Things that caused emotional outbursts to exacerbate in my kids:
hypoglycemia: kids' metabolisms gobble up calories faster than ours, so making sure they have a good balance of lean protein, healthy fat and whole grain carbs made a HUGE difference in my daughter, especially as she approached puberty. When she was 12, she started having severe problems with blood sugar, and we had to remove all sugar from her diet for about two years. Once her hormones stabilized, she was able to return to a more regular diet, although she still has hypoglycemia as a young adult.
asthma flare: one of the first indicators that my son was having trouble with his asthma was emotional melt-downs. He would cry over everything, and then it would finally register with me that he was crying over everything. I'd check his oxygen saturation levels, and they would be low.
over-stimulation: when they would young, too much packed into one day was exactly what was needed to create the "perfect storm" where I became the mom everyone in the store was watching while shaking their heads over that out-of-control kid.
insecurity: because my kids were so emotionally intense even on good days, I found that giving them very clear, unmoveable boundaries helped significantly. They needed the security of knowing where the lines where and who was in charge. When they didn't have that security, the melt-downs definitely increased.
internal pressure: my kids all put huge amounts of internal pressure on themselves to meet some goal or achievement. It was often weeks before they would share this internal mandate with me, and it was usually after I saw their emotions start to rollercoaster and couldn't figure out why. I'd push until they'd finally explain some expectation they'd decided was a reasonable thing for themselves. Most often, the goals were way too extreme, thus causing the emotional rollercoaster.
On a Scale of 1 to 10: I taught my kids to measure their emotions (mad, glad, sad, afraid, ashamed, hurt) on a scale of one to ten before the day started. "Today, my Mad is at a 6, because I am still upset about...". Being aware of where they started the day emotionally helped them understand that if they were already fairly elevated before anything happened, they were very likely to escalate quickly over something that might not do that if they weren't already upset. This self-awareness really helped them self-regulate and avoid difficult environments when possible on days when they knew they weren't up to a confrontation.
I'm not sure if any of these will help you, but thought I'd share in case they do.
Last edited by ABQMom; 10/24/12 09:00 AM. Reason: clarification
