Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression

I heard that a teenager was admitted to hospital due to shrinking amygdala. As far as my limited psychiatric knowledge is concerned, shrinking amygdala means the patient is likely to find it hard to control emotion. Irregular and intense emotion is a telling sign of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

Many BPD patients experienced neglect or abuse by parents or main carers during childhood and the growth of their amygdala was limited due to extreme shock. As they reach adulthood, their amygdala is eight per cent smaller than normal adults. It is the gap of eight per cent that creates the difficulty for them to emotionally control themselves.

On Quora.com, some writers wrote that they witnessed persons with BPD swinging between the moods of happy, angry, sad and joy within five minutes. Another account is that some BPD patients could experience extreme mood swings for five to six times a day, or 11 to 12 times on very emotionally unstable days. Some BPD patients admitted on the forum that they feel angry about themselves every passing minute and second.

A miss is as good as a mile; the size of amygdala has perhaps explained the saying.

聽說有少年因為杏仁核縮小而入院。據我有限的精神科知識,杏仁核縮小就意味著很難控制情緒高低起伏。而過度波動的情緒就是邊緣型人格障礙的一大徵兆。

邊緣型人格障礙患者由於小時候受到父母親或主要監護人的疏忽或霸凌,杏仁核的成長因驚嚇過度而受到影響,成年之後杏仁核比一般人小了百分之8。這個百分之8的差距造成患者很難控制情緒。

美國論壇 Quora.com有些作者說自己見過邊緣型人格障礙患者於5分鐘之內歷經喜、怒、哀、樂的情緒極度擺盪狀態,另外一說則是患者可以一天之內少則情緒波動5至6次,多則11至12次。有些患者寫經歷坦承分秒都對自己覺得憤怒。

差之毫釐,謬以千里。杏仁核正常大小就是這麼一回事。