Check this list to see if you have any of these neurotic personality traits!
We’ve probably all met someone at some point who’s a bit too… intense! This person usually needs to be the center of attention, and they’re always just waiting for something to go wrong. If this sounds like I’m describing you or someone you know, then you might be dealing with a person with neuroticism.
A person with a neurotic personality is constantly on edge, worrying about anything and everything. So, if you tend to be worried, anxious, and highly responsive to stress, you’ve likely been described as high-strung or neurotic in the past.
It’s sometimes portrayed as being “quirky,” but it’s also marked by a propensity toward being self-doubting, negative, anxious, and even depressed. While this can be a challenge to deal with at times, there are some things you should know about neurotic personality traits.
Continue reading as I explore what all this means… and if YOU have neurotic tendencies. I’ll even give you some tips on how to deal with it.
So, what EXACTLY is neuroticism?
Neuroticism is a trait that echoes a person’s level of emotional stability. It’s frequently defined as a negative personality trait involving poor self-regulation, adverse emotions, trouble dealing with pressure, a strong reaction to sensed threats, and the tendency to nitpick.
Those with neuroticism usually become easily aroused when stimulated or have a decreased ability to calm themselves down when worried or upset. This idea has origins in Freudian times but was later extended by Hans Eysenck and other experts.
Neuroticism is one of the “Big Five” personality traits, along with openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. These are enduring personality traits that function as common ways of categorizing others. But let’s break it down. Continue reading below for the common traits of a person who is considered neurotic.
Common traits of neuroticism
How can you tell if you fall on the neuroticism spectrum? Those who are at the higher end are usually described as having a neurotic personality and tend to show the following traits:
-Feelings of fear or guilt over the most minor things
-An overall tendency toward negative emotions
-Frustration or anger about everyday occurrences
-Dramatic changes in feelings
-Feels of irritability or anxiety
-Difficulty controlling emotions or urges in the moment
-Tendency to interpret neutral situations as threatening
-Easily upset or stressed and unable to handle stress well
-Poor emotional stability
-Easily becoming jealous about what others have
-Experiencing sadness, moodiness, or depression
-Chronic worrying about various things
-Feelings of self-doubt
-Being self-conscious all the time
-Difficulty bouncing back after adversity or lack of resilience
-Often view minor problems as overwhelming
How neuroticism can affect you in different aspects of your life
Having neuroticism can have negative consequences on personal relationships. Here are a few ways this neurotic personality trait can impact how you relate to the people around you:
Higher level of annoyance
Those who are high in neuroticism can sometimes be seen as annoying. For instance, someone with neurotic personality traits might grate on the nerves of those around them by:
-Complaining a lot
-Being highly critical of others
-Taking minor issues and making them out to be bigger than they are
-Constantly asking for reassurance
-Being overly dependent on others or asking for help rather than figuring things out for themselves
Unreliability
A neurotic personality is characterized by deficient emotional stability, which can cause people to view someone with this trait as unreliable. If you constantly fly off the handle, others around you might feel like they can’t rely on you to keep calm when faced with trouble.
They might fear that they won’t be able to count on you in tough situations if you’re likely to panic at the sign of the most insignificant threat. Low stress tolerance can cause leaders at work to decide that you’re not the right person for the job, or it might cause a love interest to determine that you’re not the right person for them.
Conflict prone
Being high in neuroticism can also easily lead to conflict with other people. If you become infuriated over someone cutting you off in traffic, you might decide to confront them. If minor issues send you over the edge, you might become angry and yell at the people you feel have caused you that stress.
Some people high in neuroticism tend to agonize about things and then throw accusations at others based on those concerns. This could show up in the form of accusing your partner of cheating without evidence and driving them away from you.
Or you might blame your friends for things in an extremely confrontational way, which can hurt your relationships. Also, if you obsess over insignificant details and always seek perfectionism, you might not finish tasks others ask you to do. This, too, can lead to conflict and tension.
What exactly causes neuroticism?
What may cause one person to score higher in neuroticism than another? Like many other personality traits, differences in this characteristic depend on different factors, including genetic and environmental variables. Here are a few aspects to consider.
-Genetics: Some research indicates that neuroticism is inherited, much the same as we inherit other features like our height. So, to a certain extent, we might be born with a tendency toward this personality trait.
-Brain function: A smaller-scale study discovered that after viewing unpleasant pictures, those higher in neuroticism showed lower oxygen levels in the lateral prefrontal cortex than people with lower neuroticism ratings. This area of the brain plays a huge role in various cognitive functions.
-Childhood trauma: Experiencing trauma later on in life doesn’t seem to increase neuroticism, but exposure to these kinds of events when you’re younger does seem to have this impact.
-Climate: If you live in an environment that’s prone to more extreme weather patterns, it might increase your risk of neurotic personality traits. This is potentially due to more deficient dopamine function due to climatic stress.
-Survival: It has even been argued that neuroticism might be rooted in evolution as, in some regards, being hypersensitive to threats or danger could offer a survival edge.
-Gender: One multicultural personality study discovered that women scored higher for this trait in the 22 countries studied. Even though the gap between genders is smaller in the online world. This is because you can be anonymous online, which reduces worries over what others may think of you.
How to cope with having neurotic personality traits
For someone who’s highly neurotic, it’s easy to feel trapped by abnormal thought patterns and to struggle with anxiety or depression.
But research shows that neurotic personality traits aren’t set in stone and can change over the course of a person’s lifetime, especially after a significant life event like having a child or getting married.
Whether a person naturally becomes less neurotic over time or not, though, there are steps one can take to better cope with neuroticism. Seeking professional help would be highly beneficial. Grab a journal to gather your thoughts and speak to a therapist about what’s going on.
Do YOU display any of these traits. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below. But don’t leave yet!
If you found this article interesting, you’ll also like reading about the 10 Shocking Emotional Scars Left by Unloving Mothers Through Adulthood
