What Is Emotional Lability? 6 Signs That It Is Affecting Your Life
Do you suffer from sudden emotional instability? Do you know what emotional lability is and the meaning it can have in your life? Discover its main signs and how to deal with it.
The emotional lability It is a series of manifestations of sudden mood changes without apparent cause. That is, in other words, going from laughter to crying and from joy to a bad mood quickly and with the absence of reasons. Many people think that having mood swings means having bipolar disorder. People talk about it as if it were nothing serious and people are crossed out or labeled without a second thought. Well, today I would like to explain and differentiate both concepts, emotional lability and bipolar disorder, as well as raise awareness of what we do when we say: “this one is bipolar“when instead on most occasions we should say “is labile”.
The emotional lability and its meaning They point to a series of emotional ups and downs that can last hours, days or weeks. In this way you can suffer from emotional lability at different stages of life.
“Emotional lability is not considered a disorder per se, but it is an emotional symptom.”
In this way, emotional lability and its definition indicate that these symptoms can appear in people who suffer from mood disorders such as depression, generalized anxiety, cyclothymia or bipolar disorder, but they do not necessarily have to be associated with a psychological disorder.
Anyone can have episodes of emotional lability, also called affective lability In fact, we all present to a greater or lesser extent episodes of emotional lability that we do not give importance to at some ages of life, but it can be considered a problem when these changes are very abrupt or shocking. In the case of emotional lability, joy and sadness or anger constantly come and go in a sudden and uncontrolled manner following small triggers that another person would not give so much importance to.
Emotional lability can have a neurological origin, in fact, there are studies that identify this symptom with a malfunction of the limbic system and it usually manifests itself in people who suffer from epilepsy or in those who suffer from autism. The most common manifestations of emotional lability They are panic attacks, anger attacks or uncontrolled crying after a comment or event that activates the emotion when the person was previously calm and/or happy. However, it is normal for this symptom to appear at complicated moments in our existence that affect us emotionally: a loss, a breakup, an existential crisis or at any of the stages of the life cycle.
Symptoms of emotional lability
There are a series of signs that may indicate that you are suffering from emotional lability and its meaning According to psychologists, this can be detected through the following signs.
Emotional outbursts: Sometimes you can suffer brief emotional reactions that can last a few minutes and then disappear. This may be a sign that you are having an episode of affective lability
Mixed emotional outbursts: When a person has certain emotional outbursts that go through different emotions, this can also mean that you are in one of the vital stages carried out by emotional lability
Lack of emotional symptoms: People with affective lability They usually do not show emotions during one stage or another of this pathology.
Laugh or cry in situations that are not funny or sad: On some occasions people with emotional lability They can laugh or cry in situations where it is not acceptable to do so.
Exaggerated emotional responses: Sometimes people who are in vital stages such as adolescence may have certain exaggerated emotional responses in situations in which they are not of such importance. When this happens in another stage of life, it is a clear sign that you suffer from affective lability
Behavior different from usual: Another feature that may indicate emotional lability is that the person ends up behaving in a very different way than usual.
If you think you have many of these signs, you are probably suffering from emotional lability In these cases, if it is a problem that stops you, it is vital to consult a professional psychologist.
Differences between emotional lability and bipolar disorder
As we have already said, on many occasions the affective or emotional lability with bipolar disorder. Despite this, there are a series of differences that can help us see that they are really not the same.
It is not a psychological disorder: Bipolar disorder is considered a Psychological trastorn while emotional lability is a symptom.
It may be a symptom of another disease: The lability It can occur both in people with psychological disorders and in healthy people, while bipolar disorder presents emotional lability as a symptom of the disease.
They are of little severity: The affective lability It is a series of sudden mood changes that represent little severity or mild consequences, while in bipolar disorder the changes are very disproportionate and have serious consequences for the person and the family of the sufferer.
There are no risk behaviors: In the lability It is not a synonym for engaging in risky behavior, while in bipolar disorder it is.
Lability can be due to specific moments of the person, changes in the hormonal cycle or external events, while bipolar disorder is a problem with a chronic course. Although they are two different pathologies, if you think that you are going through vital stages along with emotional lability and this stops you from evolving, it is important to consult with a professional psychologist.
Emotional lability in children and adolescents
In the case of little ones, it is very common for them to sometimes feel overwhelmed by emotions and not know how to manage them. However, the emotional lability In children it can also show up if they have sudden and random radical mood changes or if they happen very often. In that case, you will have to be attentive to see what happens to them in case there is something behind them, although these situations are very normal when they are developing their own personality. In the case of lability in adolescents, this is associated with this stage of life, since they tend to experience everything with special intensity as a result of their need for experimentation.
Although it is more common to suffer from emotional lability during the first stages of the life cycle, the reality is that it can also happen at other times in our lives. In many cases this affective lability It will be linked to moments or experiences that we consider hard for us. The key to overcoming them will be to work within ourselves.
Emotional instability: Treatment
The emotional lability It should be treated with a professional psychologist. Despite this, there are a series of attitudes that we can take to alleviate the symptoms if we suffer from these pathologies during one of the stages of the life cycle.
Analyze when it happens: Maybe the emotional lability occurs in some situations that can be identified. In these cases it is vital to know why it happens and how we can deal with it. To do this, identify the moment in which it happened and analyze what could have triggered it.
Use relaxation: When you see that you are about to suffer an episode, you can try to stop it by breathing deeply. In addition, practicing relaxation or meditation techniques will also be useful to identify episodes.
Rationalize emotions: The moment you see that you are about to be prisoner of the emotions of affective lability a good exercise will be to try to rationalize what you feel and question whether it is really for you to feel or think about it.
These are some of the ways you can stop the effects of emotional lability in some of the vital stages of your life. In many cases, to get out of this state it is vital to rethink some aspects of our daily life.
