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An emotionally unstable personality is a personality disorder that has been officially classified as an illness. There are two basic types of such a personality - the impulsive type and the borderline type. Each of them has different symptoms and requires different treatment.

Emotionally unstable personalityis a disease entity that has been characterized by psychiatrists and has found its place in the International Classification of Diseases and He alth Problems ICD-10 under the symbol F60.3. According to diagnostic criteria, this disorder has been divided into two types with different symptoms.

In general, emotionally unstable personality is a group of disorders characterized by at least three of the following symptoms:

  • tendency to act suddenly without thinking about the consequences;
  • tendency to enter into arguments and disputes with others, most often when the reason for the argument is criticism or failure;
  • tendency to outbursts of anger and aggression, lack of control over one's behavior;
  • lack of patience, quick abandonment of started activities due to lack of visible effects;
  • emotional instability, capriciousness (no one knows what to expect from such a person's behavior).

Emotionally Unstable Personality - Causes

Most often, the first signs of the disorder appear in late childhood or adolescence and usually persist throughout life. There are several reasons for the occurrence of an emotionally unstable personality.

  • family influence- you may have experienced caregiver neglect in the past, lost a family member, lost your sense of security, may have been sexually abused or abused.
  • biological factor- the occurrence of disorders may be affected by previous brain or head injuries, and even hormonal imbalance (low serotonin).
  • genetic factor- disorders are associated with the occurrence of similar disorders in the patient's family members.
  • psychosocial factor- the patient is dichotomous in assessing reality, does not allow indirect assessments, which causesemotional instability.

Emotionally Unstable Personality - Diagnosis

In order to diagnose disorders, it is necessary to conduct a psychiatric interview with the patient, and often also with his relatives. The interview is supplemented with additional psychological and neurological examinations. When making a diagnosis, the most important thing is to distinguish personality disorders from other mental or neurological diseases.

Making an appropriate diagnosis and starting treatment requires the detailed description of the disorder and assigning it to a specific type - in accordance with the ICD-10 classification. There are two types of emotionally unstable personality: the impulsive type (F60.30) and the borderline type (F60.31).

Emotionally Unstable Personality - Impulsive Type

This is a disorder that characterizes acting on the spur of the moment, reckless, sudden and violent.

  • People with this personality do not control their behavior and react impulsively, for example, to criticism. Patients get nervous very quickly and are easily upset. They often explode with anger. Irritated, they can even respond with aggression.
  • This type of personality is characterized by an ill-considered reaction. An impulsive person does not predict the consequences of his behavior, he does not think about the consequences of his outbursts. Reacts quickly without parsing.
  • There are a lot of thoughts in the head of such a person that he cannot focus on. There is anxiety. The sick person is emotionally unstable and has changing moods.
  • Emotionally unstable people of the impulsive type almost constantly feel a certain tension. All you need is a stimulus for an explosive reaction. In the behavior of such people, aggression is the most important, which in their case is a way to release excess emotions. The sick person often looks for a reason for a quarrel himself, initiates quarrels, takes it out on others, and sometimes also on himself. He is seething with hatred towards everyone around him.
  • Such a person cannot accept criticism, but also cannot be patient. If she does not see the results of her work quickly, she gets discouraged and the situation becomes irritating to her.

Emotionally Unstable Personality - Borderline Personality

Borderline personality disorder is characterized by great instability in interpersonal relations and in establishing one's own identity. The patient has problems with strong emotions, which are often escalated. One can speak of a certain personality chaos, and above all, an exaggeration that characterizes his every action and behavior. The culprit of any behavior of such a man is frustration and constant frustrationthe contradiction he feels. In order to diagnose borderline personality disorder, it is required to find some of the following symptoms.

  • Man is not sure of his identity. Low self-esteem does not allow him to define goals and preferences, he has problems with sexual identification, he cannot judge himself. He does not notice the contradictions he represents. He sees everything in black or white colors. Usually it goes hand in hand with problems at work - a professional career is very fragile, because there is a quick discouragement from the actions taken.
  • The sick person fears abandonment and loneliness. He desperately tries to save his every relationship, even by emotional blackmail (the threat of suicide or mutilation). His emotional lability is bad for maintaining a he althy relationship with others. Relationships are short-lived, but intense - usually seen in extreme colors by the patient.
  • A person with a borderline personality feels an inner void, has depressive moods. His life is dominated by dissatisfaction and anger, and his well-being. It is mainly ruled by negative emotions. He gets angry and furious easily, does not control these outbursts.
  • The sick person behaves impulsively in various areas of life - he can waste money quickly, he is interested in risky sexual behavior, driving a car in a risky way, often uses psychoactive substances, mutilates himself, suffers from hunger pangs which he abundantly satisfies, etc.
  • A borderline person is emotionally unstable, easily gets into extreme emotions, it is difficult to predict how he / she will behave in a given situation, acts in affect. She is characterized by volatile moods, also in relations with others.
  • The patient has paranoid thoughts, persecution, delusions, panic attacks. She is under constant stress, cannot cope with anxiety, persuades herself many things, sees a threat that does not exist. He has impaired cognitive functions. Such a person cannot calm down on their own, feels misunderstood by others and is afraid of being excluded.
  • It happens that a person with a borderline personality suffers from superego disorders. He evaluates himself strictly, sets high standards of his behavior, strives for the ideal, but at the same time has a sense of failure in these aspirations. Breaking the strict rules he has set for himself makes himself feel guilty.

Borderline behavior may accompany the occurrence of other mental disorders, e.g. neurosis, psychosis, anorexia, bulimia, depression, addictions, bipolar disorder.

Interestingly, borderline emotionally unstable personality is more often diagnosed in women than in men. The more complex the personality and the more disorders there are, the longer and more the treatment isadvanced.

Emotionally Unstable Personality - Treatment

The most common method of treating personality disorders are long-term psychotherapies, e.g. psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioral therapies. The most important thing at the initial stage of treatment is to gain the patient's trust and involve him in the treatment process. This gives you a chance to heal.

Pharmacological agents are very rarely used in the treatment of personality disorders. If they are recommended, then only if the patient needs to control symptoms such as depression or anxiety that could interfere with the therapy and affect its failure.

Pharmacological agents are more often used in the case of borderline personality disorder, but due to the tendency of patients to become addicted to psychoactive drugs, sedatives - especially those based on benzodiazepines - are usually omitted in their treatment. More often, patients are prescribed SSRIs, antipsychotics or the so-called mood stabilizers.

In the case of borderline personality psychotherapy, the most effective form of psychotherapy is psychoanalytic therapy by Fonagy and Bateman and Kernberg's therapy. Scientific research has also proved that the Marsha Linehan dialectical-behavioral therapy also gives a chance to cure the disorders.

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Category:

Psychiatry