Unmasking the Monster Within: The True Power of BPD Emotions

hi so let's talk about emotional disregulation in borderline personality disorder now this is very common in individuals along that BPD spectrum and emotional disregulation isn't just one issue it's not just one thing there's actually four components and this comes from Marshall Lan's biosocial model and she was the individual that developed dialectical behavioral therapy which is a efficacious treatment for BPD but let's talk about emotional disregulation this is when you become so emotionally overwhelmed that it impacts your thoughts behaviors intent and how you manage and act within a variety of situations externally but also internally well let's talk about these four components now the four components are emotional sensitivity heightened and labile negative affect and it's a deficit in appropriate regulation strategies and it's a surplus of maladaptive regulation strategies so let's see so let's first let's talk about emotional sensitivity now individuals along that BPD spectrum they have a heightened sensitivity to emotional reactions now a lot of the research shows that individuals with BPD that they tend to perceive pretty neutral stimulus as threatening as ominous and what that does is it sends a signal that there's harm that there's danger that there's issue or threat and that increases their physiological response of being hurt they start to protect themselves but because and these four components we're going to talk about they're not mutually exclusive they all work together and because of these other components we see that it quickly becomes This Tornado of emotions a effect perception and that emotion sensitivity we can really look at that and recognize as I just mention mentioned but the Distortion is also at Play It's that BPD Distortion and where does that Distortion come from well that Distortion that impacts your emotions and the emotional sensitivity comes from our core content and that's that content that's inside the individual and it could be classic BPD core content is emotional sensitivity could be fear of Abandonment and could be empty now there's others and a lot of individuals have their own as well but those are kind of the classic ones that I've seen in my experience as well as certainly mentioned in the research as being prominent but you you have your own as well and these core components what they do is they add to that surface content which in this case what we're talking about is emotional sensitivity you're sensitive to emotions you're sensitive for issues and factors that are attributable to someone leaving you someone never wanting to see you again someone rejecting you you not getting your needs met I had a client many years ago and we were talking about an instance that was related to a pen in his home and he was looking for a pen in his home so he couldn't find one couldn't find a pen why aren't there any pens where could this be where could this be andon was partner he said why aren't there any pens where are these pens how do we not have pens and that created again goes back to that emotional tornado just spinning and spinning and spinning and it exploded into this Massive Action Reaction problems in the relationship that were of course already there so he comes into me and we're sitting down and we're processing what happened and we're talking about emotional sensitivity right so he was sensitive to that issue and I said well let's kind of break it down and as we're talking he tells me and I'll never forget this he tells me you know if we don't have a pen then I don't have what I need if I don't have what I need then how am I going to be able to take care of myself how am I going to have a home how am I going to be able to feed myself I'm going to be destitute alone with nothing homeless starving on the streets and when we talk about outside of context we think really just because there's a pen how did we get to being homeless and starving but that's part of BPD it's part of that Distortion that emotional tornado that emotional sensitivity that can set things off set things in motion just as it did for him now the next component let's talk about talk about that heightened and labile negative affect anger rage fear doubt guilt shame all of that heightened negative affect affect is another term for emotions right feelings and labile when we're talking about labile negative affect we're talking about sort of a very fluid sense it changes it can be up it can be down it can be flat it could be very intense it could be missing almost feel like there's a sense of void and that heightened and labile negative affect within BPD we see again comes from that emotional sensitivity is absolutely driven by the core content so an example of that negative BL bile affect what we see is is that suddenly there's all these changes right idealization devaluation and the individual cannot always identify what that emotion is so they feel these strong and intense emotions could be sadness could be frustration could be again anger rage whatever it may be and we see that as it changes and it becomes negative it builds in that emotional tornado it adds to the complexity which brings us next to it is a deficit in appropriate regulation strategies and there's a surplus of maladaptive regulation strategies so what we see is there's no appropriate regulation strategy which I call adaptive regulation strategies and there is many or a surplus more than you need of maladaptive beliefs behaviors and patterns and what happens is is that when you are emotionally sensitive you have that heightened and labile negative a effect all of these emotions you're spinning you're spinning and your emotions are disregulated right they're off course what do you do well BPD because it's also part of this family in the head that I talk about as well and it's that family head that chorus is telling you that this is it this is ruined nobody loves you nobody cares about you and you feel this sense of sadness so how do you manage it typically in BPD is that you slide backwards these bleed behaviors and patterns to deal with it and try to resolve it as quickly as possible it's not about it being effective it's about getting it off right it's like this tarantula or this poisonous spider black widow spider jumps on your hand and you're like get it off get it off get off and it's the same type of thing you don't process and think wait you know if I try to get that black widow spider off my hand it could then bite me so you don't you don't think about it it's an immediate feels like almost an immediate it's this drive this instinctual emotional drive to get it off get it off and it's the same thing for those with BPD it's this being overwhelmed well if that's all you got get it off get it off get it off and the get it off can be self harm can be impulsive risky behaviors alcohol drugs promiscuity it can also be a lot of self harm it can be threatening others physical violence whatever it may be and those things add add to and increase the probability of negative outcome of problems down the road so that and it feeds that BPD because reality is is that when you get it off get it off sometimes you're going to get it off and sometimes you're going to be like who I got it but what that does it strengthens the maladaptive pattern and the maladaptive pattern feeds into your BPD increases the likelihood that you're going to use maladaptive BCE behaviors and pattern to manage situations in this case we're talking about emotion disregulation to manage that emotional sensitivity which puts you at a heightened risk to have intensive emotional reactions as we talked about and to have that Lile negative aect so all of this starts spinning together and it reinforces that BPD which is what creates what we call personality disorders that borderline personality disorder it helps to create it because it becomes prolonged these maladaptive patterns become prolonged so then you realize okay so what else can I do are there other strategies or the regulation strategies that I can do to manage my emotions well in this model that we're talking about and in this approach to emotion disregulation you don't really have it what kind of adaptive strategies can you use well there's a lot that you can use a mental health provider can help you identify those one of them is to identify your core content which is what I do with my clients then then we identify that surface content where's your go-to what are your go-to strategies they're typically maladaptive let's find some adaptive strategies that you can utilize what are some things that you can do differently so how can you get that black widow spider off your hand without it being frightened and biting you what else can you do and it's about identifying those various strategies I have a lot of videos on managing these various strategies and things like that that and I think that you could definitely get a lot of help from checking those out I'll put some links here that might be able to help you some tips and strategies but recognizing this emotion disregulation and taking a look at it and seeing where you fall on it can really really be helpful in managing not only your emotions but getting control over your BPD and don't forget BPD is the most successfully treated Personality Disorder so you can Absol absolutely deal with it handle it manage it and do your life differently so I hope this was helpful for you and I'll see you next time thanks bye-bye

Channel: Dr. Daniel Fox

Views: 15,920

Keywords: EmotionalDysregulation, BorderlinePersonalityDisorder, DBT (DialecticalBehaviorTherapy), biosocialModel, MentalHealthAwareness, BPDdistortion, BPDLens, CaseExample, MaladaptiveBehaviors, MentalHealthEducation, Psychology, TherapeuticApproaches, BPDsupport, PsychologicalEducation, dr fox borderline personality disorder, dr fox narcissism, dr fox splitting, dr fox favorite person, dr fox bpd relationship, emotional dysregulation, mental health, emotional regulation, dialectical behavior therapy

Id: 4GmvWpmZGwc

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2023