Causes of stress, Mechanisms of stress, For specialists Irina Vasilyeva How often have you observed bright emotional outbursts of other people? Have you ever thought that this could be a sign of mental illness? After all, psycho-emotional instability occurs quite often. In some cases, it may be characteristic of absolutely healthy people, in others it can be a symptom of certain mental illnesses. How to distinguish one from the other? I will answer these and other questions for you today, dear reader.
When emotional instability is normal
Children and teenagers
If we talk about human life, then any of you will agree that childhood up to 5 years is a period of constant changes, including in mental life. Even the calmest children have periods when parents simply clutch their heads.
The fact is that only closer to four years do most children develop a feeling of shame, thanks to which the child tries to control his physiological and psychological reactions. The complete assimilation of social norms is still far away, therefore sharp transitions from crying to joy, from delight to grief are a feature of age.
The period of primary school age, as a rule, is characterized by a slight calm, after which a storm comes again. Everyone knows that in a teenage child, symptoms of emotional instability are present in most standard everyday situations.
Unstable behavior of a teenager is a fairly common reason for turning to a psychologist. However, with the exception of rare cases, psycho-emotional lability is a normal sign of growing up. In this case, the psychologist works not only with the teenager. Parents of an unexpectedly matured person also have to restructure their views on upbringing.
Adults
In an adult who does not have mental disorders, emotional lability can be expressed in three cases.
- A pronounced demonstrative personality . Such people are actors. It doesn’t matter at all whether acting is their profession or not. They don't care where to play. The main thing is that the audience applauds. Surely, each of you has met such a person in your life. The richness of emotions and their rapid switchability are the constant character traits of a demonstrative personality.
- The so-called cyclothymic personalities. These are people who have their own special rhythm of changing good and bad moods. Some days they flutter like butterflies, while on others literally everything irritates them. Moreover, you will not be able to trace any pattern in this process.
- Infantile personalities. Emotional immaturity, attempts to avoid responsibility, inability to make decisions are symptoms of mental infantilism. The most common reason for this phenomenon is overprotection on the part of parents. Dear dads and moms, if you do not allow your child to show independence and make decisions, then know that you are taking the right steps towards developing infantile character traits and emotional immaturity in him.
Symptoms and consequences
People suffering from this organic disorder are quick-tempered, angry, and even for minor reasons they experience violent outbursts of emotions. Their loved ones irritate them, and troubles are perceived literally like this: “everything is lost.” The mood changes abruptly and dramatically, like the weather in spring. Negative reactions arise spontaneously and cannot be adjusted.
Patients are touchy, prone to sentimentality, and tearful. Asthenia is manifested by weakness, rapid fatigue - even 2-3 hours of work is enough for them to get tired. Then complete powerlessness sets in, requiring serious rest.
Such people experience frequent headaches, even dizziness. Typically, such sensations occur when weather conditions change. They cannot tolerate a lack of oxygen and stuffiness, so it is difficult for them to travel on public transport. Sunlight hurts the eyes, normal sounds are perceived as very loud, even a slight touch causes pain.
Children with psychoorganic syndrome may talk in their sleep or walk.
As the disease progresses, problems with emotions, thinking and memory become more severe. The patient, talking about something, is distracted from the main thread of the story, going into insignificant, insignificant details. His thoughts become viscous, he often repeats the same phrases, his vocabulary becomes impoverished, and rhymes slip through his everyday speech.
The individual completes the assigned task slowly, since his mental processes proceed inertly. He remembers recent events poorly, not to mention those that happened long ago.
Critical abilities are impaired, and, although the patient understands the line between good and bad, he may speak tactlessly or commit an unacceptable action.
Character deteriorates, and what a person previously tried not to demonstrate, considering it a bad trait, comes out. He becomes boastful, sticks out his merits, exaggerating and pathetically praising them. Such euphoria abruptly turns into gloom, melancholy and suddenly - an affective outburst over a small matter. At this moment, the patient loses self-control, his consciousness narrows and focuses on the immediate task - to immediately punish the one who offended him, even if nothing of the kind actually happened. And then a tragedy may occur: he will commit a crime, maybe even kill.
As the disorder progresses, it leads to negative personality changes, namely social maladjustment. Relationships with loved ones deteriorate, difficulties arise in school and work. Professional performance deteriorates so much that it leads to dismissal.
Neurological disorders are added to psychoorganic disorders. These may be seizures or nocturnal diuresis (paroxysms).
