Lability: what is it, types, causes, symptoms and treatment

Article:

In the medical literature you can find a variety of definitions of stuttering. Some characterize the process as a tempo-rhythmic speech disorder of a congenital, acquired nature. Others focus on the convulsive component and talk about stuttering as a speech disorder that develops against the background of sudden, periodic tension and muscle contraction of the muscles of one or more components of the articulatory apparatus. There are several more variations. What does this mean? Two conclusions can be drawn:

The pathological process is not fully understood. The case is still moving and far from over. New theories, assumptions, scientific positions appear.
There are many blank spots in the etiology, course of the disorder, as well as its treatment. The questions still remain relevant.

Be that as it may, stuttering has been and remains a serious problem in speech therapy. According to research by scientists from around the world, the frequency of the pathological condition varies within two percent. Out of a population of seven billion, that's almost 140 million people. And we are talking only about developed countries that keep clear statistics. In fact, the number of patients can most likely be safely increased several times.

The disease mainly develops in preschool children. Then, unfortunately, it doesn’t go away on its own. Specialized treatment is needed. And then, no one will give guarantees of restoration. There are resistant pathological processes that cannot be corrected even with a thorough, professional approach.

The condition has its own ICD-10 code: F98.5. There are several synonyms for the pathological process: logoneurosis, laloneurosis as the most widely used. We are talking about the same thing. The disorder is considered to be a complex, psychosomatic disorder. Since it affects both the anatomical, functional structures, and the psyche of the patient.

Let's talk about why stuttering develops, how to identify it, treat it, and what to do to prevent pathology from developing.

What is lability

In the general sense of the word, lability is mobility, instability, variability, mobility. The term was introduced in 1886 by N. E. Vvedensky (Russian physiologist, student of Sechenov). It reflects many characteristics of the nervous system:

speed of occurrence of the exciting impulse;
the speed with which he reaches his goal;
the rate of occurrence of the reverse reaction - the braking impulse;
frequency of tissue irritation in response to a nerve impulse;
the time it takes the tissue to recover after each cycle of excitation.

Many people differentiate this concept in different areas. For example, in psychology, mental lability is, first of all, instability of mood, emotional hyperexcitability, too sharp and sometimes inadequate reaction to what is happening. In physiology, this is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, when a call from the outside provokes a malfunction in the body.

In fact, many scientists say that the concept of lability should be considered equally in both psychology and physiology, since it reflects the borderline state between them. To clearly demonstrate this, let's give an example.

Situation. A person unexpectedly finds out that he was fired from a well-paid, beloved job to which he devoted many years of his life.

The reaction of a person whose nervous system is normal: he will get upset, try to find out the reasons, draw conclusions for the future and go look for a new job. Even if he was fired unfairly and resentment lurks in his soul, he will not sort things out and start scandals. Even if he is choleric, he can say something harsh, express his opinion, but nothing more. Explanation: the processes of excitation and inhibition are balanced.

Reaction of a person with increased lability: depending on the accentuation of the character, he will either begin to cry hysterically with wringing of his hands, or start a scandal. At the same time, such people will always experience symptoms of a disorder in the autonomic system: sweat on the forehead, pressure surge, tachycardia, hand tremors. It will be visible to the naked eye that he is not able to control himself. Despite the fact that the attack passes quickly, the consequence is often prolonged depression. Explanation: the excitation speed is too high, but the inhibition process cannot keep up with it.

The reaction of a person with low lability: he will take the documents and calmly leave without sorting things out. Moreover, this will not be an ostentatious demonstration; he really won’t care. Explanation: the speed of the exciting impulse is extremely low for there to be any response to the challenge from the outside.

In such borderline cases, they say that the second person has a labile nervous system (instantly reacting to everything with a low speed of inhibitory impulses), and the third has a rigid nervous system (not responding to stimuli or not resisting them).

What types of pathology are known to medicine?

Modern medicine classifies the lability of the nervous system as follows:

Nervous. This pathology can have a negative impact on the physiological parameters of the human body. As it develops, patients begin to have problems with blood pressure, the pulse rate increases, increased sweating is observed, the body’s ability to thermoregulate decreases, etc. If a person is faced with this problem, he is not able to adequately respond to stressful situations. The patient is very sensitive to even the slightest emotional shock. He may experience unexpected fainting, or develop seasickness or air sickness.
Intelligent. This form is extremely important for every person. His success directly depends on it, since in order to achieve his goals it is extremely important to have not only professional knowledge and skills, but also the ability to think constructively and productively. A person must be able to quickly switch from solving one problem to another, while highlighting the most important thing at the right time. It is the level of intellectual lability that helps people adapt to any life circumstances. Their nervous system must quickly switch from excitation mode to inhibition mode. People who have this form of pathology are very much in demand in society, as they have a non-standard level of thinking and are able to make constructive decisions in non-standard situations.
Emotional. This type is characterized by the rapidity of changes in the patient’s emotional background. People who have been diagnosed with this pathology constantly change their mood. At the slightest provocation they can start crying or laughing. Rapid changes in mood can affect the patient's sleep, his metabolism, and his attitude towards the world around him. Depending on their current state, people may have a strong desire to be in society, or, on the contrary, they are trying to retire and protect themselves from contact with the outside world. Very often, people with emotional lability have a high degree of anxiety, which they can only suppress with the help of medications.

