Why Am I So Emotional Lately? Understanding Sudden Mood Changes

Have you found yourself tearing up during adverts, snapping at loved ones over minor inconveniences, or feeling overwhelmed by emotions that seem to come from nowhere? You’re not alone in this, and there are several perfectly normal reasons why this might be happening.

Let’s explore the most common causes behind heightened emotional responses and find practical strategies to help you navigate these feelings with greater understanding.

Why Am I So Emotional Lately?

Sudden emotional changes often result from hormonal fluctuations, increased stress, life transitions, or underlying mental health concerns. Common triggers include menstrual cycles, major life changes, sleep disruption, or unprocessed emotions requiring professional support.

Understanding Your Emotional Changes

Emotional sensitivity isn’t a character flaw or weakness – think of it as your body’s internal communication system working overtime. When you’re asking yourself “why am I so emotional lately,” you’re noticing that this system has become more active than usual.

Sometimes our emotional responses get heightened due to changes in our circumstances, biology, or mental state. Just as physical symptoms signal that something needs attention, emotional sensitivity often points to areas of our lives that need care.

So, what does this mean for you? These key factors influence how emotionally responsive you might feel:

• Hormonal fluctuations and menstrual cycle changes
• Stress levels and life pressures
• Sleep disruption affecting emotional regulation
• Major life transitions requiring mental adjustment
• Underlying conditions like anxiety or depression
• Physical health issues impacting your wellbeing
• Environmental factors in your daily surroundings
• Pregnancy and postpartum hormonal changes

Understanding these triggers helps you develop a clearer picture of what might be contributing to your emotional state.

Common Causes of Sudden Emotional Sensitivity

Now that we understand what emotional sensitivity looks like, let’s explore what might be causing these changes.

Hormonal Influences on Mood

Hormones dramatically affect how we feel and respond to situations. Throughout different life stages and monthly cycles, these chemical messengers create notable emotional shifts.

For women, monthly hormonal fluctuations during menstruation create predictable emotional patterns. The week before your period, dropping oestrogen and progesterone levels make you more sensitive to stress.
The NHS reports that over 90% of women experience some premenstrual symptoms, including emotional changes 1. These changes are completely normal responses to natural hormonal shifts your body goes through each month. However, approximately 2-10% of women experience severe premenstrual symptoms known as Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) 2, which requires professional attention.

Pregnancy and postpartum periods bring dramatic hormonal changes that can leave you feeling like an emotional stranger in your own body. The rapid fluctuations in oestrogen, progesterone, and other hormones during these times can make you cry at commercials or feel overwhelmed by previously manageable situations.

If you’re wondering “why am I so emotional on my period,” you’re experiencing something that affects the vast majority of women. It’s not weakness – it’s biology.

For men, testosterone levels naturally fluctuate daily and can decline with age, affecting mood stability.

During major life transitions like adolescence, mid-life, or ageing, hormonal shifts can leave you wondering why your emotional responses feel different from usual.

Stress and Life Transitions

Chronic stress acts like an emotional amplifier, making ordinary situations feel more intense and overwhelming. When your stress response system stays constantly activated, maintaining emotional equilibrium becomes much harder.

Think about it this way – your nervous system, already heightened from ongoing stress, responds more dramatically to additional stimuli. What might normally be a minor annoyance can feel overwhelming when you’re operating from an elevated stress baseline.

Common stress triggers we see include:

• Work pressures and job insecurity
• Financial concerns and cost-of-living pressures
• Relationship difficulties or major changes
• Health worries (your own or loved ones’)
• Major life changes (moving, new job, loss)
• Constant information from social media and news

Life transitions, even positive ones, require emotional processing. Your brain needs time to adapt to new circumstances, and during this adjustment period, you might find yourself more emotionally reactive than usual.

We’ve found that even happy changes – like getting married, having a baby, or starting a dream job – can temporarily increase emotional sensitivity as you adjust to new realities.

