Because of her childhood, Amanda had never properly learned to deal with stress and emotional pain, and thus turned to self-harm as a way of dealing with her problems. While in prison, her abusive tendencies were replaced with heroin use. However, after surviving the "Reverse Bear Trap", she no longer used heroin and returned to cutting, burning, and other forms of self-injury. Her frail emotional state and somewhat mental instability made her quick to anger, and she would often act purely on impulse or emotion (such as trying to kill Eric Matthews, and her emotionally and physically abusive behaviour towards Lynn Denlon).