Kinds

Depending on the speed of excitation processes:

low lability - characteristic of a rigid nervous system, when the reaction to an external challenge is minimal;
high lability is an immediate response to it, and the restraining factors (inhibition impulse, level of upbringing, character type) do not work.

Depending on the manifestations:

impulsive - pronounced both at the psychological and physiological levels;
moderate (borderline) - depending on the situation, it can manifest itself quite restrainedly.

By degree of neglect:

mild - minor but noticeable deviations in behavior are observed;
moderate severity - mental and vegetative manifestations are diagnosed;
severe - development of various complications.

Depending on the scope of manifestation:

emotional is mental lability, which is characterized primarily by instability of mood and too strong reactions to what is happening;
vegetative is physiological lability, in which a malfunction in the functioning of various body systems comes to the fore.

These two types of deviations rarely exist in their pure form: most often their symptoms are intertwined and lead to a diagnosis that is registered in ICD-10. Organic emotionally labile asthenic disorder (abbreviated as simply labile disorder) is treated by psychiatrists, psychotherapists and neurologists.

Certain types of lability

Type 1. Intelligent

There is also intellectual lability, which is distinguished by the fact that it is a positive characteristic of the nervous system. Here, the high speed of excitation processes plays into a person’s hands: he instantly reacts to the task assigned to him, quickly and accurately solves it, and immediately switches to another task. Such multifunctionality, according to experts, in the modern world with its frantic rhythm is much more in demand and useful than IQ level.

Example. A person with high intellectual lability takes the subway in the morning. From the outside it may seem that he is not doing anything special. In fact he:

monitors the movement of the electric train so as not to miss its stop, and evaluates the surroundings (when to stand up and give way);
listening to music;
plans his day in his thoughts: what he will do at work first, and what things can wait;
scrolls through social media feeds to keep up with the latest events;
communicates with several people at once in different messengers.

And all this at the same time!

On the subject: Tests to determine intellectual lability

Type 2. Social

An insufficiently described type, about which there is no established and unambiguous opinion in psychology. Some believe that this is a consequence of emotional instability, and therefore bears its imprints. That is, a socially labile person cannot build strong and long-term relationships (neither family nor friendly), since not everyone can tolerate his mood swings.

However, another group of psychologists believes that social lability should be viewed in a completely different way - positive. A person who has it can easily make acquaintances. And if on a personal level this is not a virtue, then in networking it is simply an invaluable quality.

Intellectual lability

Intellectual lability is one of the components of the lability of the nervous system and is responsible for the processes of switching between the processes of activation and inhibition. In life, this looks like a fairly high level of mental development and the ability to logically analyze incoming information. Since a critically huge number of information blocks that require perception are received every second, there is a need to sort them as quickly as possible (at a subconscious automatic level) into significant and insignificant.

The presence of a large knowledge base in memory becomes irrelevant and indicates not intelligence, but erudition; much more significant is the ability to switch between different sources of information, between different information in meaning, and also in the shortest possible time move on to solving the next one (even if it is the opposite one). ) tasks. At this switching speed, the main thing is to maintain the ability to highlight the main thing for the task at a given time. It is precisely this process of intellectual work that ensures high intellectual lability.

Previously, they did not know about this property, then they talked about it, but rarely, and now, when the pace of life is accelerating, the amount of information consumed is growing at such a pace that a person who lived two hundred years ago would have needed a month to realize that we process within an hour , this becomes a determining factor for success. This gives the ability to respond adequately and as usefully as possible in changing conditions, promotes instant analysis of many factors, which allows minimizing the possibility of error.

In addition, quickly switching between different topics and issues provides innovative thinking, new ways to solve old problems, and rapid assimilation of knowledge and skills, and this happens at a deeper level. For example, historical data on the same event, gleaned from different sources (here one cannot do without using the capabilities of the modern world) provides a more objective and comprehensive understanding than citing the point of view of the author of the textbook. The ability to learn quickly is due to the fact that there is no need to tune in to the arrival of material - ten minutes of reading an article in a minibus, accompanied by listening to new music, or writing a thesis with breaks to watch educational videos becomes a familiar way of functioning, providing new opportunities.

