If you find it difficult to manage your emotions, you aren’t alone. Many people have this struggle, but it is an area where it is possible to improve. At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health in Charleston, West Virginia, we treat a number of different behavioral health conditions that can make it more difficult, but not impossible, for people to regulate their emotions.
Signs of Dysregulation
People experience dysregulation in different ways, but some of the most common examples include:
- Having difficulty moving past a difficult feeling
- Becoming easily frustrated or annoyed by little things
- Mood swings
- Impulsivity
- Mania or hypomania
- Emotions interfering with your ability to accomplish your goals
- Losing your temper often, resulting in screaming or yelling
- Irritability or anger between intermittent explosions
- Frequent outbursts of tears
- Aggressive, violent behaviors toward people, animals, or objects
As you might imagine, people with these issues may experience a negative impact on their educational, work, or personal lives. In extreme cases, they may experience legal consequences. Getting help right away can make it easier to recover from these setbacks.
People Who Often Struggle With Emotional Regulation
There are three main groups of people who are more likely than others to struggle to regulate their emotions:
- People with mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, and conduct disorder
- People with brain differences such as autism or ADHD, for example. These people are sometimes called neurodivergent because their brains are built and work differently.
- People who have had damage to some part of their brain, which could be caused by physical trauma, prolonged substance use disorder, including alcohol, stroke, infections, seizures, dementia, or brain cancer/tumors
Ways Emotional Dysregulation Is Managed
The cause of the dysregulation may impact what treatment(s) will be most effective. The most common options include:
- Therapy. A mental health counselor can teach you how and why you experience emotional dysregulation, and also coping skills and techniques you can use to enhance your ability to manage your emotions more effectively. Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) can be especially helpful in teaching patients emotional regulation skills.
- Medication. If your dysregulation is caused by a mental health condition, taking medication may make it easier for you to manage your emotions by making them less intense.
- Supportive care. If you struggle to regulate your emotions because of a physical injury or medical issue, you may find that getting proper medical care will alleviate dysregulation that resulted from that specific medical condition or injury
Flexing Your Emotional Muscles
Just as your physical muscles get stronger, the more you use them, when you practice skills that support emotional regulation, you enhance your strength in this area. Some ways you can do this include:
- Mindfulness: Increasing oxygen to your brain, reducing your heart rate, and calming your body will help you regulate your emotional state. For example: Progressive muscle relaxation, interoceptive awareness training, deep breathing exercises, such as 4-7-8 theta induction, box breathing, and coherent breathing
- Stopping to think: Reflecting upon and labeling the emotions you are feeling before you react will allow you to have a more adaptive response.
- Getting regular physical exercise: This will help your brain to simulate a stress response under safe conditions, so that it can rehearse how to relax in stressful situations.
- Journaling: Taking the time to write about what upset you and how you responded can make you more aware of your triggers and give you ideas for how to respond differently in the future.
- Distracting yourself: When you find yourself in an anxiety loop, getting your mind focused on something else can help you feel less stressed.
- Using grounding techniques: These are quick, easy exercises you can use to help your mind calm itself.
- Trying expressive arts: Sometimes, we just cannot find the words to express difficult feelings, so it makes sense to let a different part of our brain process the emotions we are experiencing. Consider arts such as painting, drawing, music, or dance
Helping Children Develop Emotional Regulation Skills
Most children have the ability to begin regulating their emotions around the age of 5; however, some children need more help and practice than others. When you are trying to teach a child how to regulate their emotions, encourage them to:
- Slow down
- Respond calmly, not impulsively
Model for them:
- Patience
- Being regulated yourself
At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, we treat children, adolescents, and adults with behavioral health disorders. It is not uncommon for our patients to struggle with emotional dysregulation, but we are here to help them increase their skills for managing their emotions.
