“Your emotions are very unstable and should never be the foundation for direction in your life.” – Joyce Me
Being emotionally unstable can be a sign of a greater issue within a person. Being emotionally unstable can mean a personality disorder such as borderline personality disorder. Here are the signs that mood problems may not be due to a quirky or difficult personality, but actually bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder is a chronic mental illness. It causes severe mood swings ranging from extreme highs, or mania, to extreme lows, or depression. Bipolar mood swings may occur as infrequently as a few times a year or as often as a few times a week.
It can also be a sign of childhood trauma, depression or anxiety disorder. The signs of an emotionally unstable person can vary.
More than 5 million people in the United States have bipolar disorder.
They may show signs of depression and anxiety, while also exhibiting a number of behaviors that can affect both themselves and the people around them.
Unless you have severe mania, bipolar disorder can be difficult to diagnose.
"Chalking it up to moodiness or trouble at work or tiredness is pretty common," says Carrie Bearden, Ph.D., an associate professor in residence of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and psychology at the David Geffen School of Medical at UCLA. "The disorder varies in severity."
If you know someone who you suspect may be emotionally unstable, it’s important to recognize the signs so that you’re better prepared to understand them and what they need.
Someone who is emotionally unstable may be more prone to act impulsively. They may do things that could harm themselves and others without thinking it through all the way. They have very little self-control and may not entirely understand delayed gratification. Doing these things may make them feel good for short periods of time because they’re unable to.
Having a house full of half-completed projects is a hallmark of bipolar disorder.
"They can be quite distractible and may start a million things and never finish them," says Don Malone, MD, the director of the Center for Behavioral Health and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio.
One of the biggest hallmarks of an emotionally unstable person is anger issues. They may shout and scream when they’re angry, or they may express their anger through violent actions. This doesn’t always mean that they’ll physically harm the person that they’re angry with, but they may slam doors and push objects.
Assistant clinical professor of psychiatry Dr. Carol W. Berman states, “The most important tool is not to internalize the person’s behavior or take it too personally. Remember, it’s not about you. People with borderline personality disorder aren’t fully aware of their behavior and the effect on other people.”
A person who is in a bipolar depressive state is going to look just like someone who has regular depression. "They have the same problems with energy, appetite, sleep, and focusing as others who have 'plain old depression,'" Dr. Malone says.
Someone who is emotionally unstable will have a hard time keeping their relationships stable as well. They may volley between feeling very affectionately towards a person and then feeling bad about them as well. Not only that, but they have a hard time keeping a stable relationship. They may start arguments and break up with their significant others, only to want to get back together after a few hours or days.
Everyone has bad days, which is one reason this kind of bipolarity is much harder to recognize.
"We are all irritable or moody sometimes," Dr. Bearden says. "But in people with bipolar disorder, it often becomes so severe that it interferes with their relationships—especially if the person is saying, 'I don’t know why I’m so irritable…I can’t control it.'"
If you have a friend, family member, or significant other with bipolar disorder, it’s important to be patient and understanding of their condition. Yet helping a person with bipolar disorder isn’t always easy. Here’s what you should know.
People with the bipolar disorder will experience feelings of high energy, creativity, and joy. A person will talk very quickly, get very little sleep, and may act hyperactively. They may also feel invincible, which can lead to risk-taking behaviors.
A person with bipolar disorder is very likely to act recklessly. Sometimes they may go as far as endangering their own life or the lives of the people around them. Remember that this person can’t fully control their actions during episodes of mania. Therefore, it’s not always an option to try to reason with them to try to stop behaving a certain way.
Borderline personality disorder is strikingly more prominent in women than it is in men. In fact, studies have shown that 75-90% of all people diagnosed with BPD are women.
It is possible that this could simply be due to the fact that women are more apt to seek treatment for the disorder than men are, or it could potentially be due to the fact that sometimes the way that the symptoms of BPD present themselves in men lead to a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder as opposed to BPD.
People who suffer from emotional instability are often people who have suffered through some kind of trauma in their lives. They have had trouble developing the tools they need to keep their emotions in line. Oftentimes, people who are emotionally unstable can benefit from having a strong support system, as well as therapy and sometimes medication.