Sleep Disruption and Physical Health

Poor sleep quality affects emotional regulation more than most people realise. When you’re sleep-deprived, the brain regions responsible for managing emotions don’t function optimally, whilst your brain’s alarm system becomes more reactive.

Even one night of poor sleep can increase emotional reactivity by up to 60% 3. That’s why everything feels more difficult after a rough night. This happens because sleep deprivation reduces functional connectivity between the amygdala (your brain’s emotional centre) and the prefrontal cortex (responsible for emotional regulation) 4.

Physical health conditions also contribute to emotional sensitivity:

• Thyroid disorders and their impact on mood regulation
• Chronic pain conditions
• Autoimmune diseases
• Nutritional deficiencies (especially B vitamins, vitamin D)
• Blood sugar imbalances
• Chronic fatigue syndrome

Research shows that thyroid dysfunction, in particular, has strong connections to mood disorders. A recent 2024 UK study found that depression and anxiety significantly increase the risk of developing both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism 5.

Your physical and emotional wellbeing are intimately connected. When your body isn’t functioning optimally, it often shows up in your emotional responses, making you wonder “why am I so emotional all of a sudden?”

Managing Overwhelming Emotions

You might be wondering – what can I actually do about this? The good news is there are both quick techniques for in-the-moment relief and longer-term strategies for building emotional strength.

Immediate Emotional Regulation Techniques

When you’re feeling overwhelmed in the moment and asking yourself “why do I feel like crying all the time,” these quick strategies can help restore emotional balance:

The following table outlines practical techniques you can use immediately when emotions feel overwhelming:

Technique	How to Do It	Why It Works
4-7-8 Breathing	Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 7, exhale for 8	Activates parasympathetic nervous system, promotes calm
5-4-3-2-1 Grounding	Name 5 things you see, 4 you touch, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, 1 you taste	Brings attention to present moment when emotions overwhelm
Progressive Muscle Relaxation	Tense and release muscle groups from toes upward	Releases physical tension that accompanies emotional stress
Cold Water Reset	Splash cold water on face or hold cold object	Helps reset nervous system during emotional overwhelm

These techniques work because they engage your body’s natural calming mechanisms and redirect your focus away from overwhelming emotional intensity.

Understanding Why You’re Crying More

Frequent crying often accompanies periods of heightened emotional sensitivity. Here’s what we understand about this process: crying serves important psychological and physiological functions as your body’s way of processing intense emotions and releasing built-up tension.

Crying becomes more frequent when:

• Your usual coping strategies aren’t keeping pace with emotional demands
• You’re processing grief, loss, or disappointment
• Hormonal changes affect your emotional baseline
• You’re experiencing depression or anxiety symptoms
• Stress levels have exceeded your normal tolerance
• You’re carrying unprocessed emotions from recent events

Worth noting that crying more than usual doesn’t automatically indicate a mental health problem. Sometimes it simply means you’re going through a challenging period and your emotional system is working overtime to help you process it.

Long-term Emotional Wellbeing Strategies

Establish consistent sleep habits: Aim for 7-9 hours nightly and maintain regular sleep/wake times. Good sleep hygiene directly impacts emotional stability.

Regular physical activity: Exercise releases endorphins and helps process stress hormones. Even a 10-minute walk can make a noticeable difference in emotional state, particularly when you’re feeling emotionally sensitive.

Mindfulness and meditation: Regular practice helps you observe emotions without being overwhelmed by them. Start with just 5 minutes daily to build emotional awareness and regulation skills. No need to be perfect at it.

Journaling: Writing about your experiences helps process emotions and identify patterns in your emotional responses. This can be helpful for understanding triggers and tracking improvement.

Social connection: Maintain relationships with supportive people who allow you to express your feelings without judgement. Isolation often intensifies emotional sensitivity.

