Bad days after good

[BrokenGirl]

Is it normal to have a really bad day after you've has what could be deemed a good day? I was okay yesterday but today, I've been in tears most of the day.

Does anyone experience this kind of thing?

[Indigo_]

I do. I just try to roll with it as best as I can. Sometimes moods can have no rhyme and reason.

[Oddity]

Yup, nearly every time I do something good.

A good example is today; I'm feeling shit and drained after a lot of good driving yesterday (with family in the car ).

[migster]

I have experienced this in the past too. I'd have a day where something would happen that would act as a trigger to boost my mood all day or most of it, only to be followed by an emotional crash the following day. In hindsight, these feel-good moods tended to actually have contours of euphoria/mania and so my my personal theory is that the crash is nothing but the brain adjusting its neurochemistry after experiencing a brief manic period where the levels dopamine (and possibly other neurotransmitters) are released in abnormal quantities. I think this is similar to what happens in the brains of drug addicts.

In my personal experience, my euphoria came about from a naive belief that the trigger that led to it was proof that I was improving and getting better; I have since learned to keep my emotions in check, both positive and negative, through mindfulness.

[BrokenGirl]

^ That kinda makes sense

[Hayman]

I tend to feel quite apprehensive on the rare occasions I have good days because as the saying goes, "pride always comes before a fall".

One example that always sticks in my mind was back in 2005. I remember getting my first ever inflation pay rise (a whopping 1 or 1.5% over the four years I'd been working…and that was only because of minimum wage going up making my existing salary illegal) which I was quite happy about. The following day? My mother had a heart attack – then aged 49, and I had to rush out of work at lunchtime the moment I found out. In the same job, I was signed off on the sick in 2010 with stress, anxiety and depression. I was off work for about six weeks from memory (it might have been eight...) and I felt okay enough to return. Infact, I felt pretty good during the final week and I even called the doctor to ask them to cancel the time left on the sick note. The day I went back to work? An ominous brown envelope was handed to me inside two hours… I was being made redundant (it was actually constructive dismissal but didn't have the energy or money to pursue the case).

I'd rather have 'average' days than good days.

[LoubyLou]

Yep, this is me all over, it's the good day blues.

[south]

Yep i go through those good and bad days. I wish i could magically stay balanced so i could get on with my life. I have more higher and lower moments than Bruce's Play Your Cards Right.