Emotional Overreactions in Teens: Causes, Signs, and Support
It’s often said that teenagers are moody. In fact, we often even expect teenagers to show emotional overreactions simply because their bodies are going through so many physiological changes. For instance, teens might act more irritable than usual or get unreasonably upset about a certain situation.
While it’s normal for teens to have ups and downs, unfortunately, some teens may struggle emotionally more than others. Excessive emotional overreactions in teens are cause for concern when they begin to interfere with everyday life.
Additionally, adolescence can also be a challenging time for parents because providing the right balance of support and structure can have a big impact on how teens respond. If you notice that your child is becoming excessively reactive, professional support and advice are available.
This page can also help you better understand adolescent emotional overreactions by discussing:
- What emotional regulation in teens is
- Causes of emotional overreactions in teens
- Signs of underlying mental health issues
- Therapy for emotional overreactions
- Parental strategies for managing overreactions
Emotional Regulation in Teens
Emotion regulation is a process that involves controlling your inner experiences and the outward expression of these feelings. On the other hand, emotion dysregulation can be defined as inappropriate or extreme use of maladaptive behavior strategies as a means of expressing emotions.1
Emotion dysregulation can often look like adolescent emotional overreactions to situations, such as showing aggressive behaviors, crying, and panic. Such responses are typically out of proportion to the situation at hand.
Based on some of the research about emotion regulation in teens, six dimensions that demonstrate emotional dysregulation were identified. These dimensions are:2
- Not accepting negative emotions
- Problems with achieving goals when emotions are high
- Poor impulse control
- An inability to recognize and pay attention to emotions
- Not having effective emotion regulation strategies
- A lack of emotional clarity
When a child or teen experiences such problems expressing their emotions, this may indicate that they need more support to develop adaptive coping strategies.
Causes of Emotional Overreactions in Teens
Not all teens show signs of emotional overreactions; some adolescents are capable of regulating their emotions without too much difficulty. So what causes others to show emotional overreactions?
Many studies looked at factors in childhood that contribute to issues with emotion regulation in adolescence. These studies looked at internal factors (what happens inside the body) and external factors (things that happen in the environment).3
The following sections take a look at the findings around the internal and external causes of emotional overreactions in teens.
Internal Causes of Emotional Overreactions
Some of the causes of emotional overreactions can’t be controlled by a child. For example, differences in neurobiology, or how the nervous system responds to different stimuli, can impact teen emotion regulation.3
Additionally, a child’s temperament and innate cognitive abilities are things that they don’t have the ability to change. However, these can be managed through effective coping strategies and support. Therefore, internal risk factors need to be acknowledged so parents can get their child the right form of support.3
External Causes of Emotional Overreactions
Other causes of emotional overreactions involve things that happen to or around us while we are growing up. For example, different parenting styles and life events can play a major role in how we learn to regulate our emotions.3
Negative life events can include abuse, bullying, neglect, or exposure to traumatic environmental events. When faced with these adverse life events, the “fight or flight” response can kick in, leading some children to turn to maladaptive behaviors to cope. Therefore, a child may learn that reacting in certain ways to specific situations helps them to manage their circumstances. Without healing experiences, these ways of coping can continue into adolescence and even adulthood. While we can’t undo the past, addressing these negative events is part of overcoming emotion dysregulation in teens.3
Increased stress in adolescence is another potential cause of emotional overreactions. While not all stress is bad, when teens are under too much pressure from school, family obligations, part-time work, and extracurricular activities, emotions can become dysregulated. Therefore, stress and emotional overreactions are often closely linked.3
Signs of Underlying Mental Health Issues
Emotional overreactions and emotion dysregulation are linked to several mental health issues. Some of these issues can become more serious if left untreated, so it may be important to consider a few potential underlying mental health issues and their early warning signs.
