Impulse Control

People with personality disorders tend to exhibit problems with impulse control. These problems can manifest as either over-controlled or under-controlled impulses. (Under-controlled impulse control is commonly called a "lack of impulse control". In the same manner that people with personality disorders may have problems with over- or under-controlled affective (emotional) regulation, they also tend to have problems regulating their impulses. Here, too, we can think of impulse regulation along a continuum ranging from over-control to under-control, with healthy personalities falling somewhere in the middle between these two extreme poles.

Consider the issue of self-control and the need for a healthy balance between overcontrol and under-control. On the one hand, we need to control our impulses and to consider the consequences of acting upon an impulse. Having considered the consequences, we then decide how to act accordingly. We determine whether to allow ourselves to indulge the impulse, or whether to inhibit it. The inhibition of certain impulses enables us to behave in ways that