While unpleasant and intense emotions are part and parcel of life, emotional dysregulation occurs when you are unable to manage your emotions adaptively or appropriately, to the point where it interferes with your quality of life, social interactions, and relationships at home, work, or school.
If you find it significantly difficult to regulate your emotions and return back to your original emotional state after getting really anxious or angry, you may be experiencing emotional dysregulation.
What is emotional dysregulation?
Sometimes defined simply as dysregulation or affect dysregulation, emotional dysregulation is difficulty in managing how you respond emotionally. For instance, this could manifest as it being harder for you to calm yourself down when you feel angry, sad, or overwhelmed.
When you are emotionally dysregulated, your nervous system enters a fight or flight state even when there is no imminent threat. This may lead to depression, anxiety, and uncontrolled emotional response.
Dysregulation pushes you out of your window of tolerance – the state where you do not get overwhelmed by stressful situations and can manage your emotions easily. Individuals with emotional dysregulation often attempt to lower their emotional distress through harmful acts, such as:
Substance abuse
Suicidal actions or ideation
Self-harm
Impulsivity
Signs and symptoms of emotional dysregulation
Emotional dysregulation is being extremely sensitive to emotional triggers and the inability to return to the original emotional state properly. Depending on the individual, such dysregulation can involve responses such as mood swings and crying spells. Other signs and symptoms involving emotional dysregulation include:
Perfectionism
High levels of shame
Feeling upset or crying for no particular reason
Relationship conflict
Disordered eating
Depression
Emotional outbursts
Emotional dysregulation-related mental health conditions
While emotional dysregulation may not necessarily be related to specific mental health conditions, it can still be a key feature of many, such as:
Bipolar disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD)
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
What causes emotional dysregulation
Childhood trauma or PTSD can affect the development of our nervous system and brain. Studies have shown that a child’s emotional development is greatly influenced by the development of secure attachments with their friends and families. Conversely, the lack of such attachments can result in the development of emotional dysregulation.
Brain chemistry, or our neurotransmitters, helps to regulate our aggression, impulses, and emotions. Studies have shown that low serotonin levels in our brains result in an increase in aggression and destructive urges.
Brain injuries or trauma is one of the primary causes of emotional dysregulation. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors often develop new anger and sad emotions, such as aggressive outbursts, increased irritability, and sudden crying episodes due to damage to the section of the brain that helps to regulate emotions.
Addressing and regulating emotional dysregulation
DBT, otherwise known as Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, is often used to help individuals better cope with emotional dysregulation. It is an excellent therapy for abuse victims. Originally used as a therapy for personality disorder, DBT involves helping individuals to develop new strategies and methods to regulate their emotions, build tolerance, and manage unpleasant conflicts and feelings.
DBT’s three primary goals are:
Helping you understand your feelings and emotions
Reducing emotional vulnerability
Decreasing emotional suffering
DBT involves using mindfulness to enable you to develop a state of self-control and emotional awareness. During the therapy process, you learn that negative feelings and emotions are part and parcel of life and should not be avoided. Through techniques such as building mastery, you will be better able to control your emotions.
Being able to regulate your emotions properly leads to an improvement in your overall quality of life. In therapy, you will also be equipped with other essential skills to improve your emotion regulation ability, such as:
Staying present: Learn to respond and not react. Being aware of your emotions, actions, and thoughts can help you maintain control of how you react to unfavourable situations.
Identify your feelings: On top of being aware of your emotions, being able to label your feelings properly is crucial. For example, being specific such as, “I am confused and hurt as to how he treated me”, helps us to recognise and control our emotions.
Take opposite action: Essentially, what this entails is that you act the opposite of what you are feeling. For example, if you are feeling anxious, you act confident. This exercise helps you to remember that you are the one in control, not your emotions.
Conclusion
Everybody, at some point in their life, will experience intense emotions. However, a significant inability to regulate them, to the point where it significantly inhibits your functioning and quality of life, is a cause for concern.
If you experience difficulties managing your emotions, know that you do not have to suffer alone. Consider speaking to a mental health professional, such as the clinical psychologists at Annabelle Psychology..
Make an appointment with us today at https://www.annabellepsychology.com/.