Depression
Symptoms of depression, such as rumination, low self-esteem, social withdrawal, and irritability, are closely tied to issues with regulating emotions. Specifically, depression is associated with the inability to regulate negative emotions like sadness, anger, and fear.4
Additional early warning signs of major depressive disorder are changes in sleep, a significant increase or decrease in appetite, trouble focusing, and overly critical language when describing themselves to others.4
Bipolar Disorder
Another mood disorder associated with emotion regulation difficulties and emotional overreactions is bipolar disorder. Children with bipolar disorder may have structural changes in the brain that are linked to emotion dysregulation and impulsivity. In fact, certain systems are overactive, while others are underactive – creating the perfect storm for emotion dysregulation in bipolar disorder.3
Teens with bipolar disorder might also show other issues, like being unable to detect the right emotions in others through verbal and nonverbal communication.3
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
When childhood trauma is the major cause of overreactions in teens, there may be a chance that the child could also be suffering from PTSD. In addition to frequent panic attacks, other signs of PTSD in children include aggressive or delinquent behavior.3
Non-suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) and Suicidality
Non-suicidal self-injury is defined as the direct and purposeful harm to the body without the intention to kill oneself. It includes behaviors like cutting, scratching, and burning. NSSI is brought on by severe issues with emotion regulation and is known to act as an escape from strong feelings of anger, depression, loneliness, and frustration. This behavior could increase the risk of suicide attempts, so if you notice self-harm behavior in your teen, it is best to get prompt, professional help.5
Eating Disorders
Anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED) are linked to issues with emotion regulation. Typically, teens who develop eating disorders show a lack of emotional awareness and, therefore, may use eating (or not eating) as a way of coping with intense negative emotions.6
Significant weight loss and purging behaviors (vomiting and taking laxatives) are some of the signs of an eating disorder in teens. If you notice significant changes in your child’s eating habits, it is best to seek the guidance of a mental health professional.6
Schizophrenia
Psychosis and schizophrenia are severe and pervasive brain disorders. Some of their major signs include intrusive thoughts, impaired cognitive functioning, personality changes, and emotion dysregulation.7
Although the risk of schizophrenia in childhood and adolescence is less than 1%, if parents are concerned, they should consider their clinical characteristics. Extreme symptoms include hallucinations and delusions, and these symptoms are tied to problems with emotion regulation.7
Recognizing overreactions in adolescents can help parents intervene early. This may be especially helpful if a teenager is struggling with an underlying mental health condition.
Therapy for Emotional Overreactions
Therapy for emotional overreactions in adolescence may be important for promoting healthy emotional responses, especially if dysregulation is caused by a mental health condition. However, the most appropriate choice of treatment may come down to a teen’s specific symptoms and needs.
Treatment for emotional dysregulation often includes dialectic behavioral therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), parent interventions, neurofeedback, and psychiatric medications.
DBT and CBT typically focus on teaching coping mechanisms for overreacting teens. In DBT, this is separated into four categories of skills: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.3
CBT tends to address more of the underlying cognitive dysfunction in overreacting teens. For example, adolescents in CBT learn how to reframe negative thought patterns that lead to unhelpful behaviors, promoting healthy emotional responses that are proportional to the inciting event.8
Neurofeedback is another treatment method gaining evidence today, as it changes the blood flow in the brain to help patients with different mental illnesses. However, neurofeedback isn’t a widely available treatment, and it involves complex technology. Alternatives include mindfulness techniques and biofeedback, which promote relaxation and reduce stress levels.9
Parenting programs for building emotional awareness in adolescents focus on sensitivity, acceptance, avoiding harsh reactions, and empathic understanding. Through these techniques, a teen can feel more supported and understood in their recovery.
Finally, when appropriate, medications that can be used for emotion dysregulation include antidepressants, mood stabilizers, anti-anxiety medications, antipsychotics, and certain ADHD medications.
Many teens with emotional overreactions work with a combination of the treatment forms we mentioned above. For example, by combining therapy and medication management, mental health providers have achieved better long-term results for emotion regulation in teens.
