Irritabililty was probably the most visible and strongest symptom of my depression. I had zero patience, everybody was just a big pain in the rear. If someone asked me to do something for them it was the biggest imposition. For some reason it seems that only my family irritated me so much, I don't know why. I also felt a lot of anger mostly directed towards my wife but I have never really fully understood this. Talk therapy has helped with that a lot.
I do struggle with irritabililty along with the sadness involved with depression. A lot of my irritagility is related to my lack of sleep since I am a rotating shift worker and from chronic pain since I have rheumatoid arthritis.
I try very hard not to let my crabbiness affect other people. I tend to withdraw into myself when I am crabby. Then...I have myself a good ole "Pitty Party!" Not the best and most constructive thing, I know.
Do the two go together? I guess that "lack of sleep" as you mentioned can contribute. I have been feeling a great deal of both lately, sometimes waking as early as 12:30am and not being able to go back to sleep. Most mornings I have been getting up at 2 or 3:00am; it really does contribute to my being out-of-sorts. And switching back from Saphris to Zyprexa, as my pdoc has suggested, certainly hasn't helped. At least not in the last week. Because now I am not only tired from lack of sleep, but the Zyprexa makes me feel like a zombie in slow motion. So I've been only doing the things that absolutely must be done and cancelling everything else. Unfortunately, Mom fell again last week and re-broke her left hip. But they say nothing can be done about it. The bone didn't break all the way through, just cracked. But it is causing her intense pain and means it is back to driving her everywhere she needs to go. Fortunately, one friend is taking her to the hair salon tomorrow, and another friend will pick her up there and take her back home. On the brighter side my niece has just found out she's pregnant again today and everyone is truly excited about that. (And also on the brighter side -- at least I am not the one who is pregnant!)
Thanks for this post. The connection between chronic pain and irritability in addition to the one between depression and irritability is very helpful to keep in mind.
I, too, am living with MS & Depression, and in fact am in the process of switching from a high dose of zoloft (200 mg daily) to an SNRI -- after 15 yrs the zoloft just wasn't working anymore. I was so irritable - more than irritable, even angry - experiencing rage sometimes! (which is not like ME)
At any rate, my depression doctor recommended Cymbalta because of the co-benefit of pain relief, but so far I haven't found anything that discusses the relative pros and cons of SNRIs for treatment of folks with depression and MS -- and the doctor couldn't refer me to anything either.
The switch over is going to take a month, and since I work full-time, I am really worried about what will happen if the Cymbalta has some side-effect with my MS treatments (i.e. Rebif). Have you found any resources in this area?
(By the way, thanks so much for sharing your story on-line!)
Thanks for this great information. Irritability and anger are a large part of my depression and I find it so frustrating! I can get so angry and irritated and I don't even know why. And of course I lash out at the people I love the most.
Ever since going off Paxil last month and starting Wellbutrin I've been very irritable - it's a bit over the top. Everything seems to set me off. When I ask my doctor about that (and anxiety) she just shrugs and says that's just what happens. Not very helpful! I asked for a referral to a psychiatrist and she gave me a prescription note with "councelling" written on it.
After reading your article I think that perhaps I consume too much caffeine. I'll start limiting that and maybe add a magnesium supplement (which my chiropractor has suggested to help muscle soreness after workouts).
Thanks, again!
Hello MM,
Almost everything described in the arcticle is me..... I have realized too much caffiene has contributed to my irratibility. It is difficult to tell sometimes if it's my depression,anxiety,menapause....maybe a combo. Since my car accident and some what before then I will get tension headaches and my body would just ache so I was put on 60mg. of Cymbalta, now after the accident my neck, back, legs ache when there is a change in the weather making it difficult to do mundane tasks.
My neck cracks and crunches when I turn my head from side to side, limited motion to the left side. I usually will take 1 - 2 Advil which does help. Since I can't always pin point what exactly is going on. All I can say is I'm having a bad day that some days becomes days....
dewalt
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Yes, indeed - I do get cranky! Usually, I can figure out something is up (or down!) if I have several days in a row of no patience and feeling put-upon and like I don't want to do one more thing for one more person. It isn't always depression, though, because it's anger which I should have expressed long before. If I don't do something about it, it will turn into depression.
What helps me is to plan some things to do with friends, people I feel comfortable with if I want to vent about something. I'm in a women's group that meets once a month and last week we got on the topic of spouses; I ended up parodying my idea of "helpless" men (and I don't mean all men are!) and talked about wanting to write a song like Aretha's "Respect" only it would be "Helpless." We ended up laughing until we were practically crying because we've all been there. Well, that did help, I have to say.
Another thing that helps is watching a movie that tugs at my heartstrings and then I find a lot of sadness under the anger. Humor of any kind helps put things in perspective. Yesterday, we were at my parents' for the day with my sister and brother and it never is very pleasant there; yesterday, it got particularly trying and at one point I said to my sister, "If I had to live here, I'd have to kill myself" and then she said, "Me first." Well, that helped immensely! Dark humor is my favorite!
Well, that's me. It will be interesting to hear what other people do to cope.