To escape from problems, patients begin to drink alcohol and take drugs. This, in turn, leads to delirium tremens and amnesia, increasing the risk of increased criminal behavior and death.
The main feature of the disorder: loss of control over aggressiveness, the outbreak of which occurs without any reason. The internal tension for such a surge can increase in a minute or several hours. After a momentary attack of rage, the patient moves away and repents of what happened, which distinguishes this disease from dissocial personality disorder.
All of the above clearly convinces that organic emotional labile asthenic disorder must begin to be treated in the early stages. This should be done jointly by a psychiatrist and a neurologist.
Very often, the patient himself and those around him attribute the above-mentioned behavior to bad character, without resorting to therapy and wasting time. An experienced specialist will make a diagnosis at the first appointment and prescribe treatment. The result of therapy is very favorable if the patient follows all the instructions and recommendations of the attending physician.
Emotional lability as a symptom of emotional disorder
Today, not all emotional disorders arise due to the presence of a mental illness. Many of them are cured thanks to competent psychotherapeutic influence. I talk about how to work correctly with an unstable emotional state in my online training. The training will be useful not only for those who suffer from emotional instability. I also recommend that young professionals who work in the helping professions take it. I am sure that with the help of the techniques contained in the training, specialists will be able to expand their tools for helping other people.
Such people experience increased irritability, excitability combined with explosiveness, malice, rancor, vindictiveness, and the viscosity of affective reactions. Their characteristic mood swings with a predominance of a gloomy and angry background are combined with violent outbursts of emotions. At the same time, affective fluctuations, like discharges of emotions, are usually associated with external causes, although these reasons for irritation and dissatisfaction may be insignificant. These people are constantly dissatisfied with everything, looking for reasons to find fault. Typically, such individuals lack the prudence to calmly and coldly assess the situation. Everyday everyday troubles are perceived with a tinge of unhappiness, leading to emotional stress, and outbursts of anger often arise for an insignificant reason. This lack of restraint is especially noticeable in intra-family conflicts, when a quarrel often ends in violent acts, from breaking dishes to beating family members.
Emotionally unstable (excitable) individuals cannot tolerate objections, they are extremely impatient, in disputes they do not listen to other people’s opinions and do not agree with them. They do not take into account the interests of others, they are selfish, because of this they often have conflicts with others. At the same time, they are completely unable to understand their own role in frequent conflicts. Constant quarrels, accompanied by a showdown, determine their belief in their special role and significance. Ideas appear about prejudiced attitudes towards them, that they are not valued and not understood in the team and family.
There are two types of this variant of personality disorder - impulsive and borderline.
The impulsive type corresponds to excitable psychopathy. Psychopathy of this type is characterized by unusually strong emotional excitability. Its initial manifestations are detected in preschool age. Children often scream and become angry. Any restrictions, prohibitions and punishments cause violent protest reactions in them with viciousness and aggression. In the lower grades, these are “difficult” children with excessive mobility, unbridled pranks, capriciousness and touchiness. Along with hot temper and irritability, they are characterized by cruelty and gloominess. They are vindictive and quarrelsome. An early-detected tendency to a gloomy mood is combined with periodic short-term (2-3 days) dysphoria. In communicating with peers, they claim leadership, try to command, establish their own rules, which often leads to conflicts. They are most often not interested in studying. They do not always stay in school or vocational school, and once they start working, they soon quit.
Formed psychopathy of the excitable type is accompanied by attacks of anger, rage, affective discharges, sometimes with an affectively narrowed consciousness and sharp motor agitation. In temperament (especially easily arising during periods of alcoholic excesses), excitable individuals are capable of committing rash, sometimes dangerous actions. In life, these are active, but incapable of long-term purposeful activity, unyielding, tough people, with vindictiveness, with the viscosity of affective reactions. Among them, there are often people with disinhibited drives, prone to perversions and sexual excesses.
The subsequent dynamics of excitable psychopathy is heterogeneous.
With a favorable course, psychopathic manifestations are stabilized and even relatively fully compensated, which is greatly facilitated by the positive influences of the environment and the necessary educational measures. Behavioral disorders in such cases are significantly smoothed out by the age of 30-40, and emotional excitability gradually decreases.
However, a different dynamic is possible with a gradual increase in psychopathic characteristics. Chaotic life, inability to restrain impulses, increasing alcoholism, intolerance to any restrictions, and finally, a tendency to violent affective reactions serve in such cases as the causes of long-term disruption of social adaptation. In the most severe cases, acts of aggression and violence committed during affective outbursts lead to a collision with the law.