Causes

Since lability is a borderline phenomenon that concerns both the psyche and physiology, the factors that provoke its appearance lie precisely in these planes.

Physiological (vegetative)

Buerger's disease;
hormonal dysfunction;
deficiency of nutrients necessary for the normal functioning of the nervous system;
intoxication (medicine, narcotic, alcohol, toxic chemicals);
unstable pressure, its constant jumps;
complications during or after pregnancy and childbirth;
suffered a stroke or heart attack;
consequences of unsuccessful anesthesia;
brain cancer, traumatic brain injury;
thyrotoxicosis, hypothyroidism;
severe neuroinfections: meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, polio, tetanus, HIV infection, cerebral malaria, etc.;
epilepsy.

Vegetative lability often develops against the background of diseases such as:

Crohn's disease;
diabetes;
kyphoscoliosis;
lupus erythematosus;
lymphogranulomatosis;
cancer in the last stages;
ulcer.

Psychological

Distress;
spoiled;
lack of education (from childhood a person is not taught to control himself, and over time his inhibitory synapses weaken to such an extent that later, even if he wants to stop expressing his emotions, he will not be able to do this);
psychotrauma;
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder;
excessive emotional stress.

Intellectual lability, according to experts, is determined to a large extent by heredity. Some even believe that for this reason it cannot be corrected, since it is laid down at the genetic level. However, training and the constant development of memory and attention lead to increased performance, which refutes this point of view.

Symptoms

As already mentioned, if a person’s nervous system is labile, this will manifest itself at different levels. The clinical picture is usually visible to the naked eye. In response to an external challenge, the autonomic nervous system activates the body's systems as a defensive reaction. Since inhibitory impulses do not have time to stop the exciting wave, this is instantly indicated at the physiological level.

At the same time, approximately the same thing happens at the mental level. The central nervous system sends the brain a task to cope with the situation that has arisen. It responds with a powerful reaction that the inhibitory synapses do not have time to stop. The result is an emotional explosion.

Sometimes this occurs in a single complex, sometimes vegetative symptoms predominate over mental symptoms (or vice versa). The clinical picture may be as follows.

Psycho-emotional signs

A labile psyche can react to a stressful situation in the following way:

hot temper, impulsiveness;
loud, uncontrollable, hysterical laughter;
hysterical fits;
rash actions;
irritability, anger, aggression;
a sharp change in mood;
speech dysfunction (stuttering, for example);
tears, tearfulness, moodiness;
spontaneous, unexpected reactions;
excessive emotionality.

In the long term, frequent breakdowns lead to insomnia, neurotic phobias and panic attacks. At the time of a problematic situation, everything can end even worse: being unable to control their own emotions, a person becomes dangerous to others and to himself (suicide is possible).

Such conditions must be differentiated from mental disorders. The main difference is mood lability. That is, outside of such situations a person is completely adequate. And almost always - intertwined with a physiological symptom complex.

Physiological signs

If a person is labile, in response to a stressful situation, along with emotions, he will feel how his body includes defensive reactions that may be completely unnecessary:

the pressure either jumps sharply or drops just as quickly;
the ground disappears from under your feet due to dizziness and spots before your eyes;
tremor or numbness of the limbs may begin;
there is tachycardia to the point of ringing in the ears, it seems that the heart is about to jump out of the chest;
lack of air is detected;
sweating increases (perspiration appears on the forehead, armpits become wet, palms become wet);
sensitivity increases: sounds hit the ears, light blinds the eyes, a barely noticeable touch causes pain;
severe migraine develops;
auditory hallucinations are heard.

Moreover, outside of such situations, a person is absolutely healthy. As soon as the autonomic nervous system is convinced that there is no danger, the excitatory synapses subside, and in literally 5 minutes the state returns to normal, as if nothing had happened. Too frequent such attacks can lead to decreased libido, irritable bowel syndrome, weakened immunity, cystalgia and other serious diseases.

Signs and types

Lability has several varieties, but there are signs common to all conditions.

Distinctive features of a labile personality type:

Acute reaction to minor events. If something goes wrong, a person screams, cries, becomes hysterical. Sometimes he falls into deep depression.
Sudden mood swings. If a person is pathologically labile, his mood is changeable. He easily moves from irritation, hysteria to joy, jubilation under the influence of an insignificant reason.
Fear of difficulties. Labile individuals believe that it is impossible to overcome life's obstacles. The individual avoids them with all his might, communicates little, prefers a narrow circle of friends.
Difficulties in communication. A malfunction of the nervous system makes it difficult to communicate with a person due to sudden mood swings.
Emotional exhaustion. Mental disorders cause an individual to literally burn out. Mood swings lead to fatigue, weakness, and apathy.
Susceptibility to influence. Individuals with mental pathologies often get carried away, find idols, and become attached to them. Sometimes passion reaches the point of absurdity.

