Emotional Dysregulation Test: See the Six Patterns Behind Losing Control
This emotional dysregulation test explores difficulties managing emotions using questions adapted from the DERS. Get an instant result and a breakdown of your emotion regulation patterns.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Emotional Dysregulation Test is a free, confidential 18-question self-assessment, based on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). It takes about 8 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Six ways emotions can get hard to handle
Emotional dysregulation is not about feeling too much. It is about how well you can recognize, accept, and respond to your emotions without being overwhelmed. The research breaks this into six distinct areas, and this test looks at all of them.
Awareness and clarity
Six of the eighteen items look at whether you notice your emotions as they happen and can put an accurate name to them. The three awareness items are reverse-scored, so agreeing with a statement like "I pay attention to how I am feeling" actually lowers your difficulty score. A high score here usually means emotions arrive as a confusing blur rather than a clear signal.
Acceptance and impulse control
Six items cover whether you judge yourself for having certain feelings, and whether you stay in control of your actions and words when upset. A high score often shows up as guilt about having emotions at all, or as saying or doing things in the heat of the moment that you regret once you have calmed down.
Goals and strategies
The remaining six items ask whether being upset derails your focus on tasks, and whether you believe you have any effective way to feel better. This is where dysregulation most affects daily life, since it determines whether a strong emotion stays contained to the moment or spreads into your whole day.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Based on the validated DERS | Rarely | Yes, DERS-informed |
| Covers all six DERS dimensions | No | Yes, six areas |
| Breakdown by regulation area | No | Yes, per dimension |
| Notes links to BPD and ADHD | No | Yes, carefully |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, reviewed |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–72 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–23 | Low difficulty | Your answers suggest you generally manage your emotions well, even the difficult ones. That is a real strength. |
| 24–47 | Moderate difficulty | Your answers point to a moderate level of difficulty regulating emotions, likely in some areas more than others. This is very common and very workable. |
| 48–72 | High difficulty | Your answers point to significant difficulty regulating emotions across several areas. This is worth taking seriously and gently, and it is very treatable. |
How the DERS-based score is calculated
This test uses 18 statements across the six areas the DERS measures: awareness, clarity, nonacceptance, impulse control, goals, and strategies. Each area has three items, and you rate each one from almost never (0) to almost always (4), so every area can range from 0 to 12 and the total score can range from 0 to 72.
The three awareness items are worded in the direction of good awareness rather than difficulty, so they are reverse-scored: a low rating on those items raises your difficulty score rather than lowering it. Adding up all 18 items gives the total score used for your result, and the breakdown above shows how the six areas compare to each other.
These ranges describe this page's adapted scoring system. They are not diagnostic cutoffs from the original DERS or the published DERS short form. Use the result to identify experiences worth discussing, rather than to compare your total with a score reported in a research paper.
Emotional dysregulation vs. mood swings
People sometimes wonder whether emotional dysregulation is just another word for mood swings. The two overlap but are not the same thing. Mood swings usually describe a shift in overall mood state that can last hours or days, and in conditions like bipolar disorder they follow a distinct pattern that the Mood Balance Test and the Bipolar Test look at separately.
Emotional dysregulation describes something narrower: difficulty noticing, accepting, or responding to whatever emotion shows up in the moment, whether that is a slower mood shift or a single intense reaction to something that just happened. You can have strong, fast-moving emotions and still regulate them well, and you can have a stable overall mood and still struggle to manage individual moments of intensity.
Signs it may be time to talk to a professional
A high score on this test is not an emergency by itself, but a few signs suggest it is worth bringing to a professional rather than working through alone: emotional reactions that regularly damage relationships or your job, feeling like you cannot trust your own reactions, using self-harm, substances, or other risky behavior to manage intense feelings, or emotions that feel disconnected from what is actually happening around you.
If you ever feel unsafe or have thoughts of harming yourself, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text, any time. For patterns that are frustrating but not dangerous, a therapist who works with emotion regulation, including approaches like DBT, is a good place to start, and the Psychology.com therapist directory is a straightforward way to find one. If your results also raise questions about attention and focus or relationship patterns, the ADHD Test for Women, the BPD Test, or the Rejection Sensitivity (RSD) Test may be worth taking as well.
Before an appointment, write down a recent situation, the feeling it brought up, what you did, and what happened afterward. Include occasions when you managed the same feeling more comfortably. This gives a clinician context that a total score cannot provide. You can also explore the Psychology.com tests hub for related self-assessments.
How can I use my emotional dysregulation results day to day?
