Emotion Dysregulation Treatment in Sydney

Are you in need of emotion dyresgulation treatment?

Image of Emotional Dysregulation

Are you experiencing emotional instability? Do you find yourself having strong emotional reactions that feel overwhelming or out of control? These may relate to emotion dysregulation. The good news is, treatment is available to ensure you can manage your thoughts and feelings so they don’t have such an impact on you.

What is Emotion Dysregulation?

Emotion dysregulation refers to inability or difficulty in coping with, regulating and processing one’s emotions.

People with difficulties in emotion regulation often report the following symptoms:

  • Feeling overwhelmed by their emotions
  • High levels of emotional instability (can be like intense mood swings)
  • Are more emotionally sensitive than the average person (quite easily triggered and experience more intense emotional reactions than typical emotional responses)
  • Difficulties controlling their emotions
  • Poor coping with emotions, often leading to problematic ways of coping (e.g. emotional eating, alcohol and substance use, self-harm, reckless spending, lashing out in relationships or clinging to unhealthy relationships, withdrawing and isolating, emotionally shutting down or emotionally numbing)
  • Impulse control problems

 

Emotion dysregulation is a prominent characteristic of Emotional Dysregulation Disorder (or Borderline Personality Disorder), and it’s important to address your emotional hardships with treatment to avoid more serious problems developing.

What Causes Emotional Dysregulation?

The causes of emotion dysregulation are not entirely known, although we often see a combination of biological and environmental factors contribute.

Biological vulnerabilities

  • Biological disposition of high negative affectivity as a baseline
  • Dysfunctions in neural systems underlying negative emotion processing
  • A physiological system that responds more intensely to emotional stimuli
  • A slow return to emotional baseline once emotional arousal has been triggered
  • Difficulties in turning attention away from emotional cues
  • Poor executive control of impulsive behaviours related to strong positive and negative affect

Environmental vulnerabilities

Our brains are shaped by experiences.

Exposure to traumatic and adverse life experiences, long-term psychosocial stress or invalidation can impair emotion processing, erode emotional resilience and coping, and increase emotional vulnerability. Traumatic brain injury can be associated with emotion dysregulation, as can substance or alcohol abuse.

Studies such as those undertaken by M.B Bronson (2000) believe emotional dysregulation is often developed in childhood, and can be reflective of an individual’s environment when growing up. This especially relates to allowing a child to develop their own capacities through providing validation, emotional support, love, care and healthy modelling.

 

Emotion Dysregulation Treatment Strategies in Sydney

If emotion dysregulation or emotion dysregulation disorder is having a negative impact on your life, it is time to review immersive treatment options. We recommend a holistic treatment approach, which can help in the following ways:

  • Improved understanding of emotions and their functions and personal triggers
  • Develop a healthier way of relating to and responding to one’s emotions
  • Learn healthy ways of expressing emotions, especially within relationships
  • Learn practical skills and strategies for regulating emotions
  • Learn techniques for letting go of painful emotions
  • Learn skills and strategies for tolerating distress and other intense or difficult emotions without resorting to problematic ways of coping and responding
  • Learn techniques for riding out impulsive urges and develop greater self-control
  • Learn how to change self-defeating thinking patterns (like negative self-judgement) that contribute to more emotional vulnerability

The following approaches are used to treat Emotion Dysregulation:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps those with emotion dysregulation to learn coping skills and distress tolerance. Clinical Psychologists use certain techniques that teach those with emotional dysregulation to effectively regulate their emotions and moods.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy combines standard CBT techniques for regulating emotions with acceptance, distress tolerance and mindful awareness concepts as well as interpersonal effectiveness skills. DBT is particularly effective in treating emotional dysregulation, and is the first therapy proven to be generally effective in treating emotional dysregulation disorder.

Schema Therapy

Schema Therapy provides a long-term, unified treatment approach to emotion dysregulation. The purpose of Schema Therapy is to identify negative behavioural and emotional patterns, break these down and replace them with healthier alternatives.

 

Stop Emotion Dysregulation from Damaging Your Life and Relationships

At the Institute for Healthy Living we believe in a holistic and effective treatment approach to emotional dysregulation that is personalised to your individual needs. Make a booking today to start your journey towards recovery.