Labile psyche. Emotional lability - a disorder of the nervous system with sudden mood swings

Watching different people V different situations you can notice that they react differently to the same event. Some adequately assess the state of affairs, and their reaction corresponds to the situation. Others respond to the same stimuli differently, their emotions have a pronounced coloring, often negative, which even somewhat frightens strangers. In psychology, such behavior with violent outbursts of emotions and frequent changes mood is called emotional lability, and it is associated with a certain type of temperament (such reactions characterize choleric people). Here we are faced with an innate personality characteristic that manifests itself under the influence of the environment.

This is the same concept, but relative neuropsychiatric disorders, used in physiology and psychiatry. Not all people with a choleric type of temperament are characterized by sudden mood swings and outbursts of aggression, which is typical of emotionally labile people. Such behavior patterns can be caused by various factors, ranging from lack of attention to childhood and ending with organic lesions of brain structures.

The term “emotional lability” in psychiatry means pathological disorder stability of emotional status. This state is characterized by regular fluctuations in emotional tone and high mobility of the emotional-volitional sphere. At emotional lability The individual experiences a rapid replacement of some experiences with other feelings. The mood background is extremely unstable. A person’s disposition of spirit changes depending on the situation and depends on insignificant details of reality.

With emotional lability, changes in environmental conditions or one’s own well-being lead to instant, very violent and vivid reactions. A person with this disorder responds equally sharply to the influence of both positive and negative factors. An individual can easily and quickly develop states of emotion, sentimentality, and excessive tenderness, accompanied by causeless tearfulness. Over time, a person may demonstrate traits of hostility, anger, and aggressiveness. At the same time, the presented stimulus does not always cause adequate reaction situations. For example, being offended by your interlocutor can cause inappropriate fits of hysterical laughter. Or, having received good news, a person will begin to sob violently.

A distinctive characteristic of emotional lability is the regular alternation of short-term emotional states. In contrast to such mood swings, another condition has been described - emotional rigidity, also called “emotional flatness”. This disorder is characterized by minimal expression or complete absence emotions.

Emotional lability: reasons

The pathological state of the psyche - emotional lability - is determined by various somatic, neurological and mental disorders. Instability of emotional status is a typical symptom:

• benign and malignant tumors brain and adjacent structures;
• traumatic brain injuries;
• dyscirculatory encephalopathy;
• arterial hypertension and hypotension (hypertension and hypotension);
• asthenic syndrome;
• affective (depressive) states;
• disruption of the activity of the limbic-reticular complex structures;
• pathologies of the endocrine system.

The cause of emotional lability may be chronic stressful conditions or intense mental trauma. The basis for the development of this condition is an affectively labile (cyclothymic) temperament. Mood swings are often found in people with a hysterical character (demonstrative personalities). In this situation, the foundation for mood swings is congenital mental weakness and instability of hysterical drives, which is combined with an obsessive desire to be the center of attention.

Often emotional lability starts after past diseases of a viral or bacterial nature, with vitamin deficiency, in particular, with a deficiency of B vitamins. A typical provocateur of mood swings is serotonin syndrome: a failure in the exchange of neurotransmitters that regulate the emotional sphere.

Emotional lability: symptoms

The main characteristics of this pathological condition These include unreasonable mood swings, impulsiveness and spontaneity of actions, the inability to control one’s own behavior, and the inability to foresee the consequences of one’s actions. A change in emotional state occurs for insignificant reasons or even in the absence of objective reasons. Demonstration of emotions can reach the size of affective outbursts, when the demonstrated reaction significantly exceeds the strength of the presented stimulus.

In a person with lability emotional background An angry-sad mood may arise for no reason, combined with violent outbursts of aggression. After a short period, dysphoria may be replaced by the opposite phenomena - high spirits, a feeling of lightness with characteristic psychomotor agitation.

Emotional lability is adjacent to excessive impressionability, suspiciousness and vulnerability of the individual. Such a person reacts extremely painfully to criticism addressed to him and is especially suspicious.

A person with emotional lability easily becomes a victim of addictions. The absence of a strong inner core, the lack of clear life guidelines brings an unstable personality into the ranks chronic alcoholics and drug addicts. The inability to control emotions often rewards with uncontrollable passion in various areas. An emotionally labile person can become an avid casino visitor, embark on countless love affairs, and become addicted to computer games.

