Motor Neurone Disease (MND)
Emotional lability, depression and low mood with MND
Emotional lability and depression are two distinct conditions affecting some people with MND. Treatments are available for to help manage both emotional lability and depression. Depression may be experienced in reaction to the diagnosis or the challenges of the disease and it is quite normal for people living with MND to feel low at times. Emotional lability is a term used to describe a tendency to laugh or cry unexpectedly at what might seem the wrong moment.
Emotional lability is often a temporary symptom that reduces over time. It is more common to experience emotional lability if your ability to think and reason have been affected. However, it does not necessarily mean that other changes to thinking and reasoning will happen.
People talked to us about a range of emotional changes and disturbances. One woman who had experienced emotional lability said she had quite liked the euphoria of laughing but the crying was distressing.
Looking back, some people thought they had experienced emotional changes before diagnosis, though at the time they might not have realised or understood it. One woman said, “I would laugh or cry excessively and it bewildered and disturbed me because I couldn't work out why it was happening.” One man said his wife's emotions had become very changeable well before diagnosis.
Di's emotions became volatile a year before physical symptoms emerged and it caused some...
Di's emotions became volatile a year before physical symptoms emerged and it caused some...
Emotional lability is marked by emotional behaviours which are in some way out of proportion or inappropriate to the situation, for example laughing at things which are not funny or crying when someone tells a joke. These behaviours are not always accompanied by a true feeling or emotion, but sometimes the act of laughing or crying can in itself make one happy or sad. Therefore it is perfectly possible to have emotional lability but to have a normal mood. When an antidepressant is prescribed for emotional lability, it is thought it has a specific chemical effect which is different from the mechanism for treating depression. The doses used for emotional lability are usually lower than for depression. However, there is some doubt about how effective antidepressant use is with emotional lability.
Low mood is a natural and understandable reaction to a serious diagnosis such as MND. Not surprisingly, many people described feelings of intense sadness, bleakness and loss of hope, especially straight after diagnosis. (See also 'Immediate reactions to diagnosis'). Over time, many said these feelings became less intense, or they managed to push them to the back of their mind most of the time, but they could still become emotional very easily. Some made the point that this was different to emotional lability and was just a normal response to a serious life event. Both frustration and sadness played a part, and worries about the future. Several people said they were grieving for the loss of physical functions and the life they had expected to have.
Little things can still trigger great sadness, especially thinking about his grandchildren, but...
Little things can still trigger great sadness, especially thinking about his grandchildren, but...
I don't think it's part of the condition that you become emotional. I think it's a reaction to the condition. And, yes, I can be very laughable, and I'll make jokes and - because that's another defence against it. And you can get very surly as well. You know, 'Don't you realise that's a disabled space?' you know, 'Parking your bloody car there.' And it's a reaction to it, you know. And you compensate for it, because you don't want to happen what's happening to you, and you compensate for it by either reacting emotionally, you know, because you can't do things, you're not going to be able to do things. I went out and bought everything I'd ever want to give my grandsons, and went and bought it in a day, you know. They got stuff that's going to last until they're bloody teenagers [coughs] that I would have bought, because that's part of what granddads did for boys. And I'm not going to be there, you know.
Fishing rods, knives, all sorts of things, you know, cranky stuff. But it's a reaction to it. And it's worse at the beginning. When you're first told, you, you think somebody's just told you you're going to die Saturday. You know, 'It's Friday night now, so Saturday you're not going to be here.' End of story, you know - don't need to think any further than that. And of course it's not. You are going to be around for a while, you know. Nobody can tell you how long, or they won't tell you how long, I'm not sure which. Probably because they don't. The disease affects people in different ways, it's not all the same for everybody. And again, I think part of that is how your make-up is. If you're a fighter you're going to last longer than somebody that gives in to it or somebody that refuses to accept it. And I think that's one of the big things. Accept it, embrace it. Once you've done that - and that's hard, it really is hard. I found it very difficult. But once I'd embraced the fact that I'd got it, I could then start compensating for it, with equipment.
A year after diagnosis, some days he feels fine, but other days something frustrating can happen...
A year after diagnosis, some days he feels fine, but other days something frustrating can happen...