These are general indicators that allow one to suspect a patient has mental disorders. But psychologists and psychiatrists identify a number of options for labile character accentuation:

Emotional lability. Excessive expression of emotions is accompanied by paradoxical actions and reactions. Resentment is manifested by hysterical laughter, great joy - by a stream of tears. Low lability, on the contrary, makes itself felt by hypoemotionality, when a person hardly expresses feelings.
Psycho-emotional lability. Along with emotional arousal, it is accompanied by motor activity. Such individuals are suspicious, frivolous, sensitive to criticism, impressionable, and overly sensitive.
Affectively labile type. Negative personality traits are compensated by its good qualities. Such people are open, trusting, and easily fall under the influence of others.
Conformal type. This person does not critically evaluate his own and others’ actions, does not know how to control himself, and has difficulty adapting to new conditions.

In complex cases, pathological lability is accompanied by a deterioration in physical condition. With asthenic syndrome, frequent fatigue, dizziness, weakness, and decreased activity are recorded. In this situation, treatment takes place in a hospital.

Diagnostics

Often people with nervous system lability are referred by their loved ones either to a psychologist (psychotherapist) or simply to a doctor. This is not surprising, because emotional outbursts and the physiology that manifests itself in such situations can frighten anyone. Mental disorders or hidden illnesses are usually suspected.

At the appointment, it is not enough for a specialist to collect anamnesis through a conversation with the patient. He must study the disease chart to see that he does not have any chronic or hereditary abnormalities. After this, the person is observed for 2-3 months to find out how stable his explosive reactions are and how often they manifest themselves.

When it turns out that all this happens spontaneously and not systematically, a diagnosis is assumed (organic emotionally labile asthenic disorder). It is confirmed using diagnostic methods such as:

analysis of cardiovascular reflexes;
urine, blood, and hormone tests;
testing;
Doppler ultrasound;
electrocardiography;
electroencephalography.

Lability must be confirmed by various specialists, as it affects both the psyche and the functioning of the body. A single team (ideally) of a cardiologist, psychologist, neurologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist and endocrinologist works on its diagnosis and correction.

Diagnosis of the pathological process

Stuttering is diagnosed by a group of specialists. Neurologists, speech pathologists, and also psychotherapists.

Detecting a pathological process is quite simple. A diagnosis of stuttering is made if a person stutters consistently and has symptoms of the pathological process for at least several months. The diagnosis may be revised in the future. The serious problem is not in stating a fact, but in finding the cause of the pathological process. The disorder itself is detected by the following manifestations:

Changes in speaking rhythm. What rate of speech is typical for stuttering depends on the specific clinical case. As a rule, this is a significant slowdown, closing on consonants.
Respiratory dysfunction.
Disturbances in normal articulation, disturbances in the functioning of facial muscles as a compensatory reaction to the disorder. The patient grimaces, tries to restrain the spasm, but nothing works. But trying becomes a habit.

It is much more difficult to detect the origin of the pathological process. If we talk about possible examination methods.

Oral interview with the patient. If he is too young to talk about his condition, his parents are interviewed. It is important to identify all possible complaints. Including those that seem to have nothing to do directly with stuttering.
Anamnesis collection. You need to understand at what point the problems started and why. At this stage, the patient’s general condition, his birth history, and life are assessed. It is important to identify past diseases and pathologies. Assess the hereditary factor and its influence on the patient’s condition.
Electroencephalography. A technique that is aimed at studying the electrical activity of the brain and its individual structures. It makes sense to carry it out as part of the initial examination. Only then draw conclusions.
MRI study. To assess the structural, anatomical state of the brain, all cerebral structures.
Conversation with the patient. Helps assess the extent of the pathological condition. Determine how severe stuttering occurs in a particular case.
Basic neurological examination. A routine technique that provides a lot of information.
Psychopathological research. If there are suspicions about the functional origin of stuttering.

This is only a part of the possible methods. The specific list of activities is determined by doctors.

Treatment

Eliminating the lability of the nervous system is an extremely difficult task, since it affects the processes of excitation and inhibition, which are difficult to correct.

