Emotional lability: what is it and what are its symptoms?

Emotional states that change abruptly. Why does this psychological phenomenon occur?

If anything characterizes emotions is that they come and go without having, many times, a concrete cause that triggers them.. For example, a person may feel sad at a time when everything seems to indicate that he or she should be happy, or the opposite may be the case.

So to speak, each person has a range of emotions that tend to manifest in a relatively context-independent way. Some tend to experience more emotions with joy, and others less. However, sometimes the variation of emotions can become very significant. In such cases we speak of emotional lability..

What is emotional lability?

The concept of emotional lability refers to a tendency to change rapidly and abruptly in terms of emotional state..

When this psychological phenomenon occurs, emotions vary almost as if following the swing of a pendulum, although not necessarily with such regularity between periods.

Duration of mood swings

Emotional lability can be expressed in variations of emotion that are noticed in a matter of hours, but it can also be the case that this change appears after several days of manifesting the same emotion or a sequence of emotions very similar to each other.

In the same way, sudden changes in emotions may follow one after the other for days, until a moment comes until a moment comes when emotional lability returns to normal levels in which there are no such abrupt changes.

Emotional lability as a symptom

Emotional lability can become a useful propensity when approaching problems from different points of view. In fact, a certain degree of emotional lability is present in almost everyone, since everyone has a range of habitual emotions.

In other cases, however, it becomes so intense and sudden that beyond being a personality trait it can be, in itself, a type of symptom of a mental disorder..

The mental disorders in which emotional lability is most frequent are the following:

1. major depression

In major depression one can go from phases of emotional flattening and anhedonia to others in which a deep sadness appears and is experienced in a very intense way. In these cases, mood swings can generate relational problems, especially when associated with intense outbreaks.

2. Bipolar Disorder

It is a mood disorder characterized precisely by sudden changes in emotional states. Classically, Bipolar Disorder alternates between episodes of mania, in which a feeling of euphoria and joy is manifested, and episodes of depression. In short, in this disorder, emotional lability is one of the typical factors (whenever there is mania and depression).

3. Cyclothymia

Although emotional lability is the symptom par excellence of Bipolar Disorder, the milder version of this disorder, Cyclothymia, also presents it as a symptom. In these cases, the symptoms are not as intense as in the other depressive disorders, they are maintained for a longer period of time.

The causes of emotional variation

When the emotional lability is very intense and interferes with the quality of life of the person, it is possible that it is a symptom of the disorder.When emotional lability is very intense and interferes with the quality of life of the person, it is possible that it is a symptom of a mental disorder or a neurological disorder. Although the causes depend on each case, it is understood that very intense emotional lability associated with psychological problems appears when the limbic system (located in the brain) begins to function abnormally.

The patients with epilepsy, for example, can present emotional lability, since the attacks are born of an alteration in the global functioning of the encephalon.

Treatment

It is necessary to have clear that the emotional lability is not in itself a mental disorder, but a symptom, and for that reason it is not a treatment for emotional lability.Therefore, it is not treated directly by psychological or psychiatric interventions. The health measures that can reduce it go through a diagnosis of possible mental disorders.

When the causes are not related to a diagnosed mood disorder, treatment will be more difficult to establish. In addition, the use of psychotropic drugs that can be used to reduce the intensity of the phases of emotional lability is something that depends on the specialized medical personnel in charge of each case.