Other days you, you struggle more with your emotions, with your physical disabilities. You tend to be more, you tend to take longer to recover from exercise, from functioning. I've always thought myself quite a fit person [laughs]. I'm a pale shadow of the athlete I once was. And as you're tired, that affects certain functions. So it may be that it's still something you're able to do ordinarily, just not now. And that can lead to certain - it can build the frustration, you know.
He describes the range of emotions he feels, including anxiety, sadness, grief and loneliness.
He describes the range of emotions he feels, including anxiety, sadness, grief and loneliness.
There's a lot of sadness obviously. There's a lot of loss because you haven't really got a future anymore and you know, like me and my wife sometimes, we go and see other couples like, you know, go round to their house for tea and they come to our house and that, and they've got a future and we haven't. You know, they can talk about what they're going to do when the kids have left home and, you know, as a couple we haven't got a future really. And that's a big loss.
And then there's, and then there's the sort of the loss of, of just the things that I would like to do now but I can't. You know, I'd like to be able to go out for a walk and I'd like to walk through the woods and I'd like to be able go down the shops without having to make a big performance out of getting somebody to help me all the time and so on and, you know, and, so there's a lot of losses.
And also, when you're in a wheelchair like this, you're in a sort of you're actually quite cut off from other people because you're just surrounded by sort hardware. So it's like quite difficult to have a proper cuddle with anybody. Or to sit on the sofa and have my dog sit on my lap, I can't do that anymore. And things like that. So there's a lot of things that you lose and, and they are just sources of, of, you know, deep regret, because you just will never get them back again. And you also know that even now what you've got now, you'll be looking back on it six months later and thinking well it was quite good then. Because it's worse now. It's always getting worse and that's quite tough. That is very tough.
There's nothing, there's nothing very much to look forward to in terms of the illness. You know, I mean something good might happen in your life, but in terms of the illness you're always going to be getting worse. Whereas most people that've got an illness think about getting better, you know, this is a different kind of illness. And a lot of other people don't know how to relate to it. You know, that, that speak to you because they don't know what to say because all the normal things that they say to a person that is ill, as soon as they start to say it and they realise they don't make sense. So then they're just left dumbstruck then.
What other feelings are there? Well there's a lot of anger. I have a lot of frustration. You know, on a day-to-day basis because I can't do things. So I get frustrated and I get irritable. I'm usually quite a patient person but I find this, you know, this situation does like really try my patience. I get very irritable, I get very angry, you know, frustrated but well you can just you know bang things and shout and stuff, that's all you can do.
What other feelings? Those are the main ones, I think. So you can feel lonely at times. You can feel lonely because you know, you can feel cut off from people. You can spend time with people, it's often, often you feel, I feel the loneliest when I'm spending time with people. So sometimes, you know, people say, “Well, I’ll come and spend time with you”, thinking that that’ll take away loneliness but it can make you feel more lonely because, because sometimes people want to spend to time with you but they can’t get to where you are in terms of your feelings. So you’re, you’re left with it, so everyone else may be say’s having a good time and, and, and you’ve got these sort of anxiety feelings or anger feelings or sadness feelings and, and you know that the people that you’re with, they don’t really want to go there. So you have to keep it on your own and then you feel cut off from them and then you actually wish you were on your own to be honest, you know, and not having to pretend to smile and be having a good time and things.
So loneliness can be quite a big thing as well. Even though I’m not really lonely because I’ve got my family and everything, you can still feel lonely. And I know a lot of these things are similar for my wife as well. You know, because although she hasn’t got motor neurone disease the fact that we’re going through this and it’s like it’s us and like other people around don’t really get it and so we can feel quite cut off from other people.
Hmm.
Sometimes. That’s it mainly. Sadness, grief, I’ve mentioned that. Yeah.
Several men in particular said they had become generally more emotional or less 'macho' than they had ever been before. While they did not mind this in some ways, they could find it uncomfortable in public. As one man put it, “I'm not ashamed of my emotions. I cry in public. I don't like crying in public, but when you have motor neurone it's one of the things.'
