Any situation or event in a person’s life is accompanied by emotions. Everyone at least once in his life felt a state of euphoria, inexplicable joy, sadness, complete emptiness. The emergence of a limitless spectrum of emotions depends on the mental state of a person and his environment, which often dictates a specific behavioral framework.
Personal limitations and stereotypes accumulate a huge number of sensations inside, whether it is sadness or unexpected joy. Emotional tension is growing more every day, plunging a person into a state of mental disturbance. Over time, even with a strong desire, he can not throw out what has accumulated inside him, because for a long time it was holding back. In this way, all kinds of disturbances in the emotional sphere are formed, which entail a disorder in the psychophysical system as a whole. Consider the causes that cause such pathologies, as well as ways to correct them.
What are emotions
This term is used to call the subjective reactions of a person to the effects of external and internal stimuli, which manifest themselves in the form of displeasure, pleasure, fear, joy, etc. Accompanying any sphere of life, emotions serve as one of the main mechanisms of external and internal regulation of behavior and mental activity aimed at meeting needs.
There are several types of disorders of the emotional sphere. Let's consider them in more detail.
Pathological affect
This is a manifestation of rage or anger that occurs in response to minor stimuli and is accompanied by aggressive influences on the source of negative emotions. Pathological affect is characterized by a rapid course against the background of a dull consciousness, upon exit from which there is complete amnesia of what happened. A similar condition can occur with organic damage to the brain, psychogeny, psychopathy and some other mental pathologies.
Euphoria
Inadequate, pathologically elevated joyful mood, when life seems to a person a continuous chain of careless pleasures and carefree pastime, and all problems (even very serious ones) are completely solvable. He sees the environment in rainbow colors. At the same time, impenetrable optimism is observed, negative and sometimes tragic moments of life are perceived positively, joyfully. Due to hyperoptimism, a person inadequately assesses his condition. For example, euphoria can occur at the terminal stage of certain malignant diseases. A state of infinite happiness is also observed with many somatic and mental pathologies. Many do not know anything about some violations of the emotional sphere of the personality. Let's talk about them in more detail.
Moria
Unmotivated good mood with foolishness, vulgar, flat jokes, disinhibition of drives. The behavior of such people resembles hebephrenic agitation, although it differs from it by the absence of echolalia, paramimia, echopraxia. Often, moria is accompanied by mild stunning - nubulation. Such an emotional phenomenon is most often observed in neurological practice in patients with organic lesions of the frontal lobes.
Dysthymia
A depressed, pathologically bad mood that occurs for no reason. In this case, the person perceives the surrounding gloomy, hopelessly pessimistic, hopeless. Nothing pleases him, life seems to be meaningless. Often it is such a disorder that is the main cause of suicidal thoughts, intent and suicide attempts.
Anxiety
This is a longing that is projected into the future, expressed anxiety, excitement, due to the groundless expectation of a catastrophe, a major trouble that will happen to the patient or his loved ones. Anxiety can be caused by a specific event associated with a certain, often exaggerated situation in life, or with a diffuse one, not associated with any events or facts. Such a violation is usually accompanied by intense autonomic reactions and motor excitement. It is closely associated with depressive states and acts as part of a single anxiety-depressive syndrome in various somatic and mental disorders, especially often occurring at involutionary age.
Inadequacy of emotions
Inconsistency of the nature of emotions and the reason that caused them. Such a pathology is also characteristic of schizophrenia.
Dysphoria
A dreary-angry, unmotivated mood with dissatisfaction with others or oneself, which is expressed by extrapunitive behavior. At this time, a person has an affect of anger and extremely high irritability, which explain the causeless sudden outbreaks of aggression towards others and destructive actions. If aggression for some reason a person cannot realize, he directs it to himself. This is often expressed in suicidal acts or self-harm. Dysphoria can occur with organic pathologies of the brain, epilepsy, some types of psychopathy, atrophic and vascular processes in the brain.
Emotional lability, weak-heartedness
This is a mood instability. For a minor reason, a person easily passes from laughter to crying, from anger to tenderness. He cannot watch a sentimental film without tears, read books. During the day, in such a patient, emotions repeatedly change polarity. Deafness is a symptom of vascular diseases of the brain. It is also often found in organic pathologies and asthenia of various nature of origin.
