What Does It Mean To Have An Impulse Control Disorder?

All people have or feel impulses. In most cases, however, your impulses are not intense enough to overwhelm your ability to control them. On the other hand, even if your impulses sometimes take over, it usually does not happen enough to make you, or the people around you, suffer. If it does, you may be suffering from an impulse control disorder.

Before we continue, it is important to define a key expression in this field: impulsivity. According to Moller, Barrat, Dougherty, Schmitz and Swann (2001), impulsivity is a predisposition to rapid, unplanned reactions to internal or external stimuli regardless of the negative consequences of these reactions on the impulsive individual or others. This reaction may be visible, such as calling someone. On the other hand, it may remain hidden from an observer, such as an individual imagining a conversation with another person.

In mild cases, the negative consequences are usually not significant enough to trigger an alarm. The problem is in the long run. Mild impulse control disorder can end up being very harmful because it is not severe enough to cause patients to take preventative or treatment measures. Thus, it can become chronic and more resilient to possible treatment. This condition is more common in men, although the gender difference seems to level out and depends on the specific condition.

In today’s article we will talk about the most important impulse control disorders according to DSM-5.

Intermittent explosive disorder

Anger is the most important factor in this disorder. The energy of emotions completely overwhelms the individual with this condition. To use it or release it, they can become aggressive and destructive.

We are talking about physical and verbal aggression. Some abusers have this disorder. In some ways, it is comparable to a childhood tantrum. However, adults are obviously much stronger than children.

Patients with this disorder seem to improve significantly when professionals offer them other ways to release energy. As a result, some preventive measures may be exercise, dietary changes or refraining from stimulants. They may also benefit from certain coping mechanisms they can use when they feel they are losing control.

Impulse control disorder: Kleptomania

People with kleptomania use robbery or theft as an outlet for their anxiety. It is a kind of amplified instrumental behavior that acts as a sedative. The object itself is usually not of great importance. Whether the individual has met his basic needs has nothing to do with this disorder. In other words, they do not steal because they need the items they steal.

This is probably one of the most well-known disorders, perhaps due to its prevalence in movies and TV series. One of the most iconic kleptomaniacs is Marie Schrader in Breaking Bad. She perfectly represents the systematic negation of the problem, as well as how her shame produces energy she channels through the threat of being caught.

On the other hand, sometimes, when kleptomaniacs have taken the difficult step of acknowledging their problem, they underestimate the importance of their behavior. They can claim that they are only stealing unimportant items that will not destroy the business, store or family they stole from. The act of stealing was cathartic to them and caused no great harm. The mind is very capable of shaping reality in such a way that they can justify and reinforce their behavior.

Impulse control disorder: Compulsive gambling

The rush of adrenaline produced by gambling is a form of stress relief for compulsive gamblers. Gambling can be addictive and extremely expensive. You can win everything, but the law of large numbers says that you lose it in the end. If that were not the case, casinos would not be viable businesses.

Compulsive gamblers have to face money and relationship problems as a result of their addiction. This particular disorder is often not detected until the stakes have been very high. To begin with, it is first easy for the individual and society to normalize gambling. After all, you can bet very small amounts. When things start to escalate, however, compulsive gamblers tend to hide their behavior so that no one gets in their way and the game.

Gambling ends up taking up a significant portion of their physical and mental energy. They spend their free time thinking about where they can gamble and how to get away with it. The more they play, the more they think the next game will get them out of the hole they are digging into. This in turn leads to erroneous conclusions. For example, they reason that since they have been on a losing streak, their next win must be just around the corner. That kind of thinking helps to dampen reality in everything they have lost.

Other impulse control disorders include pyromania, trichotillomania, Diogenes syndrome, and non-specific impulse control disorder. While they have many differences, the three we described here provide a general idea of ​​the common threads between all these disorders.