The first goal of treatment is to eliminate possible causes. If it is an incurable chronic disease or a hereditary factor, medicine is powerless to do anything. Only psychologists and psychotherapists will help here. They cannot eliminate attacks, but they teach people how to deal with them on the spot. As soon as a person feels a crisis approaching, he will know what to do:

drink a glass of cold water in small sips;
take a deep breath and hold your breath;
go out into the fresh air;
wash;
get away from people;
urgently switch to another problem, etc.

Sometimes the cause can be eliminated (by treating the disease, avoiding emotional stress) - and then the lability gradually disappears.

Tranquilizers, antidepressants and other sedatives are prescribed as drug treatment.

Lability is a polysemantic and ambiguous concept in psychology and medicine.
Experts have yet to figure out the mechanism of its development and the degree of danger to human health. You may also be interested in:
Lability

(from Latin labilis “sliding, unstable”) in physiology - functional mobility, the speed of elementary cycles of excitation in nervous and muscle tissues. The concept of “lability” was introduced by the Russian physiologist N. E. Vvedensky (1886), who considered the measure of lability to be the highest frequency of tissue irritation reproduced by it without rhythm transformation. Lability reflects the time during which the tissue restores its functionality after the next cycle of excitation. The processes of nerve cells - axons - are characterized by the greatest lability, capable of reproducing up to 500-1000 impulses per 1 s; the central and peripheral places of contact - synapses - are less labile (for example, a motor nerve ending can transmit no more than 100-150 excitations per 1 s to the skeletal muscle). Inhibition of the vital activity of tissues and cells (for example, cold, drugs) reduces lability, since this slows down the recovery processes and lengthens the refractory period. Lability is a variable value. Thus, in the heart, under the influence of frequent irritations, the refractory period is shortened, and consequently, lability increases. This phenomenon underlies the so-called. mastering rhythm. The doctrine of lability is important for understanding the mechanisms of nervous activity, the work of nerve centers and analyzers, both normally and in various painful abnormalities.

In biology and medicine, the term “ lability”

"denote mobility, instability, variability: for example, the psyche, physiological state, pulse, body temperature, etc.

Why is pathology dangerous?

Lability of the nervous system is a rapid change of emotions. A person can experience euphoria, and a second later plunge into a depressive state. This pathology can provoke serious disruptions in the process of perceiving information and thinking. Many patients faced with this problem are not aware of their actions. If they wanted to do something, even if it was illegal, then they would complete what they had planned.

Modern medicine devotes a lot of time to the issue of the labile nervous system. The results of numerous studies suggest that this pathology in people can occur against the background of manic psychoses that develop against the background of depression. This mental disorder is accompanied by characteristic symptoms:

unexpected laughter;
animated gestures;
specific humor;
slurred speech;
lack of concentration, etc.

Causes

In a situation where such a concept as lability is understood in a psychological sense, it should be noted that this is the individuality of the nervous system of a particular person, innate in nature and characteristic of a person with a choleric temperament.

It’s common for him to “swing” with his mood. As a rule, even the slightest irritant can cause uncontrolled behavior . This factor may cause problems of physiological and mental origin in the future.

An emotional labile state, if we consider it as a disease that needs treatment, then it must be understood as a set of physiological and mental symptoms.

The reasons for the formation of such a state are considered to be both the somatic part of the body and the mental component.

Physiological reasons include:

Oncological diseases of the brain.
Vascular pathologies.
Brain diseases.
Traumatic brain injuries.
Hypotension or hypertension.

An emotionally labile person is a patient with somatic abnormalities. This disease is detected through changes in the body that occur as a result of hormonal changes or due to age. Therefore, lability (weakness) is characteristic of people of the older generation.

In a situation where there is asthenic syndrome, which is directly connected with weakness, it can be defined both as a basis and as a consequence.

As a rule, asthenic syndrome (mental disorder) together with emotional instability often causes anxiety and depression.

The mental part of a negative state usually includes attention deficit, negative parenting and influence on the child. Often, a labile emotional state manifests itself against the background of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychotraumatic conditions often become auxiliary causes of lability at different ages.

Often, a person with suicidal tendencies or after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, as well as with neurotic deviations, can suffer from weakness.

As a rule, neuroses or psychological diseases accompanied by a deficit in the control of emotions are considered a sign or basis for a negative change in condition.

In addition, an important factor in the formation of emotional lability is the lack of vitamins and microelements in the human body.

Is it possible to prevent the disease?

Every person who wants to prevent disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system can regularly carry out preventive measures:

spend as much time as possible outdoors;
it is necessary to give the body moderate physical activity;
It is recommended to develop a schedule for eating, resting and sleeping;
instead of water, you can drink various decoctions that have a calming effect on the central nervous system;
minimize stressful situations, etc.

