Elevated mood
An elevated mood can manifest when you become intoxicated or withdraw from certain substances. When you’re in an elevated mood, you’ll feel confident, enthusiastic and energetic. These are all positive feelings that will make you want to experience more psychoactive drugs like ecstasy, cannabis, heroin and even alcohol, so as to sustain those feelings. However, you’ll only feel this way because those substances have altered your brain; they have prevented the chemicals in your brain from transmitting the messages they really want to. Consequently, the more you abuse these drugs, the more you put yourself at risk of critical mental and physical health deterioration.
One negative aspect of drug-induced elevated mood (or mania) is that you might not even be aware that you’re experiencing this. It makes you feel less self-conscious and more confident, as it has turned down the frontal lobes in the brain, responsible for our self-awareness. This mood could go unnoticed until it morphs into more unfavourable conditions like depression, anxiety, inability to concentrate, emotional swings, memory loss and excessive behaviour. The bright side of elevated mood is usually short-lived and if you don’t proceed with the necessary treatment, the darker side can sneak up on you.
Signs of Elevated Mood
Elevated mood is a kind of disorder that is accompanied by both emotional and physical symptoms.
Emotional signs:
- Restlessness: finding it difficult to relax or sit still; you want to always be on the move
- Prolonged periods of elation: you’ll feel extremely happy for a prolonged period
- Delusions of grandeur: feelings of being superior to everything (including life itself)
- Irritability and excessive energy: fluctuating between sad, frustrated or angry moods
- Impulsive or risky behaviour: since you feel invincible and superior, you make decisions on a whim and take risks that could be life-threatening
Physical symptoms:
- Rapid or pressured speech: you speak frenziedly and too fast, without any apparent need for urgency
- Unstable thinking pattern: racing thoughts; you jump from one idea to the next rapidly
- Lack of concentration: you are easily distracted
- Hypersexuality: a sexual addiction; you become obsessed with everything related to sex
- Insomnia: difficulty falling or staying asleep
It’s common for people with ppathological elevated mood to experience conflict with authority figures. Each day, their dangerous and reckless behaviour puts them at risk of injury, trauma or in some cases, death.
When to Seek Professional Assistance?
It might be difficult to know when the drugs you’re using are causing your elevated mood. However, you should consult a doctor immediately if you notice any of the above symptoms. Sometimes, you could get rid of these symptoms once you stop taking the substances that are responsible for them. However, a withdrawal from such substances could, in turn, lead to those symptoms re-appearing. Therefore, the first thing to do once those symptoms manifest is to seek medical help. A doctor will be able to trace the source of the symptoms and administer the necessary treatment.
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