Emotional Instability: What Is It And What Signs Can It Be Detected In?
Emotions are the foundation of our mental activity. Without them, we would not be able to direct our behavior towards any specific objective, nor would we know approximately what we want and do not want in our lives.
However, having a resource such as a wide range of emotions has a not so positive side: the possibility of experiencing emotional instability Let’s see what it is and in what ways it can appear.
Emotional instability is a personality trait that belongs to the spectrum of neuroticism, and is expressed through the expression of relatively abrupt changes in a person’s emotional state
In some cases, emotional instability can be practically harmless, if the context is favorable; but in other extreme cases, It can become a psychological phenomenon linked to discomfort both from those who experience it in the first person and from the people close to the previous one.
Characteristics of emotionally unstable people
Among the typical characteristics of people with emotional instability, the following stand out.
1. Bias towards discomfort
In certain aspects it may seem that emotionally unstable people live life with intensity, but the fact that they are so sensitive to the changes that arise with each situation means that they frequently focus their attention on those experiences that make them feel bad, whether due to anger, sadness or fear
This is due to a bias aimed at trying to get away from discomfort, as a priority objective, more important than enjoying those moments of happiness.
2. Rapid mood swings
Emotional instability means that the stimuli of the present easily impose themselves on the emotional states derived from experiences that have recently happened, even though the new situations that trigger these emotions are apparently less important than what has happened to us before and left us that good or bad taste in your mouth.
For example, someone with emotional instability who passed their driving test a few hours ago may feel very sad when watching a television commercial with a sad message.
3. Low tolerance for frustration
Emotionally unstable people They do not usually assimilate well the moments in which their expectations are frustrated since they see these situations as added problems for the simple fact of being unexpected.
4. Complex personal relationships
In general, people with pronounced emotional instability come to have difficulties in having a large social and support network since their social skills suffer due to poor control over emotions.
The extreme case: affective lability
When emotional instability becomes so pronounced that can be considered a symptom of a mental disorder, is known as affective lability. This is a common phenomenon in psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, cyclothymia or bipolar disorder.
In these cases, the situation is serious and can even go hand in hand with other symptoms that strongly affect emotional states, such as hallucinations.
Can you learn to control emotions?
In non-pathological cases of emotional instability, it is usually possible to train the ability to regulate emotions in a useful and adaptive way However, this usually requires psychological intervention with the help of professionals in this discipline.
The field of Emotional Intelligence, specifically, is an area of ​​intervention that points towards promising discoveries. This mental aptitude is known to be related to general intelligence (measured by IQ) without being exactly the same, and that it has to do with the ease with which we become happy.
To enjoy a better emotional balance, therefore, it is necessary to go through a series of practical situations that help us establish life habits that enhance a joint and coherent vision of our experiences, as well as a modification of our fundamental beliefs through what is known as cognitive restructuring. In this way, extreme interpretations of reality, which make us prone to sudden changes in mood, will lose strength in favor of a more realistic perception of things.