Symptoms of the pathological condition

The main labile symptom is an instant change in mood regarding someone or something. At the same time, tears easily give way to incomprehensible laughter, and complacency turns into obvious aggression.

At the same time, emotional lability can be expressed in outbursts of affective genesis. People with such a pathology cannot be responsible for their actions, and the basic instinct of self-preservation is dulled. Because of what, such individuals are capable of rash actions.

Labile emotional deviation of an organic nature is mainly associated with the presence of a feeling of being moved against the background of a tearful state.

On the physiological side, in addition to the exacerbation of vegetative abnormalities, for people with emotional lability, a short-term (vasovagal) loss of consciousness may occur, which is present under the influence of emotional manifestations, in which the blood vessels instantly dilate, but there is a significant slowdown in the frequency of contractions of the heart muscle.

But the pathogenicity of emotional lability can manifest itself in weakness of an impulsive and borderline nature.

Labile impulsive weakness is characterized by negative manifestations.

Symptoms of this pathology are:

Dysphoria (gloominess).
Irritability.
Touchiness.
Vengefulness.
Pathological stubbornness.

Due to the presence of such signs, it is difficult for a person to work or study in a team, and it is also problematic for him to create and maintain family relationships.

In addition, a person with an impulsive nature of labile pathology does not find life easy, which is why affective outbursts often occur. An aggressive state can be concentrated inside oneself, leading to self-destruction, or into the environment, resulting in antisocial behavior.

Borderline weakness is caused by impressionability, helplessness in difficult situations, fluctuations between interests, intense emotional behavior, emotional and physical exhaustion, loss of time in one work process and neglect of parental instructions in childhood.

Drug therapy

The basis of drug treatment is the use of drugs to eliminate the physiological basis of the disease, which serves as a provocateur of deviations of emotional significance.

Based on the pathology present, the doctor may prescribe:

Tranquilizers (anxiety and panic attacks).
Antipsychotics in combination with herbal teas (sleep problems).
Antidepressants (depression).

In a situation where it is not possible to get rid of the pathology, the patient is prescribed drugs that work as a stopper against the further development of the disease.

Psychotherapeutic correction

Such an edit serves as a diagnostic method that determines the presence of fears or the psychological factor of lability. This type of therapy ensures the elimination of difficulties by analyzing them, feelings of anxiety, and the process of resistance to stressful situations with deviations in self-perception.

In addition, work is underway to establish control over the patient’s own aggressive temperament. If there are problems of a social nature with communication traits, then training is often carried out.

It is important that not only medical workers perform their duties efficiently, but also the family of a person with weakness (emotional lability) must learn how to correctly respond to frequent mood swings.

The term “emotional lability” in psychiatry means a pathological violation of the stability of emotional status. This state is characterized by regular fluctuations in emotional tone and high mobility of the emotional-volitional sphere. With emotional lability, an individual experiences a rapid replacement of some experiences with other feelings. The mood background is extremely unstable. A person’s disposition of spirit changes depending on the situation and depends on insignificant details of reality.

With emotional lability, changes in environmental conditions or one’s own well-being lead to instant, very violent and vivid reactions. A person with this disorder responds equally sharply to the influence of both positive and negative factors. An individual can easily and quickly develop states of emotion, sentimentality, and excessive tenderness, accompanied by causeless tearfulness. Over time, a person may demonstrate traits of hostility, anger, and aggressiveness. At the same time, the presented stimulus does not always cause adequate reaction situations. For example, being offended by your interlocutor can cause inappropriate fits of hysterical laughter. Or, having received good news, a person will begin to sob violently.

A distinctive characteristic of emotional lability is the regular alternation of short-term emotional states. In contrast to such mood swings, another condition has been described - emotional rigidity, also called “emotional flatness”. This disorder is characterized by minimal expression or complete absence of emotions.

Correction and treatment

The interpretation of lability symptoms depends on the qualifications of the psychologist or psychiatrist. He evaluates the significance of the collected observations and makes a decision regarding the diagnosis.

Treatment is prescribed depending on the diagnostic result obtained. It includes:

Correction of the patient's behavior is carried out using sedatives and antidepressants.
Psychologists work with patients on training volitional qualities, concentration of behavior, and attention. Their influence is aimed at establishing smooth relationships in the patient’s family, minimizing the manifestation of shortcomings, and relieving emotional stress.
In parallel, internal diseases, if any, and somatic diseases are treated. The tone of the nervous system decreases, which leads to calmness and concentration.
For labile individuals, a regime that allows you to avoid stress and stay in a comfort zone is important. Important components of treatment are sleep, walks in the fresh air, massage, and good nutrition.
In severe cases, resort to hypnosis. This is a dangerous but effective method. Hypnosis is used if the pathology is caused by severe stress in childhood or defects in upbringing.

