- temper outbursts

- frequent crying

- rapid mood shifts

- lower frustration threshold when demands aren't easily met

- meltdowns/shutdowns

Ithaca College

Issues with emotional regulation, aka Emotional Dysregulation (ED), are not diagnostic factors when evaluating people for autism, however many people with ASD struggle with emotional regulation which can manifest in behavioral or social difficulties due to difficulty or inability to apply adaptive emotion regulation strategies

Emotional Regulation and ASD

Torrado, J. C. et al. (2017). Emotional Self-Regulation of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Smartwatches for Monitoring and Interaction. Sensors, 17(6), 1359. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s17061359

Emotional Self-Regulation of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Smartwatches for Monitoring and Interaction

Issues in Emotional Lability from Emotional Dysregulation (ED)

Failure to understand, interpret, and elaborate ones emotional experiences. There is a link between dissociation and Alexithymia. There is an inability to interpret situational and internal triggers that are be processed without introspection. Thus, emotional threshold is high to a point where feelings aren't easily manageable. Individual feels emotions are extreme and unpredictable because of their inability to process situations for self-representations. 

This is also common in Autism Spectrum Disorder and can contribute to difficulty self-regulating emotions, since one needs to be able to identify the emotions in order to regulate them effectively.

Alexithymia 

- irritability

- anxiety

- depression

- impulsivity

Long-Term Effects of Emotional Dysregulation

also called Repetitive Motor Behaviors (a subtype of the Repetitive Behaviors included in the diagnostic criteria for ASD), commonly associated with autism and researchers have found some correlation between elevated stimming and atypical sensory profiles

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