Choose an area that feels relevant to your daily life. If naming feelings is difficult, the Feelings Wheel offers words to consider alongside the situation and your physical sensations. If acting quickly when upset is your main concern, write down what a safe pause could look like before your next difficult conversation. Treat these as practice ideas, and adjust them to your circumstances.
Keep your notes descriptive: what happened, how you felt, and what helped you respond. A difficult moment does not erase progress, and a low total does not make a recurring problem unimportant. Bring examples of distress or disrupted daily functioning to a professional even when your score seems reassuring.
Methodology & sources
This test is informed by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) developed by Gratz and Roemer (2004), the most widely used self-report measure of emotion regulation difficulties. The DERS identifies six dimensions: lack of emotional awareness, lack of emotional clarity, nonacceptance of emotional responses, difficulties controlling impulses when upset, difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset, and limited access to effective regulation strategies. Our items are written in the spirit of those subscales, reworded for readability while keeping their meaning, and tagged to their dimension so the engine can show a breakdown. We use a standard agreement format, reverse-score the positively worded awareness items, and sum the responses into a single difficulty score.
This is provided for education and self-reflection, not as a clinical or diagnostic instrument. Difficulty regulating emotions is common and exists on a spectrum. It is a feature of many experiences rather than a diagnosis in itself, though it is closely associated with conditions such as borderline personality disorder and ADHD. Importantly, emotion regulation is a set of skills that can be learned. Approaches like dialectical behavior therapy are specifically designed to build them, and they work.
The published DERS-SF described by Kaufman and colleagues is a separately studied short form. This page uses its own adapted wording and response coding, so evidence for published DERS versions does not establish the accuracy of this particular self-assessment. The result labels describe response patterns and cannot establish a clinical diagnosis.
References
- Gratz KL, Roemer L. Multidimensional Assessment of Emotion Regulation and Dysregulation: Development, Factor Structure, and Initial Validation of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. J Psychopathol Behav Assess. 2004;26(1):41-54.
- Linehan MM. DBT Skills Training Manual. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press; 2015.
- Aldao A, Nolen-Hoeksema S, Schweizer S. Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2010;30(2):217-237.
- Shaw P, Stringaris A, Nigg J, Leibenluft E. Emotion dysregulation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 2014;171(3):276-293.
- Kaufman EA, Xia M, Fosco G, Yaptangco M, Skidmore CR, Crowell SE. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Short Form (DERS-SF): Validation and Replication in Adolescent and Adult Samples. psych.utah.edu/_resources/documents/people/crowell/Kaufman_Crowell_DERS-SF_2016.pdf
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 16). Emotional Dysregulation Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/emotional-dysregulation
Emotional Dysregulation Test FAQ
What is emotional dysregulation?
Emotional dysregulation is difficulty managing the intensity and effect of your emotions. It is not about feeling things strongly, which is healthy, but about struggling to recognize, accept, or respond to emotions in ways that fit the situation. It can look like intense reactions, trouble calming down, acting on impulse when upset, or feeling hijacked by your feelings.
Is emotional dysregulation a disorder?
On its own, no. It is a pattern that exists on a spectrum, and most people have some areas that are harder than others. It is, however, a central feature of several conditions, most notably borderline personality disorder and ADHD, and it can accompany depression, anxiety, and trauma. This test measures the pattern, not any specific diagnosis.
How is this related to BPD and ADHD?
Difficulty regulating emotions is a core feature of borderline personality disorder and is increasingly recognized as a major part of ADHD, where it shows up as quick, intense reactions and trouble settling down. A high score here does not mean you have either condition, but if these patterns are causing real distress, it is worth exploring with a professional who can assess properly.
Is this test a diagnosis?
No. It is for education and self-reflection only. Emotion regulation difficulties are common and are not a diagnosis in themselves. Only a licensed clinician can assess BPD, ADHD, or any related condition. If your results concern you, a therapist can help you understand them and build skills.
Can emotion regulation be improved?
Yes, very much so. Emotion regulation is a set of learnable skills, not a fixed trait. Dialectical behavior therapy was designed specifically to teach them, including mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion-regulation skills, and it has strong evidence. Cognitive behavioral approaches and mindfulness practice help too. Many people see real change with practice and support.
How many questions are on this emotional dysregulation test?
This emotional dysregulation test asks about awareness, clarity, acceptance, impulse control, goals, and coping strategies, with the question count shown in the scoring explanation above. You rate how often each experience applies to you. The result summarizes your answers by area, so you can consider which patterns affect daily life and which examples you might want to discuss with a clinician.
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