16/02/2024
EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT
Many people with BPD experience intense emotions and have trouble regulating them. Emotional dysregulation is a core symptom of BPD, and it may explain other characteristics of the condition, like unstable relationships, risky or impulsive behavior, and stress-related changes in thinking. 🌀😩⛈️😖
Emotion regulation skills develop during childhood. As we grow, we learn strategies to help us understand what we're feeling and self-soothe when we're distressed. 😥
Several things can negatively impact this process, including:
🚫 Childhood stress or trauma
🚫 Punitive or controlling parents
🚫 Differences in brain structure
🚫 A lack of secure attachment to parents
While emotion regulation allows us to navigate setbacks, someone experiencing emotion dysregulation will have trouble understanding their feelings and responding to them in a healthy way. This is key in BPD, as people with the condition often experience significant distress in emotional situations. 🥺
Our capacity for emotion regulation plays a major role in the way we respond to events in our lives. For example, if someone with emotion regulation skills goes through a breakup, they will likely feel sad and even somewhat depressed, but they will still be able to control their emotions and carry on with their daily routines. 💗
However, if someone with BPD goes through the same situation, they may become depressed to the point of not functioning. They may cope by engaging in destructive or violent behaviors, or in impulsive activities like casual and at times reckless s*x. 💔
Here's a step to step guide on how to deal with those reactive emotions. It takes time to learn to take a step back when highly emotional, but with practice and patience you will learn better ways to respond when someone crosses a boundary and how you feel about it. 🖤🤍
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