Parental Strategies for Managing Overreactions
When it comes to supporting your teen with mental health treatment, there are certain parental strategies that can be helpful. As mentioned earlier, sometimes your teen’s therapy will incorporate parent training sessions. In particular, research shows that group parenting programs effectively teach parents skills to improve their child’s behavior.10
In addition, participating in group parenting programs can have a positive effect on parents – significantly decreasing anxiety, stress, and depression related to their child’s behavioral and emotional problems.10
These programs can be behavioral and cognitive-behavioral in nature, focusing on improving parental supervision when necessary, avoiding harsh discipline, and becoming more consistent in their practices.
Further helpful techniques include modeling positive emotion regulation behaviors, encouraging your teen to reframe negative perceptions about themselves, and discussing their struggles with them directly. Group sessions may also help as they incorporate education, role-playing, and homework assignments so parents can practice their new skills at home.10
Mission Prep: Support for Teens with Emotional Overreactions
At Mission Prep, our team understands the importance of supporting both parents and teens with their emotional struggles. Support for teens with emotional overreactions isn’t typically hard to access, but it can be difficult to navigate all the options available to you. Our team can talk to you and your child about their symptoms and discuss appropriate treatment options for their needs.
Our facilities provide outpatient CBT programs as well as more structured intensive outpatient programs (IOP) for addressing significant emotional dysregulation in adolescents. We also endeavor to create personalized treatment packages that incorporate evidence-based therapies and lifestyle options.
If you’re looking for the right mental health treatment program for stress and emotional overreactions in teens, call us today. We are here to answer your questions and offer advice on next steps, including recommendations for treatment across our multiple locations.
References
- Henry, J. D., Castellini, J., Moses, E., & Scott, J. G. (2016). Emotion regulation in adolescents with mental health problems. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 38(2), 197–207. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26594853/
- Cristofanelli, S., Testa, S., Centonze, E., Baccini, G., Toniolo, F., Vavalle, V., & Ferro, L. (2024). Exploring emotion dysregulation in adolescence and its association with social immaturity, self-representation, and thought process problems. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1320520. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1320520
- Paulus, F. W., Ohmann, S., Möhler, E., Plener, P., & Popow, C. (2021). Emotional dysregulation in children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders: A narrative review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 628252. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.628252
- Fussner, L. M., Luebbe, A. M., Mancini, K. J., & Becker, S. P. (2018). Emotion dysregulation mediates the longitudinal relation between peer rejection and depression. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 42(2), 155–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025416669062
- Glenn, C. R., & Klonsky, E. D. (2013). Nonsuicidal self-injury disorder: An empirical investigation in adolescent psychiatric patients. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 42(4), 496–507. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2013.794699
- Signoretta, S., Maremmani, I., Liguori, A., Perugi, G., & Akiskal, H. S. (2005). Affective temperament traits measured by TEMPS-I and emotional-behavioral problems in clinically well children, adolescents, and young adults. Journal of Affective Disorders, 85(1–2), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(03)00100-9
- Jerrell, J. M., McIntyre, R. S., & Deroche, C. B. (2017). Diagnostic clusters associated with an early-onset schizophrenia diagnosis among children and adolescents. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 32(1), e2589. https://doi.org/10.1002/hup.2589
- Thornback, K., & Muller, R. T. (2015). Relationships among emotion regulation and symptoms during trauma-focused CBT for school-aged children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 50, 182–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.09.011
- Linhartová, P., Látalová, A., Kóša, B., Kašpárek, T., Schmahl, C., & Paret, C. (2019). fMRI neurofeedback in emotion regulation: A literature review. NeuroImage, 193, 75–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.03.011
- Furlong, M., McGilloway, S., Bywater, T., Hutchings, J., Smith, S. M., & Donnelly, M. (2012). Behavioural and cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting programmes for early-onset conduct problems in children aged 3 to 12 years. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2012(2), CD008225. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD008225.pub2