The borderline type has no direct analogues in the domestic taxonomy of psychopathy, although according to some personality parameters it is comparable to the unstable type of psychopathy. Borderline personality disorder needs to be differentiated from schizotypal disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety-phobic and affective disorders.
A borderline personality is characterized by increased impressionability, affective lability, vividness of imagination, mobility of cognitive processes, constant “involvement” in events related to the sphere of current interests or hobbies, extreme sensitivity to obstacles on the path to self-realization and functioning at maximum capabilities. Difficulties in the sphere of interpersonal relationships, especially the situation of frustration, are also perceived more acutely. The reactions of such subjects even to trivial events can acquire an exaggerated, demonstrative character. They too often experience those feelings that are usually found only in a situation of stress.
Initial pathocharacterological manifestations (emotional lability, suggestibility, tendency to fantasies, rapid change of hobbies, instability of relationships with peers) are detected already in adolescence. These children ignore school rules and parental restrictions. Despite their good intellectual capabilities, they perform poorly because they do not prepare for classes, are distracted in class, and reject any attempts to regulate their daily routine.
The distinctive properties of borderline personalities include lability of self-esteem, variability of ideas about both the surrounding reality and one’s own personality - a violation of self-identification, inconstancy of life attitudes, goals and plans, and the inability to resist the opinions of others. Accordingly, they are suggestible, susceptible to outside influences, easily adopt forms of behavior that are not approved by society, indulge in drunkenness, take stimulants, drugs, and can even acquire criminal experience and commit an offense (most often we are talking about petty fraud).
Borderline psychopaths easily become dependent on others, sometimes strangers. As they get closer, they quickly form a complex structure of relationships with excessive subordination, hatred or adoration, and the formation of overvalued attachments; the latter serve as a source of conflicts and suffering associated with the fear of rupture and future loneliness, and can be accompanied by suicidal blackmail.
The life path of borderline individuals seems very uneven, replete with unexpected turns in the social route and family status. Periods of relative calm are replaced by various kinds of collisions; transitions from one extreme to another are easy - this is sudden love, overcoming all obstacles, ending in an equally sudden break; and passion for a new business with objectively high professional success, and a sudden sharp change of place of work after a minor industrial conflict; this is also a passion for travel, leading to a change of residence and progression. However, despite all the shocks of life, these people do not lose their sanity; when they get into trouble, they are not as helpless as they might seem, and can find an acceptable way out of the situation at the right time. The zigzags of behavior inherent in most of them do not prevent fairly good adaptation. Easily adapting to new circumstances, they maintain their ability to work, find work, and rebuild their lives.
As part of the dynamics of borderline personality disorder, there are long periods of recovery with increased activity, a feeling of optimal intellectual functioning, heightened perception of surrounding life, which can be replaced (most often in connection with psychogenic or somatic - pregnancy, childbirth, illness, provocation) by dysthymic phases. Complaints of decreased mental capabilities, a feeling of incompleteness of feelings and cognitive functions, and in more severe cases, the phenomena of mental anesthesia, come to the fore in the clinical picture in these cases.
Among other pathological reactions in borderline disorders, the most common are psychogenically provoked transient outbursts with a varied clinical picture, including, along with affective ones, dissociative hysterical, unsystematized delusional disorders. Unlike schizophrenia, they are characterized by psychogenic provocation, transient nature, and reversibility.
Emotional lability as a symptom of mental illness
As described above, psycho-emotional instability is not a separate mental illness, but as a symptom it is included in the symptom complex of many of them. Let's talk about the most common ones.
- Schizophrenia. At the same time, a positive and negative attitude towards a person, thing, or phenomenon can cause violent emotions, ranging from intense to depressed. In addition, delusions, hallucinations, and disorders of cognitive functions (perception, attention, thinking) are often observed in the symptoms of schizophrenia.
- Bipolar affective disorder. It is characterized by alternating “bright” life periods without any signs of illness and phases of mental disorder. The disorder manifests itself as a change in manic and depressive states.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder. The pursuit of obsessive thoughts, ideas that torment a person so much that he is ready to do anything to get rid of them. Also in this state, anxiety, fears, and phobias often arise.
