Most likely, if you have anxiety or another mental disorder, you are right-brained or otherwise very creative. These people have very strong emotions, but anxiety heightens their negative emotions to the point where they overshadow their positive emotions. I believe these negative emotions can be organized into four different categories:
Fear
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Other forms of fear: cynicism, distrust.
Sorrow
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Other forms of sorrow: depression, hopelessness.
Guilt
Other forms of guilt: shame, feeling undeserving.
Anger
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Other forms of anger: frustration, irritability, bitterness.
To counter these four negative emotions that are heightened by anxiety, there are four positive emotions. These emotions are a part of every human being, even ones suffering from anxiety or other mental disabilities, but they are often overshadowed by the out-of-control negative emotions. There is a way to combat and control the negative emotions with these positive ones, but I'm still working out the details. For now, here are the four positive emotions:
Trust
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Other forms of trust: love, confidence, optimism, faith.
Counters fear.
Happiness
Other forms of happiness: joy, fulfillment, contentment.
Counters sorrow.
Acceptance
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Other forms of acceptance: forgiveness, self-love, peace.
Counters guilt.
Laughter
Other forms of laughter: pleasure, loving life, excitement, passion.
Counter anger.
This is only the very beginning of my anxiety philosophy, but I'm excited to develop it further. If you have any thoughts of additional emotion topics, please let me know! Thanks for reading!
I'm liking where you're going with this! I look forward to you sifting this out.
ReplyDeleteI got to this blog post from a link your mom posted on the Homeschooling Creatively group. There has been a lot of discussion there about anxiety in the last few days.
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd add to what you posted about what you can do to counter negative emotions.
Not everyone can simply conjure up positive emotions, as you probably know. And people can't always just "think away" the anxiety.
There are physiological aspects to anxiety that often need to be addressed. Anxiety changes your hormones. Your body produces too much adrenaline; your heart races, your stomach gets upset, you get sweaty, among other symptoms.
My husband has been in therapy for anxiety in recent months. His therapist has taught him some breathing exercises that have helped, among other things. (He is also taking medication, which is helping. And he started getting a bit more exercise, which also helped.)
Breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, swimming, getting the right vitamins and minerals that your body needs, eliminating or adding certain foods from/to your diet, and sometimes pharmaceutical products OR herbal treatments, all help with the physical effects of anxiety, and can get you to the point where positive thoughts/emotions have a better chance of countering the negative ones. :-)
Thank you for the insight! I focus primarily on the emotional side of anxiety, so I still have a lot to learn about the physical side of anxiety, but it's totally necessary! All of your ideas are great. Thanks for sharing! :)
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