With mood lability, a person can go from one extreme to another. Today he will swear eternal love to his chosen one, and tomorrow he will simply file for divorce. An emotionally unstable person, driven by immediate desires, often changes jobs or leaves school.

Emotional lability: methods of overcoming

In most cases, it is possible to eliminate emotional lability in a person. In the absence of pronounced and persistent personality changes, overcome this state perhaps with the help of psychotherapeutic techniques, auto-training and hypnosis techniques. The main task of the doctor is to establish real reasons anomalies, confirm or exclude organic lesions, eliminate triggers.

The emphasis in correcting emotional lability is on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. During sessions, the psychotherapist teaches the client ways to control their emotions and relaxation methods. In difficult situations, they are used in the treatment of emotional lability. pharmacological preparations: sedatives plant origin, benzodiazepine tranquilizers, anxiolytics, antidepressants.

Emotional lability is understood as an unstable state nervous system, characterized increased excitability, apathy, depressive symptoms. Emotional lability, as a rule, occurs when a person is dominated by emotions, he is afraid of the difficulties encountered in life. life path. Emotional lability can be a consequence of serious trials or a temporary condition. Such a person needs the help of loved ones, because when left alone with his anxious thoughts, the person will inevitably worsen his condition.

Symptoms of emotional lability

Symptoms of emotional lability are limited to one or more manifestations. It is important to know the basic ones in order to begin work on overcoming the condition in time and begin timely treatment.

Frequent mood changes

A person suffering from emotional lability experiences frequent mood swings. It can change several times a day: if in the morning there is joy, then in the evening gloominess certainly sets in. Frequent mood swings exhaust both the person himself and the people around him. Because we all have such strong influences on each other, it is easy to understand how the behavior of an emotionally unstable person affects those close to us. As a result, conflicts, misunderstandings arise, claims and grievances accumulate.

Irritability and aggressiveness

Emotional lability always implies the presence of aggressiveness. Manifestations of irritability are not at all accidental: a person tries in vain to free himself from the problem that oppresses him and therefore lashes out at those who are nearby at the moment. Aggression serves as a method of protection from the attacks of other people. Emotional lability makes a person insecure, fixated on his own failures, and weakens a person energetically. Often the result is secrecy and suspicion.

Excessive enthusiasm

Emotional lability sometimes leads to the fact that a person begins to frantically search for something that captivates him. This rarely gives any impressive results, since some hobbies are quickly replaced by others, making it impossible to concentrate on one thing or make a choice in favor of something specific. Excessive enthusiasm provokes an increase in emotional instability and a general surge of feelings. Emotional lability in itself is a rather ambiguous thing and leads to its own consequences.

Causes of emotional lability

Everything in our life happens for a reason. If you notice manifestations of emotional lability in yourself or your relatives, then you need to find the reason. The reasons for each may be purely individual. Let's consider the most common reasons for the formation of emotional lability.

Prolonged experiences

It is known that stress is not good for anyone. A huge number of people suffer from the fact that they cannot control their own feelings. Prolonged emotional stress can significantly unsettle you, deprive you of moral strength, self-confidence and tomorrow. A person stops trusting others and, worst of all, his own feelings. Such a person becomes disappointed and stops striving for new achievements.

Hormonal disorders

Emotional lability can sometimes be temporary and result from hormonal disorders. Women, for example, become most impressionable during menopause. Girls of childbearing age notice emotional instability before the onset of pregnancy. next menstruation. During these periods, they can be irritated by almost everything that happens: unwashed dishes in the sink, the apologetic tone of their significant other, a noisy company of children.

Physical illnesses

It is difficult to disagree with the statement that health is the greatest good. Unfortunately, few people today can boast of excellent health. Almost every person has chronic illness. Any physical ailments weaken the body and contribute to the formation of problems psychological nature. Emotional lability here is associated with feeling unwell, lack of faith in yourself and your capabilities. What ailments contribute to the formation of emotional lability? First of all, these are various traumatic brain injuries, tumors, and hypertension.

Treatment of emotional lability

Treatment for emotional lability should be immediate. It comes down to compliance simple recommendations. Otherwise, a person will become more and more immersed in his own experiences and will not have the strength left to enjoy life. What should you consider?

Timely resolution of conflicts helps reduce emotional stress and form good, trusting relationships with people around you. There is no need to delay resolving the issue. If there is some kind of conflict with a specific person, it is better to clarify the relationship as soon as possible, and not accumulate irritation and resentment.

