Emotional Dysregulation: What is it? The Causes and Symptoms.
photo credit - Brian Lundquist via unsplash
Emotional Dysregulation occurs in our brains and alters the way we manage our feelings and emotions. It is often a by-product of underlying conditions or how our brains developed and works today. It is usually not a serious condition and many times it is treatable.
What is emotional dysregulation?
Emotional Dysregulation is a symptom of our mental health that involves the inability to control our emotions and act on those feelings. In our relationships, the people see our emotions and reactions as disproportionate to what we are reacting to.
When we manage or regulate our emotions, we have the ability to control how we feel and react to stress or experiences. Most people develop this ability as children through parental and familial guidance and develop it over the course of their lives. It is a key factor in being adaptable and resilient to life’s challenges. An example of this is when children outgrow temper tantrums. As children, these tantrums are normal and expected, but as we grow older, we learn to regulate our emotions and the tantrums become less frequent and stop altogether.
Think of emotional regulation as the volume control for your T.V or radio. People with healthy emotional regulation can “turn their emotions down” to a tolerable level and manage their various stressors. People with unhealthy emotional regulation cannot control the volume and their emotions are much “louder” and harder to manage, because the “volume control signal” isn’t communicating with that part of their brain.
What does emotional dysregulation look like?
How emotional dysregulation shows up can vary by individual. Some examples include:
Emotions interfering with pursuit of goals and how you achieve desired outcomes.
Directing your moods, causing you to feel stuck, especially with negative moods and emotions like depression or anxiety.
Mania or hypomania. (impulsive behavior, mood swings, etc.)
Losing your temper easily.
Being easily frustrated by small inconveniences or annoyances.
Persistent irritability or anger.
When does emotional regulation become a problem?
When it is severe, it can disrupt your life, relationships and even liberty. Some of these effects include:
Verbal outbursts.
Aggressive or even violent behavior.
Trouble maintaining relationships.
Possible Causes
What are the most common causes of emotional dysregulation?
Emotional dysregulation is a symptom of various causes. It is linked to mental health conditions, but also found in individuals who are neurodivergent. Many people with emotional dysregulation have multiple conditions that cause it.
There are three main group of people that it happens in:
People with mental health conditions. These conditions usually involve disruptions in mood, personality and self-control ability.
People who are neurodivergent. These are people whose brains developed or work differently than expected. People whose brains developed and worked as expected are “neurotypical.”
People with damage to certain areas of their brain. These individuals typically were involved in some sort of accident or other physically traumatic experience that caused Traumatic Brain Injury etc.
Care and Treatment
How is emotional dysregulation treated?
Emotional dysregulation is manageable and treatment can help. The main types of treatments offered today include:
Therapy - This treatment involves working with a counselor or other mental health professional. They can guide you to understand how and why you experience emotional dysregulation. A key part of working with these professionals is learning coping skills and strategies that can help you prevent the more severe effects of emotional dysregulation.
Medications. These can help make it easier for you to manage emotions. How they do this depends on the medication itself, the condition it’s treating and more.
Supportive and symptomatic care. These involve treating the underlying conditions or factors causing or contributing to emotional dysregulation. For example, concussions aren’t directly treatable. However, treating the symptoms of concussion can ease and speed up recovery. As a person recovers, their emotional dysregulation will improve and even go away (unless they had it before the concussion).
Special Note from Me
Is emotional dysregulation the same as ADHD?
No, ADHD and emotional dysregulation are very different. ADHD is a diagnosable medical condition. Emotional dysregulation is a symptom of many conditions.
However, ADHD and emotional dysregulation have a long history. In years past, receiving an ADHD diagnosis required that you also have emotional dysregulation. While that’s no longer required for an ADHD diagnosis, experts still know it’s a common feature of ADHD.
Emotional dysregulation can make it feel like your emotions control you instead of the other way around. Feelings and emotions are not manageable and overwhelm you and can be paralyzing. However, it is important to know that emotional dysregulation is very treatable; and it is possible to learn strategies and skills that help you manage this dysregulation better. Ready to learn to master your emotions? Reach out…