How to treat emotional dysregulation disorder

The current clinical treatment of emotion dysregulation disorders focuses on a combination of medical symptomatic control of acute symptoms, long-term psychological intervention to adjust underlying cognition, and life-scenario support to consolidate the efficacy. There is no universal solution, and specific intervention paths must be adjusted based on the patient's symptom severity, triggers, and personal tolerance. To put it bluntly, there is something wrong with your emotional switch at this time. Either you press it for a long time and there is no response, and you become numb, or when you touch it, sparks fly out and go out of control. You must first press and hold the emergency issue of sparks, and then slowly disassemble it to repair the switch. Finally, you have to learn how to use the switch reasonably to avoid using it again.

I met a 22-year-old girl before. She failed in the postgraduate entrance examination and broke up with her boyfriend of four years. For three months in a row, she would get angry at the smallest things, or she would squat on the ground crying for half an hour and couldn't stop crying. At first, she thought she was just "in a bad mood and just let it go." It wasn't until she suffered from insomnia for a week until 4 a.m., and her hands were shaking so much that she couldn't hold a pen to eat, that she was brought to see a doctor by her family. At that time, it was assessed that the frequency of her emotional outbursts was too high, and she could not sit still and listen to others. She was first prescribed a small dose of mood stabilizers. After taking it for about two weeks, she was finally able to sit calmly for 40 minutes before formal psychological intervention was started.

In clinical practice, we often encounter two types of patients who go to extremes. One type is resolutely unwilling to take psychotropic drugs. They feel that taking drugs is equivalent to "having a mental illness". They are also afraid that they will become stupid and become dependent on them. They will not come to see a doctor until they have thoughts of self-harm and are unable to go to work and school. Instead, they will spend several days. times of time to adjust, and the other type is those who think that taking medicine can solve all problems. After taking it for two weeks, they immediately stop taking the medicine without making subsequent psychological adjustments. As a result, the next time they encounter stressful events such as layoffs or serious illness of family members, they will immediately relapse, even worse than the last time. In fact, both cognitions are biased. Whether to take medicine and how long to take it depends entirely on the degree of individual symptoms. As long as the medicine is used according to the doctor's instructions, the probability of serious side effects is extremely low, which is far less than the damage to the body, interpersonal relationships and life caused by long-term emotional loss.

As for psychological intervention, dialectical behavioral therapy is commonly used. To put it bluntly, it is a practical method that teaches you how to get along with your own emotions. It is not just chicken soup. Most of the patients with the best prognosis that I have come into contact with have spent an hour a week for consultation after their emotions stabilized, and slowly figured out the "early warning signs" of their emotions - some people first feel their temples twitching, others feel their throats tighten and their stomachs are clogged. At this time, stop immediately and take a few deep breaths. Don't insist on continuing to argue with others or rush to work. Waiting for the momentum to pass before dealing with things, the effect is much better.

The biggest headache for many patients is in situations where they cannot leave immediately, such as work or gatherings of relatives and friends, and suddenly they cannot control their emotions. At this time, you can try the "54321 Grounding Method". You don't need to make any exaggerated movements, just count silently in your mind: think clearly about the 5 things you can see, the 4 touches, the 3 sounds you hear, the 2 smells, and the 1 taste. I have a sales visitor who used to either yell back and throw away the order every time he was scolded by a customer, or hide in the bathroom and cry for half an hour, which would affect his subsequent work. Now he carries a frosted keychain in his pocket all the year round. Whenever he feels that he is not in the right mood, he will hold the keychain and count the green plants, document bags, and water bottles in the office. He can pull back his emotions in about a minute, and he has never lost control on the spot again.

Of course, not everyone with emotional regulation problems needs medication or long-term consultation. If you have only been troubled by clear stress events such as continuous overtime work and breakup in the past month or two, you are easily irritable, can't help crying occasionally, and can still eat and sleep normally to complete your daily routine. If you work regularly, you can also try taking 20 minutes a day to go out for a walk, or find a friend with whom you can chat with to express what you have been holding in your heart. Don't do everything by yourself. If you still don't get better after adjusting for half a month, it's not too late to go to the psychiatry or psychology department of a regular hospital to check in.