Emotional dullness (impoverishment)
This is the disappearance of moral, aesthetic, intellectual and ethical feelings. A person loses delicacy, ability to empathize, shows emotional coldness, gross unceremoniousness, indifference and indifference to the fate of loved ones. A similar disorder is typical for people with schizophrenia.
Apathy
Violation, which is expressed in the absence of all desires and absolute indifference to oneself and others. At the same time, patients not only lose interest in the outside world, but are also completely indifferent to their own condition. They often become untidy, messy. While maintaining the ability to think, they cannot act. This condition is characteristic of schizophrenia and some types of organic brain damage.
Causes of Violations
According to statistics, in half of cases, disorders of the emotional sphere are expressed in the development of mental illness. This is a very disturbing fact. Psychologists believe that the main reasons for their appearance may be:
- Severe stress and illness.
- Features of psychoemotional and physical development.
- Microclimate and relationships in the family, especially the upbringing (in case of violations in the child).
- The tragic event.
- Social and living conditions, close environment.
Violations can be triggered by other factors. For example, in childhood, computer games and movies can cause psychological trauma.
Disorders of the emotional sphere in children
In a child, this kind of pathology most often manifests itself in transitional periods of development. An important factor is that a small child, especially in preschool age, has a greater susceptibility than a teenager or adult. Therefore, signs of a violation of the emotional sphere are more intense in him. However, parents often do not notice the depression of children, attributing their inappropriate behavior to character traits.
Emotional instability in adults manifests itself standardly in unmotivated joy, mood lability, feelings of longing, sadness or tension. Violations of the emotional sphere in children are usually hidden. The child may have problems with the digestive tract, appetite disorders, frequent diseases, decreased immune responses, weight loss, slowed mental development, sleep disorders, weakened memory, sweating, and changes in the condition of the skin.
In preschoolers, emotional disturbances are often expressed in unmotivated anger, painful fears, aggression, etc. A biological indicator in the form of an organic lesion of the fetal brain during pregnancy, childbirth or in the first years of life creates irreversible violations of the personal emotional sphere. A child of this age is most susceptible to psychological attitudes and the process of socialization - actions or words inherent in other children and affecting its development and behavior. Such a psychological phenomenon is considered normal for children, but you should watch to see if the baby has emotional problems.
Disorders in children with auditory and speech pathologies
Often the emotional sphere of children with speech impairments, and in addition, hearing, also suffers. Among babies with problems of psychophysical development, a large group consists of those who have hearing impairment. Such a child does not have the opportunity to learn to speak independently, since he perceives sound speech, he does not have the opportunity to receive auditory samples. These children do not control pronunciation, which results in speech distortion, and in some cases it does not develop at all.
The emotional sphere of children with hearing impairment negatively affects the mastery of a complex speech system. This not only significantly limits the possibilities in cognition of the surrounding world and in learning, but also has a pronounced negative impact on the mental development of the personality, distorting or delaying it.
Deep hearing impairments in most cases entail dumbness and lead to social isolation of the child, since his communication with hearing children is very limited. This often leads to the development of disturbances in the emotional sphere in the form of aggression, manifestations of negativism, self-centeredness, selfishness. Opposite reactions can also be observed - lethargy, lethargy, lack of initiative.
How to fix the situation
Correction of disorders of the emotional-personal sphere is a special system of psychological impact. Its main directions are the mitigation of discomfort at the level of emotions, the increase of independence and activity, the elimination of personal reactions of a secondary nature caused by violations of the psychological sphere. An important stage of work is the correction of the level of self-awareness, self-esteem, the formation of self-regulation in the patient.
Specific tasks of psychological correction of disorders of the emotional sphere:
- Change of stereotypes, attitudes and positions.
- Overcoming the family crisis.
- Elimination of manifestations of maladaptation in behavior.
- Expanding the areas of social interaction.
- Formation of an adequate attitude towards oneself and others.
We examined the features of the development of disorders of the emotional sphere in children and adults.