical depression differs from mood changes that are more in the range of normal. The other involves your relationship with food and body image. They are all intertwined, as I’m sure you are aware, but I will address them somewhat separately in my answer here.
You ask about normal up and down mood swings, and that hits on a really key point: It is true that some people are more emotionally variable than others. They might be within the range of what it means to be mentally healthy, but just as everyone has highs and lows, their highs are higher and their lows are lower. This can be due to general sensitivity, or a tendency to be emotionally driven as opposed to analytical…
