What Are the Causes of Irritability?

There are many common causes of irritability that can be quickly remedied. While irritability affects many people daily, the reasons behind the irritability are often small problems or environmental factors such as stress, lack of sleep, a headache, unresolved anger or drug interactions, all of which can be eliminated in order to help you reduce irritability in your life.

Stress

• Stress is the most common cause of irritability. Stress can be caused by your home life, your work environment or any number of other environmental stressors. To eliminate irritability caused by stress you must first identify stressor and then eliminate it, if possible. If the stressor cannot be easily taken out of your life, learn to control your reaction to it. For example, when faced with harsh criticism from a coworker, respectfully accept his point of view and examine it from a neutral perspective without allowing your emotions to cloud your judgment. The irritability that you would feel from being faced with that situation is eliminated because you are not allowing an emotional response to give you negative feelings, which cause stress and then irritability.

Sleep Deprivation

• Another common cause of irritability is sleep deprivation. Physicians recommend at least seven hours of sleep a night, although some people will require more and some less. If you have trouble sleeping at all or for more than four hours at a time, consult your doctor or take an over- the-counter remedy such as melatonin or valerian root in the recommended dosage to help you maintain a regular sleep schedule. To discover what amount of sleep is required for you to perform at optimal levels, use a day off for experimentation. Go to bed at your normal hour without medicinal aid and do not set your alarm clock. Note the time when you wake up and see how many hours have passed. Repeat the process the following night and average the two amounts of time together to learn the basic time you will need to sleep every night.

Medical Conditions

• Irritability can be caused by a minor medical condition such as the common cold, the flu or a headache. All of these conditions leave you in some sort of physical discomfort or pain, which creates irritability. The best way to treat the irritability is to treat the condition causing it. The medical remedies for these conditions can often be found over-the-counter and will provide relief within twenty-four hours or less.

Emotional Issues

• Emotional problems can be a major cause of irritability. These emotional problems may be temporary, such as a disagreement at home, or a more permanent condition like depression, bipolar disorder or several other conditions. Temporary emotional problems such as anger and anxiety can be solved by learning different coping mechanisms such as meditation and mediation. Persistent emotional conditions including depression, bipolar disorder, can be treated with therapy, life coaching and prescribed medication with a doctor's assistance. It is important when examining the emotional causes of your irritability to identify which category your symptoms fall into, whether it is something that you can potentially deal with on your own, such as anxiety concerning an important meeting at work, or if you are suffering from a more serious condition such as bipolar disorder, which will require a physician's observation.

Drug Interactions

• If you take a large or varying amount of either over-the-counter or prescription medications, they could be counteracting with each other to cause irritability. The irritability caused by drug interactions will be persistent and will continue for as long as you take the combination of medication. If the medication is over-the-counter and not prescribed by a physician, discontinue the medication. Any medication that is being prescribed by a doctor should not be stopped until you discuss it with your doctor. A drug that you might not ordinarily think of but which could be causing irritability in your life is caffeine. Ingesting large amounts of caffeine throughout the day can cause anxiety and increased heart rate and can also interact with medications that you are taking. Moderating the amount of caffeinated beverages that you drink throughout the day and discussing your caffeine intake with your doctor can help you to circumvent irritability.