Sensitive attention to health will help avoid irreversible consequences. It is always better to prevent illness early stage development, rather than then trying to treat it on a huge scale. Try to keep yours emotional condition under control, watch what you think and say. It helps for a long time stay on a positive wave.

Thus, the concept of emotional lability is closely related to self-organization and the desire to improve internally. Constant dissatisfaction with everything will not make our life rich and rich in impressions, so watch your mood.

Surely, everyone had a friend whose mood could change several times a day and depend on external incidents, even those that seemed insignificant to you. This behavior may suggest psychological lability, a peculiarity of perception of the surrounding world that causes a quick and immediate reaction to any event.

Labile psyche

The concept of lability was proposed by the scientist Vvedensky, who used it to estimate the time for restoration of tissue performance after its excitation. Today the term is used not only in physiology, therefore the meaning is somewhat modified to suit the scope of application. For example, when we're talking about about the lability of the psyche, then imply its mobility or even instability. Some are inclined to consider this feature negative, seeing it as a weakness, but such an assessment is not entirely correct.

To put it bluntly in a general sense, then the labile psyche is a survival mechanism. Without the ability to quickly react to external events and switch between them, a person would not have a chance to develop. But in some cases, psychological lability causes a lot of inconvenience to a person. Since this is not only about frequent changes mood, but also a significant depth of experience. And this affects sleep, performance, and well-being. If you are unable to cope with overly pronounced mental lability, various health problems may occur. In this case, consultation with a specialist is required, since there is no single way to adjust your worldview. But such extreme manifestations are not so frequent, most people with a labile type of psyche, if they experience inconvenience, are short-term and insignificant, and those around them consider them easy-to-communicate people, responsive and sensitive.

Emotional lability is a concept that implies instability and variability mental processes in the structures of human higher nervous activity. Their appearance may be due to the proximity internal factors– for example, a malfunction in a person’s hormonal background, and external stimuli – high temperature, contacts with chemicals, changes in the magnetic field.

Emotional lability syndrome is more typical for people whose psyche reacts too actively to changes in environment, stressful situations, or the appearance of internal diseases.

At the same time, emotional lability in psychology is considered as mobility, and in some cases instability of the human psyche, regardless of its relationship with physiology. The condition itself is usually considered a negative quality. However, experts give it its due as one of the mechanisms of adaptation to the changing external environment. Mood swings can be associated with the characteristics of the innate parameters of the human psyche, for example, choleric personality type, or with those suffered by him.

Whereas lability in physiology is considered exclusively from the point of view of properties nerve tissue– its ability to conduct an electrical impulse, transform it, or stop it. Such characteristics must be taken into account by specialists when selecting optimal treatment regimens for various nervous and mental diseases.

Intellectual instability

Widespread emotional lability is its intellectual variety. In essence, it is a person’s ability to quickly switch his attention from solving one life problem to another that requires the application of intellectual effort.

The biologically determined process directly depends on the neurophysiological parameters of the cerebral cortex inherent in humans by nature. Therefore, practice and training will not play any role - each of us is a unique individual in this regard.

Intellectual lability lies in the individual speed of excitation, as well as inhibition of impulses in neurocytes, the degree of balance of the listed processes. Moreover, the higher this parameter, the faster a person reacts to information received from outside, and his brain corrects psychomotor reactions. It is for this reason that some people are more successful in life - their lability is much higher, while others are slower to adapt and have a rigid nervous system.

High lability of the nervous system is the ability to:

• think productively and outside the box in each specific situation;
• find the optimal solution to the problem in a concise manner;
• respond adequately to changing situations;
• quickly acquire new skills and abilities.

However, not every person has the required intelligence characteristics. Therefore, in attempts to adapt to the modern pace of life and its demands, people become embittered and acquire many nervous diseases and disorders.

Emotional instability

No less often in the practice of psychotherapists there is such a condition as emotional lability. As a rule, such instability is secondary, accompanying other pathologies and diseases of brain structures. For example, mood lability can be observed in people who have a history of:

• pronounced cerebral atherosclerosis;
• suffered brain accidents - for example, strokes;
• obliterating form of cerebral thromboangiitis;
• hypertension stage 2–3;
• traumatic brain injuries;
• brain tumors.

Psycho-emotional lability in this case will be only one of many clinical symptoms. Only a highly professional specialist can assess its severity and establish the true root cause.

