Mood swings and coming to terms with PMR

[Suffererc]

I was diagnosed with PMR in January 2018. I was very poorly up to that point but am back to being very fit but not 100%. Does anyone suffer mood swings, quite severe.

I am taking 20mg pred daily, increased to 30mg when I started to get jaw ache while eating. Am now being tapered.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Both PMR itself and the pred can cause mood swings - and even though the pred is taking care of the symptoms, the autoimmune cause of the PMR is still there in the background chugging away so it causing the mood swings continues. It will improve as the dose of pred reduces - though how you react to what dose will be different to anyone else.

Beware - you may not be as 100% fit as you think - high dose pred gives you wings and you think you can conquer the world. It ain't necessarily so...

[Qubbie]

I am with you on the mood swings etc. I was prescribed a very low dose of a mood enhancer but I didn't like it. I get agitated very easily

[Suffererc in reply to Qubbie]

Thank you. I feel the same. Awful thing is I know I am angry and take it out on everyone around me.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Suffererc]

I felt like that with just PMR and not being on pred! Learning to recognise the signs and walking away is a helpful approach.

[Cyclegirl54]

I have been very low too, alternating angry and sad. Deep breathing works for me . Headspace is a good app for mindfulness. Might be worth a try. I’ve also realised that my constant why me why me does a body no good whatsoever!

[Purplecrow]

Yep, mood dysregulation is a big deal at upper levels of Pred. I have never been short-tempered, but found myself exactly that at 12 mg. My family were shocked, as was I.

You should be able to find this subject addressed in archives of this forum. Try looking at right side of this page, using search.

Stay with this group, we got your back...🙂

Kind regards, Jerri