If we are talking about an affective state, an outbreak of aggression, treatment is carried out in a hospital. When assessing the patient’s condition, the psychiatrist takes into account existing signs and the overall picture of the morbidity.

In Europe, lability treatment is carried out in sanatoriums equipped with new equipment. Medical centers are located in famous resorts, which creates a comfortable environment for the patient. Doctors monitor the condition of patients around the clock.

Self-medication for emotional lability is unacceptable. The patient cannot independently cope with mood swings, fight manifestations of aggression or causeless joy. This requires willpower, which patients lack. Self-administration of sedatives is unacceptable: they have serious contraindications and side effects.

Emotional lability: reasons

A pathological state of the psyche - emotional lability - is determined in various somatic, neurological and mental disorders. Instability of emotional status is a typical symptom:

benign and malignant formations of the brain and adjacent formations;
traumatic brain injuries;
dyscirculatory encephalopathy;
arterial hypertension and hypotension (hypertension and hypotension);
asthenic syndrome;
affective (depressive) states;
disruption of the activity of the limbic-reticular complex structures;
pathologies of the endocrine system.

The cause of emotional lability can be chronic stressful conditions or intense mental trauma. The basis for the development of this condition is an affectively labile (cyclothymic) temperament. Mood swings are often found in people with a hysterical character (demonstrative personalities). In this situation, the foundation for mood swings is congenital mental weakness and instability of hysterical drives, which is combined with an obsessive desire to be the center of attention.

Often, emotional lability starts after illnesses of a viral or bacterial nature, with vitamin deficiency, in particular, with a deficiency of B vitamins. A typical provocateur of mood swings is serotonin syndrome: a failure in the exchange of neurotransmitters that regulate the emotional sphere.

Lability in psychology

Mental lability, considered in psychology, implies its mobility, and in some cases instability, while science itself studies only this aspect of lability, without going into physiology. In most sources, mental lability is considered as a negative quality that requires correction, but it does not give due credit to the fact that this is the main adaptive mechanism of the psyche. It was the speed of reaction and switching between quickly and often unexpectedly changing events in external life that helped humanity survive. The opposite is mental rigidity, when a person remains constant for a long time, and any changes knock him out of his normal state. Any of these characteristics in its extreme manifestation is negative, but at moderate levels it gives its advantages.

Problems with lability, when a person comes to a psychologist, are associated with frequent changes in mood, while all spectrums are experienced not superficially, but really deeply (i.e., if you feel sad, then you think about opening your veins, and if you are happy, then you want to dance on workplace and give candy to passers-by - and all this within one hour). It is the difficulties in coping with one’s emotions and the lack of understanding of how this can be corrected that brings many not only mental suffering, but the subsequent changes in health, since the autonomic system, being subordinate to emotional states, also increases the level of its lability.

Such phenomena can be justified by the type of organization of the nervous system, for example, in people with a choleric type of temperament, the speed of reactions is already due to nature, and accordingly, increased lability to a pathological state is more likely. Frequent neuroses, psychological trauma received at an early age, and being in traumatic situations at the moment can also provoke mood swings. But we should not exclude physiological reasons that affect a person’s psychological state: brain tumors, TBI, vascular diseases.

Correction of such unpleasant conditions begins with diagnosis and exclusion of physiological causes, then, if necessary, correction is possible with mood-stabilizing drugs (antidepressants and tranquilizers), accompanied by a course of psychotherapy. In severe cases, treatment in a hospital may be appropriate; in the mildest cases, you can cope by visiting a psychologist, without interrupting your usual life.

Emotional lability: symptoms

The main characteristics of this pathological condition are unreasonable mood swings, impulsiveness and spontaneity of actions, the inability to control one’s own behavior, and the inability to foresee the consequences of one’s actions. A change in emotional state occurs for insignificant reasons or even in the absence of objective reasons. Demonstration of emotions can reach the size of affective outbursts, when the demonstrated reaction significantly exceeds the strength of the presented stimulus.

A person with emotional instability may experience an angry-sad mood for no reason, combined with violent outbursts of aggression. After a short period, dysphoria may be replaced by the opposite phenomena - high spirits, a feeling of lightness with characteristic psychomotor agitation.

Emotional lability is adjacent to excessive impressionability, suspiciousness and vulnerability of the individual. Such a person reacts extremely painfully to criticism addressed to him and is particularly suspicious.