A failure in the balance between the processes of excitation and inhibition in the cerebral cortex will manifest itself in different ways. Most often, emotional lability is expressed as follows:

• the appearance of sudden, unexpected affective outbursts - for a seemingly insignificant reason,
• words spoken out of place also quickly disappear;
• a sharp change - from the peak of anger to deep despondency, tearfulness;
• lack of inclination to physical aggression even at the height of emotional experiences;
• restlessness and lack of concentration at home and at work;
• lack of adequate assessment of one's own behavior.

People with such mental instability are prone to quarrelsomeness, lack of social attachment, and excessive impressionability. They can go from one extreme to another.

Autonomic instability

An important part of the human nervous system, of course, is the autonomic, or as it is also called, the autonomous structure. Under its influence are the heart, stomach, and blood vessels. lymphatic vessels, as well as almost all endocrine glands.

Therefore, the parameters depend on the full-fledged activity of this system blood pressure, sweating, thermoregulation and many more internal processes. Functional lability will consist precisely in the lack of coherence between the central structures of the brain and the peripheral parts of the autonomic system.

Main manifestations of instability:

• tendency to faint;
• persistent dizziness;
• increased fatigue;
• frequent and causeless;
• excessive sweating;
• difficulty with bowel movements;
• dysuric states;
• erectile dysfunction in men, vaginal dryness in women;
• visual impairment not due to physical reasons;
• disturbances in the sensitivity of the pharynx, which can also be observed with;
• poor tolerance to temperature fluctuations;
• various sleep quality disorders;
• severe tremors in the limbs;
• tachycardia.

With age, vegetative lability can either decrease or increase - for example, hysterics in women during menopause occur much more often, whereas after stabilization hormonal levels mental lability decreases.

Mental instability

Extremely unstable psychological condition is the main clinical sign a disorder such as mental lability. A similar feature is inherent in people of creative professions - theater and film actors, artists and singers, as well as film directors and writers.

The entire spectrum of possible feelings and emotions is experienced by them with excessive depth - from love to hatred a few moments can pass. However, emotional lability in this case does not last very long - as a rule, a person quickly regains control over his emotions.

If for a choleric personality, affective outbursts can even be called a plus - they help them express themselves and fulfill their work duties, for example, actors. Then, in severe cases, mental emotional lability may be a sign organic disorder personality, some psychopathy and even mania.

Borderline symptoms of instability:

• excessive impressionability;
• tendency to shift the difficulties of life onto other people;
• rapid change of emotions and interests;
• pronounced emotional as well as physical exhaustion following an affective outburst;
• ignoring prohibitions from others.

Gradually negative traits character worsen, the person completely loses control over his mental activity, may become dangerous to society. Treatment in this case should be carried out by a psychiatrist, not a psychotherapist.

Features of emotional instability in childhood

Often, emotional lability in children is difficult to differentiate from or the need for increased attention from adults. Children with a hysterical psychotype constantly create “scenes” and do not respond well to educational measures.

However, most often increased psychological lability is a consequence of stress experienced by the child. Therefore, it is enough to establish what caused the disorder in emotional sphere baby to give him back peace of mind. Parents should pay attention to their child’s persistent reluctance to communicate with this or that person or fulfill any requirements. A timely request for help from a child psychologist allows you to take appropriate measures and restore emotional well-being to the family.

If required specialized treatment, it is also advisable to start it from a young age. Then the baby’s chances of developing more or less according to his age increase significantly, and in the future the child will be able to adapt to society without serious consequences.

Treatment tactics

Treatment of emotional lability must be comprehensive - it requires impact not only on physiological level, directly on the speed of processes of excitation and inhibition in neurocytes, but also work with a psychotherapist.

In some cases, it is enough to adhere general recommendations– get good sleep, eat right, avoid stressful situations to gain control over your own emotions. In addition, the specialist prescribes lungs sedatives on plant based. Motherwort, valerian, as well as lemon balm, chamomile, and hawthorn have proven themselves to be excellent.

If lability is due to the course of one or another mental illness, then the treatment tactics will be different, aimed at correcting the underlying disorder. Medicines are selected from psychotropic subgroups of the anticonvulsant series, nootropics and drugs that improve cerebral circulation and docking increased anxiety personality. Physiotherapy, massage, hydrotherapy come to the rescue. Courses of psychotherapy and occupational therapy are required.

The key to success in the fight against emotional instability is timely treatment for medical care. On early stage the appearance of fluctuations in the emotional sphere, they can be dealt with if you follow all the doctor’s instructions.