Intense bouts of anger, anxiety, or depression that last for hours or even days. Mood swings from dysphoria to euphoria, from manic self-confidence to complete self-abasement and tearfulness. Perhaps in the description you recognized someone you know or yourself. In this case, it is important to understand what you are facing and how to behave.
Everyone has periods of mental instability. Everyone has experienced some kind of strong shock: the premature death of a friend, a difficult breakup, the loss of a job. Fortunately, most manage to return to normal life relatively easily.
But past traumas and mental disorders often lead to the fact that people are simply unable to cope with serious difficulties.
Many take emotional instability for an intolerable character. However, most often it indicates serious problems, such as borderline personality disorder, a trace of childhood trauma, depressive or anxiety disorder. And yet such people have some universal traits.
SIGNS OF EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY
1. Impulsive behavior
Emotionally unstable individuals are often prone to reckless actions. They do not think at all that they can harm themselves and others. For example, they drive a car at breakneck speed. Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. That is, they deliberately put themselves at risk. In addition, they are characterized by impulsive spending and addiction to gambling. They have little to no self-control, and they don’t really understand how to put off gratification. All this gives short-term bliss – otherwise why live?
2. Anger problems
This is one of the main signs and a big trouble. There is no middle state: either charm itself, or unbridled rage. They don’t know how to control their emotions at all. Although they are characterized by bursts of joy and sadness, they are terrible in anger. They scream frantically, fall into hysterics, use physical force. The latter doesn’t always mean lashing out with fists at whoever pissed them off, but slamming doors and throwing things is their style.
Professor of Psychiatry Carol W. Berman warns: “The most important thing is not to take such antics to heart. Remember: this does not apply to you personally. People with borderline personality disorder are not fully aware of their behavior and how it affects others.”
3. Relationship-swing
It is difficult for them to maintain an even relationship. They are thrown from one extreme to another: today you are adored, tomorrow they are ready to pulverize. Moreover, they need shake-ups. They start fights and say, “It’s over between us,” only to return hours or days later.
“It’s a little strange to compare relationships with eggshells, but you can’t say it better. You have to be extremely delicate, figuratively speaking, walk on eggshells from morning to evening, because your partner, or whatever it is, has a heavy, but simply toxic character. So toxic that you have to be extremely careful not to get hit. It’s all about emotional instability, ”writes former FBI agent, non-verbal communication expert Joe Navarro.
However, it’s not just romantic relationships that suffer. Emotionally unstable people have difficulty with any relationship – friendships, family, and so on. They withdraw from friends and loved ones because they don’t know what real affection means.
4. Violent reactions
These people overreact to situations that others do not attach any importance to at all – and it does not matter if they are real or far-fetched. If they thought to themselves that they were treated unfairly, a blood offense will follow, without any attempts to figure it out. Perhaps the reason is a distorted picture of the world: they see events as if in a distorted mirror.
One of the typical illusions of emotionally unstable people that can cause a violent reaction is imagined abandonment. If they feel like they’ve been betrayed by family or friends—and it doesn’t matter if they haven’t—they may become hysterical.
CAN YOU HELP SOMETHING?
As a rule, those who have experienced some kind of trauma suffer from emotional instability. They failed to develop the qualities necessary to keep emotions in check. In fact, they do not want to harm others, but sometimes it happens.
For them, there are support groups, systemic therapy and special drugs. What happens specifically, only a specialist can determine. However, if your loved ones or acquaintances have similar problems, you will be able to recognize the signs of such behavior and offer timely help.