Teens who experience emotional dysregulation feel strong and intense emotions for much longer or more frequently. Emotional dysregulation causes teens to feel negative emotions such as irritability, anger, frustration, and sadness more intensely than normal teens. If your teen has trouble regulating their emotions, they may find it hard to recognize and accept their feelings, making them more confused and frustrated. This causes them to have trouble calming down as they ruminate over things that happened in the past.
Parents and guardians need to understand emotional dysregulation in teens. This will enable them to recognize emotional triggers that may cause teens to behave erratically and unpredictably. It will also allow them to know when and how to seek treatment for their emotionally dysregulated teens.
If you need help with your teen’s emotional dysregulation, call NexStep Teen Academy today. We can learn more about your situation and provide insight and treatment recommendations.
Assessing Emotional Dysregulation in Teens
How will you know that your teen is emotionally dysregulated? Parents can assess their teens through observation. Work to recognize signs of emotional dysregulation by paying close attention to your teen’s behavior. Track your teen’s emotional patterns and observe how they react to certain stimuli. Being observant can help you recognize early signs of emotional dysregulation and enable you to get help early.
Several signs and symptoms can highlight emotional dysregulation. If your teen is emotionally dysregulated, they may display the following signs and symptoms:
Emotional reactivity
Constant irritability and anger
Engaging in risky sexual behaviors
Depression
Anxiety
Self-harm
Substance abuse
Temper tantrums
Shutting down and refusing to talk to anyone
Heightened stress
Development of an eating disorder
Increased impulsive behavior
Suicidal ideation
If your teen displays one or a combination of these symptoms, they may be emotionally dysregulated.
Mental health professional services like NexStep Teen Academy use various methods to assess your teen’s emotional regulation. The Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (EDQ) and the Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS) are popular assessment tools. These self-assessment tools analyze how participants relate to their emotions.
Once the data is collected, it produces a scoring system for metrics like “non-acceptance of emotional responses” and “impulse control difficulties.” A higher score in these sub-categories indicates emotional regulation issues.
What Causes Emotional Dysregulation in Teens?
There is no exact cause for emotional dysregulation. However, research shows that several factors can cause emotional dysregulation. They include the following:
Childhood neglect or abuse
Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Parental substance abuse
Grief or loss of a parent
Bullying
Domestic violence
Mental health conditions
Social and cultural factors
Traumatic events and environmental stressors
Self-image issues
Genetics and brain chemistry
Substance abuse disorder
Effective Treatment Options for Teen Emotional Dysregulation
Effective teen emotional dysregulation treatment can utilize several counseling options, including:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a teen emotion regulation therapy used to treat various mental health conditions. It plays an important role in helping teens realize how negative thoughts lead to negative behaviors. CBT is based on the idea that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected. Changing one’s thoughts affects their feelings and behavior. CBT provides teens with appropriate skills to overcome emotional dysregulation.
CBT utilizes several approaches to help teens overcome emotional dysregulation. These include the following:
Cognitive Restructuring: This approach helps teens identify the negative thought patterns they routinely fall back on. If your teen tends to assume the worst when anything happens, a therapist will help them identify negative thoughts and work to change them.
Guided Discovery: This approach helps mental health practitioners understand your teen’s point of view. It involves asking your teen how they would react when faced with a certain problem. It allows therapists and teens to widen their perspectives and offer more nuanced solutions to your teen’s issues. If your teen tends to make certain assumptions, they will be asked to defend their point of view. Guided discovery helps teens discover that their thoughts are distorted and ensure they do not fall back on them.
Cognitive Journaling: Through cognitive journaling, teens are encouraged to set their sights on what they want to achieve and record their progress as a way of self-accountability. Journaling helps teens identify their triggers, assess the intensity of their emotions, and reflect on how they reacted to the triggers. This method allows teens to rethink their perspective and respond appropriately to triggering events.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a type of psychotherapy originally developed to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD). Teens with emotional regulation issues experience intense emotions that make it difficult for them to function properly. BPD is a chronic emotional dysregulation mental health condition. This means that DBT is the perfect treatment for emotionally dysregulated teens.