When Professional Support Can Help

Consider reaching out for professional support if:

• Emotional sensitivity persists for several weeks without improvement
• Your emotions interfere with work, relationships, or daily activities
• You’re experiencing thoughts of self-harm or persistent hopelessness
• You’re using alcohol or substances to cope with emotions
• You feel disconnected from activities you usually enjoy
• Your sleep, appetite, or energy levels are disrupted

Given that mood disorders have a global lifetime prevalence of up to 20% 6, experiencing emotional challenges is remarkably common and nothing to be ashamed of.

In the UK, you can access support through your GP, who can refer you to NHS mental health services. Private therapy options are also available, often with shorter waiting times and immediate access to specialised support.

We understand how challenging emotional sensitivity can be. You’re not asking for too much by wanting to feel more balanced. Many people find that even a few therapy sessions provide valuable tools for managing emotional sensitivity and understanding underlying causes. Seeking professional support doesn’t mean you’re weak – it means you’re taking proactive steps to improve your wellbeing.

Building Long-term Emotional Resilience

Emotional resilience – your ability to adapt and bounce back from challenges – can be developed over time. Think of it like physical fitness: the more you practise healthy emotional habits, the stronger your emotional “muscles” become.

What does emotional resilience actually look like? Here are the building blocks:

Resilience Factor	Description	How to Develop
Self-awareness	Understanding your emotional patterns and triggers	Regular check-ins, journaling, mindfulness
Emotional regulation	Managing intense emotions effectively	Practise coping strategies, therapy techniques
Support systems	Having people to turn to during difficult times	Nurture relationships, join support groups
Meaning-making	Finding purpose and learning from challenges	Reflect on growth, connect with values
Self-care	Maintaining physical and mental wellbeing	Consistent sleep, nutrition, exercise, relaxation

Developing emotional resilience takes time and patience with yourself. Small, consistent efforts often create more lasting change than dramatic overhauls.

Remember that experiencing heightened emotions is a normal part of being human, often coinciding with growth, change, or challenge. These building blocks work together to help you navigate future emotional challenges with greater confidence and skill.

Professional Therapeutic Approaches

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can be particularly helpful for understanding the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It provides practical tools for managing emotional responses and challenging unhelpful thought patterns that might contribute to emotional sensitivity. Research shows CBT’s effectiveness in improving emotional regulation skills across various contexts 7.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teaches you to observe emotions without being overwhelmed by them, creating space between feeling and reaction. This approach is helpful for people who find themselves frequently asking “why am I so emotional and cry easily.”

Psychodynamic therapy helps you understand deeper patterns in your emotional responses, particularly those rooted in past experiences or unresolved emotional material.

We’ve found that the right therapeutic approach depends on your individual needs and preferences. Many therapists integrate different techniques to create personalised treatment plans that address your specific emotional challenges.

Moving Forward with Self-Compassion

Rather than judging yourself for feeling “too emotional,” try to view your emotions as valuable information. They’re telling you something important about your needs, values, or current circumstances. This perspective shift can transform the experience from something shameful to something informative.

Give yourself permission to:

• Feel your emotions without immediately trying to fix or change them
• Take breaks when you need them without guilt
• Ask for support from trusted friends, family, or professionals
• Adjust your expectations during emotionally challenging periods
• Celebrate small improvements in emotional wellbeing
• Recognise that feeling overwhelmed by emotions often indicates depth and empathy

The goal isn’t to eliminate emotional sensitivity but to develop a healthier relationship with your emotions. When you understand and accept your emotional responses, they become less overwhelming and more manageable.

We’ve found that periods of emotional overwhelm, whilst challenging, lead to greater self-understanding and stronger coping skills. You’re learning valuable lessons about yourself and developing emotional intelligence that will serve you throughout life.

If you’re struggling with persistent emotional overwhelm and find yourself frequently wondering “why am I so emotional lately,” please remember that professional support can make a real difference. We understand how challenging emotional sensitivity can be, and we’re here to help you develop effective strategies for emotional wellbeing. Contact us for a free 15-minute consultation to see how therapy could support you in developing healthier emotional responses.