Could you give some examples of impulsivity/lack of impulse control ? Impulsivity is such a confusing thing to me, maybe because I am 'naturally' impulsive. There's only ever examples of impulsivity in regards to physical violence, which is funny as that's not the only way impulsivity appears.
impulsivity is a lack of ability to stop behavioral impulses, which are sudden urges to act, with a complete disregard for consequences. so essentially what that looks like is, u have a sudden urge/thought to do something and then u immediately act on that with absolutely no thought or regard given for how the action will affect u, others, the outcome, or any possible consequence. this kind of impulsive behavior is considered disordered when it becomes a pattern of behavior that u are unable to gain control of. meaning u cannot stop urself from acting on these impulses even when u want to. which will often be describe as thinking "i know i shouldnt be doing this, why am i doing this, i dont want to be doing this, i wish i could stop doing this" while still engaging in the behavior and not stopping
different disorders manifest impulsivity in different ways, and so the focus will be on different types for each. aspd specifically is made up of destructive aggressive impulsivity and thus the criteria focuses on things like physical violence and outwardly destructive behavior because that is how impulsivity manifests under those conditions
for a non trauma based disorder like adhd, impulsivity will look different. often it will be things like an inability to control reward seeking impulses, urges like shifting focus to a distracting thing, dropping what ur doing to immediately do something else, changing direction on a plan everytime u have a new idea, or switching subjects/topics mid conversation and interrupting others when they talk, ect.
other common symptoms that fall under impulsivity and appear in a number of disorders are things like drug addiction and other binge addiction behaviors like gambling, eating disorders, and shopping addictions
hypersexual behavior and other risky sexual attention seeking behavior,
high risk behavior like purposefully doing dangerous things with little to no regard for ur own safety, like walking out into traffic, jumping off high places, performing dangerous sports with no safety gear, ect.,
straight up self harm like cutting, burning, or otherwise purposefully injuring urself. this can also be unintentional self harm, things like having the impulse to touch something u know is hot but being unable to stop urself and getting burned
large emotional outbursts, sometimes anger, but not always. things like frequently escalating situations and emotions past reasonable levels, constantly starting or furthering verbal arguments and fights
there are more, but those are the most common and basic ones. once u get more used to understanding what an impulsive urge is and when u are and aren't controlling them it becomes easy to start seeing the pattern of what behavior ur doing without ever stopping to think or redirect ur actions
