Mental Health Corner

Emotional Cruise Control

By Rabbi Azriel Hauptman

Bipolar disorder is a mental health diagnosis that is often misunderstood. You might hear someone say, in a pejorative manner, that someone is “so bipolar”. Besides the shamefulness of talking in such a manner, it is also reflective of a basic misunderstanding of this disorder that has led people to associate mood swings with bipolar disorder. To help us understand the exact nature of bipolar disorder specifically and mood disorders in general, let us use a common automobile feature for the purpose of illustration.

Most of us are familiar with cruise control. You accelerate your car to a certain speed, you activate the cruise control, and then your car tries its hardest to remain as close to that speed as possible. On a downhill, there might be a brief period of a higher speed, and on an uphill, your car will put in extra energy to bring your car back up to its set speed. When it comes to our mood, we also have an internal cruise control that always tries to bring your mood back to within its normal range. When this system is defective, you have a mood disorder.

Let us analyze this a little more carefully. Some of us are prone to sudden and dramatic mood swings. This can possibly be related to disorders such as ADHD, autism, and some personality disorders. This is referred to in psychology as emotional dysregulation. However, if your emotional cruise control is not broken, this mood swing will not be long lasting. Even if it lasts a day or two, you slowly emerge from your mood swing, and life goes on as before. (This does not mean to say that treatment is not necessary, just that this individual does not have a mood disorder.)

Sometimes, a person can become stuck in an abnormal mood for a lengthy period of time. If an episode of depressed mood lasts at least two weeks, then we call this major depressive disorder. This person’s cruise control is out of order, and is unable to pull his mood back up into the normal range.

People who suffer from bipolar disorder have an additional issue regarding bringing their mood down to normal after becoming elevated. We all have brief periods of time when we are in an especially good mood. These tend to be relatively brief. When one suffers from bipolar disorder, they become stuck in an elevated mood for a week or more, which leads to symptoms such as thoughts of grandiosity, limited sleep, racing thoughts, and an extremely increased level of activity. This is known as a manic episode.

To summarize, mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder are not manifestations of mood swings, but rather the body’s inability to bring our system back into a normal range of mood after becoming elevated or depressed.

Whether one suffers from emotional dysregulation or a mood disorder has enormous implications on how it would be treated. Additionally, one needs to know the underlying disorder that is triggering the mood swings or abnormal mood. If you are suffering from any of these issues, contacting an experienced mental health professional can be the first step on the road to recovery.

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This is a service of Relief Resources. Relief is an organization that provides mental health referrals, education, and support to the frum community. Rabbi Yisrael Slansky is director of the Baltimore branch of Relief. He can be contacted at 410-448-8356 or at yslansky@ reliefhelp.org