DBT shares many of its principles with CBT. It is based on the idea that one can change one’s negative thought patterns by accepting one’s negative behavior. It is like CBT but working backward.
DBT uses four main approaches to treat teen emotional dysregulation. These include the following:
Distress Tolerance: This principle helps teens become less reactive when faced with difficult situations. It focuses on assisting teens to think in healthier ways when faced with stressful situations. By accepting their current circumstances, teens can tolerate any stressful situation. Distress tolerance also helps teens accept that some situations are out of their control, and it would not be helpful if they are angry or stressed about them.
Mindfulness: This principle helps teens be more aware and appreciate the present. It teaches teens to be mindful of their emotions and accept the present situation. Mindfulness is crucial in helping teens clear their minds by slowing down their thoughts. When teens are faced with a stressful situation, their mind races. Mindfulness helps them slow down their thoughts and analyze whether or not their reaction will be helpful.
Emotional Regulation: When faced with difficult situations, teens react depending on their feelings. Emotional regulation allows teens to make conscious decisions about how they should respond to negative stimuli. By learning to choose how to react, they can easily regulate their emotions.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: The principle of interpersonal effectiveness gives teens a different perspective on their emotions. It allows them to see how their emotions and behaviors affect their friends or family. When your teen gains this perspective, they will likely regulate their emotional reactions.
Family Therapy
At NexStep Teen Academy, we focus on a family-centric treatment approach. Family therapy addresses negative family dynamics. Parenting should be based on empathy, not strictness. Through family therapy, you can rebuild your relationship with your teen.
Family plays an important role in helping teens recover. It is the first point of call when teens feel overwhelmed. Family therapy aims to repair family issues and allow parents and teens to rebuild their relationships. It facilitates open communication, encourages collaborative problem-solving, and promotes independence.
Group Therapy
Sometimes, teens have a hard time sharing their issues with their parents. Group therapy offers a safe space for teens to share their stories with their peers. A typical session involves six to twelve teens guided by a licensed mental health practitioner. It helps teens focus on sharing their problems and receiving solutions from their peers. Since they are surrounded by their peers, they feel less judged and more supported by teens with similar issues.
Group therapy helps teens build their social skills and foster a sense of community. It also helps teens understand how their peers cope with similar situations. This problem-oriented form of psychotherapy encourages teens to develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Individual Therapy
A one-on-one session can be important for teens with emotional dysregulation. At NexStep Teen Academy, individual therapy is offered by a licensed mental health practitioner who focuses on tailoring solutions that meet your teen’s needs. Individual treatment is done in a safe and supportive environment where teens can freely speak their minds.
The primary goal of individual therapy is to allow teens to uncover the underlying causes of emotional dysregulation. It helps teens address difficult emotions such as trauma or depression. It focuses on building trust between your teen and the therapist so that your teen can feel confident enough to share their issues.
These approaches help teens learn positive coping mechanisms to regulate their erratic and unpredictable emotions.
Building Emotional Stability in Teens
There are several ways to build teen emotional stability, including:
Creating a Coping Skills Toolbox: Parents can help teens regulate their emotions by teaching them various coping mechanisms. This enables teens to acquire techniques that can help them react appropriately to negative stimuli.
Encouraging Physical Activity: Physical activity helps teens clear their minds and get a rush of endorphins. Endorphins are effective mood stabilizers and can regulate physical and emotional pain.
Teaching Self-Awareness: Self-aware teens are better at emotional regulation since they understand their triggers. They also understand how their reactions affect others and, therefore, react appropriately to negative situations.
Building a Support Network: Parents should create a supportive network for their teens. Teens who have a support network overcome their emotional dysregulation faster than teens who can only depend on themselves.