Many disorders accompanied by an unstable emotional background are caused by chronic alcoholism, drug addiction, trauma or organic damage to the brain, and some somatic diseases. Making a diagnosis and the corresponding consequences (admission to exams, obtaining the right to drive a car, work permit) - in each individual case, a professional doctor analyzes the manifestation of a group of symptoms and prescribes appropriate treatment.
And certainly no one has the right to draw conclusions about your psychiatric status solely on the basis of emotional instability.
Principles of diagnosis and treatment
To exclude possible concomitant organic pathology, doctors at the Leto clinic recommend consulting a neurologist and undergoing a comprehensive examination. If there are signs of a functional disease of the central nervous system, treatment is selected aimed at eliminating its cause and preventing the progression of pathological changes.
If we are talking about emotional lability of a psychogenic nature, the specialists of our clinic conduct psychodiagnostics and offer the patient to undergo psychological tests to make an accurate diagnosis.
We offer several treatment options:
- Individual consultations with a psychotherapist using cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic approaches, psychoanalysis.
- Group classes with a psychologist are especially effective for alcohol and drug addiction.
- Drug treatment to eliminate increased anxiety, restlessness, and normalize sleep.
- For severe pathologies of thinking - rehabilitation in a specialized center.
If emotional lability causes decreased performance, conflicts with friends and family members, do not self-medicate under any circumstances. Many sedatives and sedatives can cause various complications, so only a doctor should determine how to treat the disorder and select the dosage of medications. You can get a consultation, call a doctor at home or make an appointment by phone 8(969)060-93-93.
Causes of BPD
The underlying causes of borderline disorder are not clearly defined at this time, however, like most other disorders, BPD is caused by a group of factors.
Hereditary (genetic determination), physiological (impaired brain function) and social factors (low resistance to stress and psychological traumatic factors).
Unfavorable social environment
According to statistics, groups of people exposed to an unfavorable social environment, for example in the family, are more often susceptible to the disease. This may include:
- difficult childhood
- abuse,
- tyranny
- physical or emotional violence in the family,
- early loss of parents.
It is worth noting that among women “borderline” is 3 times more common than among men.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
, as a variation of an unfavorable social factor, can act not only as a cause, but also as a concomitant separate disease that is in a pathogenetic relationship with the diagnosis in question.
Chronic childhood emotional trauma may contribute to the development of BPD, but in rare cases it is the sole cause. Personal qualities responsible for the ability to cope with a stressful situation in this aspect also play a big role. It is worth noting here that, according to statistics, trauma received in childhood (especially before the age of 10) is much more likely to lead to subsequent disorder than that received in adulthood. Scientists also note that situations not associated with direct violence, such as natural disasters or catastrophes, are less likely to lead to the development of post-traumatic syndrome.
Physiology
Another group of factors considers a possible cause of the development of the disease - disturbances in the functioning of neural brain connections, namely the destruction of the functioning of frontal-limbic neurons
Heredity
The third significant cause of BPD is genetic predisposition, which accounts for up to 40% of cases of this diagnosis. It is quite difficult to achieve clear indicators in this regard, however, according to European studies, BPD is ranked 3rd out of 10 in terms of genetic determinants among personality disorders. It is logical to note that deviations in the functioning of certain lobes of the brain can be inherited and lead to a number of psychological problems, the development of which is aggravated by social factors. Most studies show that borderline personality is most often inherited from the mother.
What should you do to help your partner?
Psychology experts believe that the behavior of a fickle man can be corrected, but both must want it. You can’t put in effort on only one side and hope that your partner will follow you by inertia. A man must himself realize the tragedy of his situation and do everything to change this situation.
In my opinion, at least a couple of sessions with a highly qualified psychologist will benefit your man. These psychotherapeutic sessions will set a vector of development that can only be supported through joint efforts. I tell you, girls, what to do to achieve harmony in the “Secrets of Women’s Happiness” course and other trainings by Pavel Rakov, as well as in the articles in the “Happily Married” section.
Tell me, have you encountered unstable partners? How were you able to influence their behavior, and did it work for you?
How to help
Treatment for emotional instability includes psychotherapy, which allows the patient to talk about both current difficulties and past experiences in the presence of an accepting and non-judgmental therapist. Therapy should be structured, consistent and regular so that the patient learns to talk about his feelings, and not release them in the usual ways.
Treatment goals: increased self-awareness, increased impulse control, relationship stability, personal integrity. By doing this, the patient will be able to change rigid patterns previously established and prevent recurrence.
