F63 — Habit and impulse disorders

Concept, in one sentence

F63 requires a recurrent tension-then-relief cycle around an impulse the person struggles to resist, harmful to their own interests and not primarily gain-motivated.

Decisive boundary cues

• A recurrent tension-relief cycle, not primarily gain-motivated -> weighs toward the matching F63 subtype.
• A single, rationally gain-motivated instance with no recurrence -> weighs against any F63 subtype.
• The behaviour as one expression of a broader pervasive personality pattern -> weighs toward F60 instead.

Duration/course cue

Recurrence of the specific cycle matters more than a fixed duration count.

Nearest alternatives

f60, f10

Common mistake

Treating any instance of gambling, taking an item, or hair-pulling as automatically evidence of an impulse-control disorder, without checking for the tension-relief cycle.

Retrieval prompt — one-line memory anchor

Is there a genuine rising-tension-then-relief cycle here, or is this a single, rationally motivated act?