Disruptive behaviors: description, causes and associated disorders

One of the normal phenomena that appears within the vital development of the person, especially in childhood and adolescent stages, is the need to challenge authority. But what at first can be considered as an act of age or circumstances may hide an altered pattern of behavior.

When these challenges to authority are accompanied by other behaviors considered antisocial, we can consider them as disruptive behaviors. Throughout this article we will analyze the characteristics of these as well as their possible causes and the psychological disorders to which they are associated.

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What are disruptive behaviors?

Traditionally, disruptive behaviors have been understood as all those actions or behaviors considered antisocial because they differ from accepted social values ​​and behavior patterns.

In addition, these behaviors are perceived as a threat to the harmony, harmony and peace of society and, even, a risk to the survival of all people. These behaviors are manifested through acts of hostility and provocation that encourage disorder and the irruption of routines and activities at both an individual and social level.

Even though these behaviors can occur in a person of any age, in an isolated and punctual way or caused by some fact or situation that supposes a great impact or trauma for the person, there are a series of behavioral alterations in which these behaviors make up some of the main symptom.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) these alterations can be classified within the group of disruptive impulse control and behavior disorders, which includes both childhood and youth disorders as well as adults.

The group of behavior disorders characteristic of children and adolescents are defined by the presence of continuous disruptive behaviors. These behaviors include all kinds of hostile and defiant behaviors of certain minors towards any type of authority figure.

While it is usual, and inherent to the child's development, that children go through periods in which they try to find where they are at the limit in their negative behaviors, children with some type of Disruptive Behavior Disorder go to extremes to achieve these acts and behaviors, affecting their daily lives, as well as the lives of those around them.

Within this DSM classification of disruptive disorders we find the following disorders:

• Oppositional defiant disorder
• Intermittent explosive disorder
• Conduct disorder
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Pyromania
• Kleptomania.

What are the signs or symptoms?

Although it is true that each of the diagnostic categories described above has its own clinical picture with all kinds of distinctive symptoms, there are a number of warning signs or symptoms that can guide us when it comes to detecting whether a person suffers or is developing any of the above behavioral alterations, especially if they are children.

These signs can be categorized into three different groups: behavioral symptoms, cognitive symptoms, psychosocial symptoms.

1. Behavioral symptoms

They are, fundamentally, the following.

• Social isolation
• Harassing behaviors towards other people.
• Tendency to negative behaviors.
• Robbery or theft behavior.
• Destruction or intentional damage to the property of others, public or private.
• Tendency to blame others.
• Actively defy authority.
• Refusal to comply with norms or rules.
• Signs of cruelty to animals.
• Tendency to play with fire.

2. Cognitive symptoms

These are the usual cognitive symptoms.

• Concentration problems.
• Frequent feelings of frustration.
• Memory impairment
• Inability or trouble thinking before speaking.
• Difficulty solving problems.

3. Psychosocial symptoms

These are the most relational aspects of this psychological phenomenon.

• Lack of empathy.
• Lack of remorse.
• Feeling of greatness.
• Persistent negativity.
• Constant and persistent irritability.
• Low self-esteem.

What causes this type of behavior?

As with symptoms, each Disruptive Behavior Disorder has a number of causes of its own. However, there are a series of risk factors that favor the appearance and development of these disruptive behaviors. Among them we find:

• Exposure to violence.
• Family history of mental illness or substance abuse.
• Domestic violence
• Suffering from abuse and / or neglect.
• Poor or inconsistent parenting.

Disorders associated with disruptive behavior

As we mentioned, disruptive behaviors they do not necessarily have to be associated with a psychological disorder. However, when these appear persistently and accompanied by other symptoms, it is possible that it is one of the disruptive behavior disorders.

1. Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)

Oppositional defiant disorder is defined by the appearance in the child of a pattern of oppositional, defiant, disobedient and hostile behaviors towards authority figures.

A child with ODD can constantly argue with adults, lose control of their emotions very easily, refusing to follow rules, continually annoying others, and behaving in an angry, resentful, and vengeful. In these cases, it is very common for the child to provoke constant conflicts and disciplinary situations both at school and at home.

In a large proportion of cases, without early diagnosis and treatment, the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder worsen. over time and sometimes become severe enough to trigger a diagnosis of a conduct.

2. Intermittent explosive disorder

This behavior alteration is a psychological disorder in which the person manifests a random pattern of disruptive, aggressive and disproportionate behavioral responses. In most cases, these are caused or caused by a specific reason, or without an apparent purpose; reaching to cause severe damages in the social environment of the person and in herself.

3. Conduct disorder

Conduct disorder is a more serious version of Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Defined by the DSM itself as a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the person violates the basic rights of others, as well as the main social norms linked to the age of the subject.

This disorder can involve serious aggression towards people or damage to animals, destruction deliberate property or vandalism, theft, skipping classes, and attempting to bypass social norms without being caught.

4. Antisocial personality disorder

In this case, the clinical picture is very similar to that of conduct disorder but with the requirement that It can only be diagnosed in those over 15 years of age. In addition to the behaviors that appear in the previous diagnosis, antisocial personality disorder also found other disruptive behaviors such as

• Lack of adaptation to social norms and legality.
• Impulsiveness.
• Inability to acquire responsibilities.
• Lack of concern for one's own safety or that of others.

5. Pyromania

Popularly known as arsonists, these subjects show behaviors that are distinguished by the reiteration of acts or attempts to start fires or set fire, without an objective or apparent motivation, both to the property of others and to any type of object.

6. Kleptomania

Finally, the last of the psychological disorders in which disruptive behavior is one of the main symptoms is kleptomania.

In it, the person manifests repeated conduct of theft or appropriation of someone else's. What distinguishes this disorder from the habitual act of stealing is that the person does not seek to enrich himself or to obtain material goods, but that the moment of the robbery is in itself an end.