Prevention and Long-Term Management of Emotional Dysregulation
Managing emotional dysregulation can be difficult for many parents. However, there are several things you can do to prevent the worsening of emotional dysregulation. They include the following:
Establishing a Healthy Routine: Encourage your teen to develop and maintain a healthy routine. They should get adequate amounts of sleep and eat balanced meals. They should also schedule activities that stabilize their mood, like art, music, or physical exercise.
Practicing Self-Care: A parent cannot help their teen if they do not care for themselves. You should ensure you have a support system to lean on when things get tough. Your life should not screech to a halt just because you are helping your teen. Try to do what you enjoy and encourage your teen to practice self-care.
Continued Therapy and Check-ins: Parents should ensure their teen continues therapy to manage emotional dysregulation. Continued check-ins ensure that your teen is doing well mentally and practicing the skills they were taught in treatment.
Teen Emotional Dysregulation Treatment at NexStep Teen Academy
Emotional dysregulation causes teens to have a hard time regulating their emotions. It can be caused by a variety of factors, including childhood neglect, domestic violence, and cultural factors. Emotional dysregulation makes it difficult for teens to function in their day-to-day lives, as they often feel out of control. If you suspect your teen is emotionally dysregulated, seek professional help. Professionals utilize treatment approaches like CBT, DBT, and group therapy to ensure your teen overcomes their emotional regulation issues.
NexStep Teen Academy provides high-quality mental health treatments for teens with emotional regulation issues. Our facility is staffed with highly qualified mental health professionals seeking to care for your teen’s needs. Tucked away in the desert of Arizona, our facility offers a five-day-a-week outpatient program for teens with emotional regulation issues and other mental health conditions. We aim to ensure that every teen receives high-quality treatment so that they can lead a normal life.
It is a condition that makes it difficult for teens to process negative stimuli appropriately. It causes erratic behavior, mood instability, and irritability.
Causes of emotional dysregulation in teens include mental health conditions, childhood neglect, parental drug use, domestic violence, and physical abuse.
Teen Emotional Dysregulation Treatment
Table of Contents
Teens who experience emotional dysregulation feel strong and intense emotions for much longer or more frequently. Emotional dysregulation causes teens to feel negative emotions such as irritability, anger, frustration, and sadness more intensely than normal teens. If your teen has trouble regulating their emotions, they may find it hard to recognize and accept their feelings, making them more confused and frustrated. This causes them to have trouble calming down as they ruminate over things that happened in the past.
Parents and guardians need to understand emotional dysregulation in teens. This will enable them to recognize emotional triggers that may cause teens to behave erratically and unpredictably. It will also allow them to know when and how to seek treatment for their emotionally dysregulated teens.
If you need help with your teen’s emotional dysregulation, call NexStep Teen Academy today. We can learn more about your situation and provide insight and treatment recommendations.
Assessing Emotional Dysregulation in Teens
How will you know that your teen is emotionally dysregulated? Parents can assess their teens through observation. Work to recognize signs of emotional dysregulation by paying close attention to your teen’s behavior. Track your teen’s emotional patterns and observe how they react to certain stimuli. Being observant can help you recognize early signs of emotional dysregulation and enable you to get help early.
Several signs and symptoms can highlight emotional dysregulation. If your teen is emotionally dysregulated, they may display the following signs and symptoms:
If your teen displays one or a combination of these symptoms, they may be emotionally dysregulated.
Mental health professional services like NexStep Teen Academy use various methods to assess your teen’s emotional regulation. The Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (EDQ) and the Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS) are popular assessment tools. These self-assessment tools analyze how participants relate to their emotions.
Once the data is collected, it produces a scoring system for metrics like “non-acceptance of emotional responses” and “impulse control difficulties.” A higher score in these sub-categories indicates emotional regulation issues.
What Causes Emotional Dysregulation in Teens?
There is no exact cause for emotional dysregulation. However, research shows that several factors can cause emotional dysregulation. They include the following:
Effective Treatment Options for Teen Emotional Dysregulation
Effective teen emotional dysregulation treatment can utilize several counseling options, including:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a teen emotion regulation therapy used to treat various mental health conditions. It plays an important role in helping teens realize how negative thoughts lead to negative behaviors. CBT is based on the idea that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected. Changing one’s thoughts affects their feelings and behavior. CBT provides teens with appropriate skills to overcome emotional dysregulation.