Some people became depressed. In depression, people may experience severe mood disturbance with significant physical and psychological results (insomnia, weight loss, irritability, feelings of hopelessness). These symptoms may respond well to treatment, even if they have been triggered by a life-altering physical illness such as MND. Some neurologists and GPs will be experienced in the management of depression, but where there is doubt a specialist psychological assessment may be helpful. Some MND or neurological clinics have a clinical psychologist as part of the multidisciplinary team. Several people we talked to found antidepressant medication helped them, and some were taking a low dose on a continuing basis. Some also benefited from talking therapies such as counselling and psychotherapy, and meditation.
She became very depressed and tried hypnotherapy and counselling. The hospice medical director...
She became very depressed and tried hypnotherapy and counselling. The hospice medical director...
I definitely needed more emotional support from the medical profession early on but sadly, probably due to time restraints, none was forthcoming. I paid to see a private hypnotherapist and we worked on positive imagery; it just lulled me into a false sense of security and dented my bank balance. I was desperate for emotional support and felt rejected by everyone that I turned to. The counsellor at my surgery said she couldn't make me feel better but I could cry on her shoulder. I decided to cry on my own shoulder. I come from a traditional Jewish background but received no support from the three rabbis I contacted. The therapist at my hospice was fairly elderly and kept nodding off during our sessions which I quickly gave up. My hospice doctor rescued me mentally by letting me discuss my feelings and giving me advice. I can email him whenever I have a problem or just if I feel anxious or low and he always writes back. Because I can't speak well on the phone this communication is a life saver and I know most doctors wouldn't do the same for me. I believe I'm extremely fortunate to have met him.
She is determined to keep going for her children's sake, but she has been depressed in the past....
She is determined to keep going for her children's sake, but she has been depressed in the past....
Have you suffered with depression?
In the early days, yes. Especially around the time of my marriage break-up. And it's, I suppose everybody's got, you come to that point where, 'Is it really worth it?' And I did have thoughts like that. But looking back, I think you've got to get to that position to claw your way out, if that makes sense. And I think that was a turning point for me.
Did you take any medication?
Yeah, I met the doctor, put me straight on. Because I was just, I couldn't make any rational decisions. I thought that, 'What was the point?' And everybody was, I felt so alone and I had the children, and everything was just piling up and piling up. And once those tablets had kicked in, it took quite a few months, when I started to see things much more clearer and not so negative. And that enabled me to sort things out, make some decisions, and then, 'Hey, I am not going there again. I've been in that black place. I don't like it. I'm not going to be that person again.'
I take a, I think it's 10 milligrams now. At the time that I was at my worst, I was on something like 75, and I've gradually got down to 10 or 5. And I was going to come off them, but my GP thought it was better because I was stable and everything's fine, to just stay on a small dose. And also there's a lot of evidence that with motor neurone disease the chemical imbalance in the brain makes people often laugh inappropriately, or cry at the drop of a hat. That's something that's a real issue. So in some ways antidepressants kind of balance that out. So a small amount probably keeps that, that side. Because that can be really embarrassing as well.
Has that actually happened to you?
It, it has in, in the early days, where somebody would say something really upsetting and I would burst out laughing and think, you know, 'I shouldn't be laughing at this.' And it wasn't funny, but - and it's off-putting to other people. Or somebody would walk past us and make a joke one day, and I would burst into tears and think, 'This is pathetic. They haven't upset you, so why are you crying?' kind of thing. And, and that has helped with that side of it. So I tend just to take them.
One man started taking a drug called amitriptyline to help reduce excess saliva. Amitriptyline is in fact an antidepressant, and he found it reduced his emotional agitation as well as helping with the saliva.
Some people did not want or need to take medication and found other ways to get through periods of low mood. Strategies included expressing their feelings and talking it through with family; keeping up as many activities as possible and getting out regularly; going on holidays or trips; and consciously challenging negative thoughts. Some people used these strategies as well as medication.
People talk more about their general approach to life with MND and how they cope emotionally in 'Philosophy, attitude to life and messages for others'.
Carers will understandably also go through periods of depression. Carers' feelings are explored further in 'Impact on family carers'.
The MND Association website provides an information sheet to help: 9C: Managing emotions, which includes information about emotional lability.
Last reviewed August 2017.
Last updated August 2017.
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