Irritability
The common signs and symptoms of meningitis such as fever, neck and back stiffness and nausea can make you irritable. You may find your routine activities (eating, working, sleeping, etc.) uncomfortable. Although irritability affects patients of all ages, children less than 5 years of age become extremely irritable and difficult to control. If the disease progresses, constant irritability may cause mental and emotional disturbances. While a majority of affected people are successfully treated within 1 to 2 weeks after the appearance of initial signs and symptoms, severe cases may experience chronic irritability and loss of energy that prevents them from doing much else than staying in bed for a long period of time.
Irritable behavior can also be due to the confusion, another classic symptom of meningitis. With an increase in the severity of the infection, irritability may start causing difficulty thinking clearly, memory loss, and unable to discern between reality and dreams. As children find it difficult to comprehend the illness, confusion in them may even lead to increased irritability.