CBT utilizes several approaches to help teens overcome emotional dysregulation. These include the following:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a type of psychotherapy originally developed to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD). Teens with emotional regulation issues experience intense emotions that make it difficult for them to function properly. BPD is a chronic emotional dysregulation mental health condition. This means that DBT is the perfect treatment for emotionally dysregulated teens.
DBT shares many of its principles with CBT. It is based on the idea that one can change one’s negative thought patterns by accepting one’s negative behavior. It is like CBT but working backward.
DBT uses four main approaches to treat teen emotional dysregulation. These include the following:
Family Therapy
At NexStep Teen Academy, we focus on a family-centric treatment approach. Family therapy addresses negative family dynamics. Parenting should be based on empathy, not strictness. Through family therapy, you can rebuild your relationship with your teen.
Family plays an important role in helping teens recover. It is the first point of call when teens feel overwhelmed. Family therapy aims to repair family issues and allow parents and teens to rebuild their relationships. It facilitates open communication, encourages collaborative problem-solving, and promotes independence.
Group Therapy
Sometimes, teens have a hard time sharing their issues with their parents. Group therapy offers a safe space for teens to share their stories with their peers. A typical session involves six to twelve teens guided by a licensed mental health practitioner. It helps teens focus on sharing their problems and receiving solutions from their peers. Since they are surrounded by their peers, they feel less judged and more supported by teens with similar issues.
Group therapy helps teens build their social skills and foster a sense of community. It also helps teens understand how their peers cope with similar situations. This problem-oriented form of psychotherapy encourages teens to develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Individual Therapy
A one-on-one session can be important for teens with emotional dysregulation. At NexStep Teen Academy, individual therapy is offered by a licensed mental health practitioner who focuses on tailoring solutions that meet your teen’s needs. Individual treatment is done in a safe and supportive environment where teens can freely speak their minds.
The primary goal of individual therapy is to allow teens to uncover the underlying causes of emotional dysregulation. It helps teens address difficult emotions such as trauma or depression. It focuses on building trust between your teen and the therapist so that your teen can feel confident enough to share their issues.
These approaches help teens learn positive coping mechanisms to regulate their erratic and unpredictable emotions.
Building Emotional Stability in Teens
There are several ways to build teen emotional stability, including:
Prevention and Long-Term Management of Emotional Dysregulation
Managing emotional dysregulation can be difficult for many parents. However, there are several things you can do to prevent the worsening of emotional dysregulation. They include the following:
Teen Emotional Dysregulation Treatment at NexStep Teen Academy
Emotional dysregulation causes teens to have a hard time regulating their emotions. It can be caused by a variety of factors, including childhood neglect, domestic violence, and cultural factors. Emotional dysregulation makes it difficult for teens to function in their day-to-day lives, as they often feel out of control. If you suspect your teen is emotionally dysregulated, seek professional help. Professionals utilize treatment approaches like CBT, DBT, and group therapy to ensure your teen overcomes their emotional regulation issues.
NexStep Teen Academy provides high-quality mental health treatments for teens with emotional regulation issues. Our facility is staffed with highly qualified mental health professionals seeking to care for your teen’s needs. Tucked away in the desert of Arizona, our facility offers a five-day-a-week outpatient program for teens with emotional regulation issues and other mental health conditions. We aim to ensure that every teen receives high-quality treatment so that they can lead a normal life.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It is a condition that makes it difficult for teens to process negative stimuli appropriately. It causes erratic behavior, mood instability, and irritability.
Causes of emotional dysregulation in teens include mental health conditions, childhood neglect, parental drug use, domestic violence, and physical abuse.
Signs of emotional dysregulation include frequent temper tantrums, irritability, erratic and impulsive behavior, and aggressive tendencies.