A person with emotional lability easily becomes a victim of addictions. The lack of a strong inner core, the lack of clear life guidelines leads an unstable personality into the ranks of chronic alcoholics and drug addicts. The inability to control emotions often rewards with uncontrollable passion in various areas. An emotionally labile person can become an avid casino visitor, embark on countless love affairs, and become addicted to computer games.

With mood lability, a person can go from one extreme to another. Today he will swear eternal love to his chosen one, and tomorrow he will simply file for divorce. An emotionally unstable person, driven by immediate desires, often changes jobs or leaves school.

Emotional lability: methods of overcoming

In most cases, it is possible to eliminate emotional lability in a person. In the absence of pronounced and persistent personality changes, it is possible to overcome this condition with the help of psychotherapeutic techniques, auto-training and hypnosis techniques. The main task of the doctor is to establish the true causes of the anomaly, confirm or exclude organic lesions, and eliminate triggers.

The emphasis in correcting emotional lability is on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. During sessions, the psychotherapist teaches the client ways to control their emotions and relaxation methods. In severe situations, pharmacological drugs are used in the treatment of emotional lability: sedatives of plant origin, benzodiazepine tranquilizers, anxiolytics, antidepressants.

Emotional lability usually means a state of the human nervous system, which is characterized by high excitability, apathy, and depression. It arises as a result of life's difficulties. The condition can be both short-term and permanent. It can occur in any person, regardless of gender and age. Psychology notes that the main factor for people with this pathology is the support of family and friends. If an organic emotionally labile disorder is detected, it is necessary to begin treatment as quickly as possible.

1 Types and characteristics

Lability is a definition used to denote mobility, including mental state. The following types are distinguished:

intellectual - the ability and ability to reactively switch from solving one problem to another;
vegetative - the presence of an unstable nervous system;
affective - variable mood;
psycho-emotional, or emotional - a variety of emotions;
mental - personality disorder.

Emotional lability is similar to asthenic syndrome. The disease manifests itself with one or more symptoms. Knowing them will help you recognize the problem in time and begin solving it.

The most common symptoms of emotional lability are:

1. Constant mood changes. A person who is in this state falls either into joy or into apathy, and finds himself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This also affects those close to him.
2. Hot temper and aggressiveness. Trying to get rid of some problem, a person experiencing emotional lability usually lashes out at others.
3. Excessive enthusiasm. To get distracted, a person begins to look for something to do.

Patients suffering from this disorder may experience brief periods of fainting.

If the disease does not progress, it smooths out over the years. For example, in women this occurs due to hormonal changes in the body after childbirth.

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Emotional lability can arise for a number of reasons. The most common ones are:

constant stress, psychological trauma, lack of attention;
hormonal imbalances in the body;
physical ailments, vitamin deficiency.

Prolonged emotional turmoil leads to the fact that people stop trusting not only others, but also themselves. A person begins to become disillusioned with his life and refuses to strive for better.

A labile psyche can be temporary during a period of hormonal disruptions. Before menstruation, many girls and women notice emotional instability.

Tumors, hypertension, and concussion can provoke this disease. It is also often preceded by a lack of microelements and vitamins in the body.

A stable, labile psyche in children can lead to nervous exhaustion. This condition develops due to emotional overstrain caused by indulgence in whims or constant punishment.

3 Treatment and prevention

If emotional lability is detected, it is necessary to immediately begin its treatment, which includes psychotherapy or special medications.

If it is caused by other diseases, they must be eliminated.

Diagnosis is carried out by studying the anamnesis and based on the patient’s complaints. Instrumental examination and additional tests may be prescribed.

In pediatric therapy, it is necessary to develop an individual treatment plan and constantly monitor the patient’s health. At this age, experts prescribe herbal medications with a slight sedative effect. These include herbal syrups, valerian or motherwort.

Therapy for an adult begins with a complete diagnosis. The specialist finds the cause of the condition and eliminates it.

For emotional lability, the attending physician prescribes antidepressants, nootropics, strengthening therapy and sedatives.

The method for preventing this condition is as follows:

1. You must try to avoid conflicts or resolve them as quickly as possible, without accumulating anger and irritation.
2. You need to try to keep your emotions and thinking under control and eliminate all problems before they begin to turn into illness.
3. Physical and mental activity, daily routine and sleep patterns should be properly organized.

Potent drugs should only be prescribed by a medical specialist. If you have panic attacks or causeless anxiety, you should consult a psychiatrist.

Sources used:

https://ponervam.ru/labilnost.html
https://wiki2.org/ru/lability
https://psiho.guru/populyarnye-voprosy/chto-takoe/chto-takoe-emocionalnaya-labilnost.html
https://depressia.info/emotsionalnaya-labilnost/
https://neurofob.com/mental-behavioural/organic/labilnost-eto.html