My emotions change too fast

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Hi all.

Today I realized that my biggest problem is sadness and anxiety. But I'm not sad and anxious all the time, for example now I don't care anything, no pain. But I know my happiness will go away after some time. I will worry about my life, loneliness, anti socialness. These things screw my happiness sometimes.

So, my emotions (feelings) change so fast and I can't reach constant happiness. My mind is not stable. And I wake up like in horror movie, in mornings. I mean, I get up sad and anxious. What would you suggest? Thanks in advance

I have the exact same problem. I can go from 0 to 100 quickly and then back to 0. Not sure why. Not sure if it has anything to do with autism.

I don't think that's possible dude

Maybe consistent happiness is what was intended (I don't know). Even so, happiness sounds like the type of mood that should be temporary along with sadness. A more consistent neutral baseline would be a reasonable destination. One that was punctuated by happiness when appropriate and sadness when appropriate, but not prone to lingering at either extreme. For some people this is attainable with antidepressants, or even a bit of exercise.

When I was younger (12-17 years) I used to go from 0-10 in a day. The same day could include complete euphoria and brimming buzzing happiness and content and really dark thoughts.

Then when I got to know myself better and could control more of my environment (age 18-25) it was more like 2-8.

Then now recently I am much more settled in terms of emotions. I would describe myself at a near constant 8 with brief fluctuations down to 5 during challenging periods.

I would say in my case my emotions have become more balanced with self knowledge. Knowing what makes me anxious (social situations) and letting myself off the hook more when I get it wrong (trying to ease up on constant self feedback and criticism with regard to social interaction.) It probably is also age and the body being more physically settled. Also, I have built a simple life for myself. I have to change that in six months or so so we will see if this holds or if my emotions get much more unstable again.

Also, I definitely felt strongly I would rather be a 2-10 than a constant 5 when I was younger. I hated the idea of mediocrity and boredom. Now with children to care for it is a very functional need for me to operate on a very calm and settled wavelength and for my emotions not to rock when theirs rock.

Thinking about it a little more. I think what helped me when I was your age was to embrace the fluctuating emotions. When I was really low I would look for things that helped me (not necessarily feel better but that helped me when I was low). For example, I would write poetry, listen to lots of music, go into myself and dwell on the sad feelings. I wouldn't force myself out of them. I remember one time I was walking home from work and I was really sad and I got on a bus to Budapest and just walked around Budapest for a week crying. I realise that sounds pretty insane but it helped! I could just cry with no one to recognise me. I think as I accepted the feelings and didn't fear them I came to know them and they were not a separate scary thing.

I know now that when I am feeling like an 8 and my contentness levels are pretty stable and my emotions don't switch so rapidly anymore I am not just feeling an 8 I am still feeling all the other things too. They have not gone away or been ignored. It is just that I feel an 8 because I know they are there, acknowledge them and feel so at peace with them.

I am not sure if that makes sense. Basically self knowledge, time and for really bad patches just going though the motions with the hope that things will improve.

Agreed to the terms "consistent happiness". Being happy all the time would be boring, but a consistent happiness where one enjoys their life, has good friends, a job they like, etc. seems like something to strive for. There's always going to be conflict time-to-time and sadness, but it would ideally be only a minor amount of time rather than majority amount of time with depression.

I used to be like this more when I was younger. I learned through observing patterns that it was caused by too much sensory overload and trying to do too much in a day... because of our poor executive functioning we need more time to process everything. I started deliberately doing less things per day and taking time out after being in high sensory or social environments... put less pressure on myself and only focused on getting the most important thing per day done. Since changing my lifestyle in this way my find is far more stable and I feel more calm and content overall, though it does still get hard if I'm going through a very stressful or busy period.

It happened to me a lot.