10 NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM - PSYCHOLOGY

The negative emotions are conscious experiences with intense mental activity displacer, being accompanied by certain physiological reactions. For example, having the emotion of fear feels discomfort and is accompanied by reactions such as sweating or tachycardia.

Emotions - both positive and negative - are psychophysiological reactions that we all experience under certain circumstances, helping us to adapt to the environment. For example, when faced with a real danger we are afraid and we move away from it.

In other circumstances, such as when a loved one passes away, your emotions are sad and this helps the people around you to be compassionate and empathetic to you.

As you can see, these are normal and adaptive emotional reactions, which make you adapt to the environment and show your feelings to others; that is, emotions, even negative ones, are helpful.

However, some negative emotions occur without a clear trigger or a specific function - or for longer than desired.

List of the main negative emotions

1- Phobia

The difference between fear and phobia is that the former refers to the negative emotion that you experience when faced with a real danger, in which your life or physical integrity may be in danger - for example, when you walk alone down a dark street and see that someone continues-, while in phobia, the emotion that arises is not justified.

Some examples of phobia can be:

To the darkness.
To insects (like cockroaches).
To the death.
To drive.
To speak in public.
To talk to others (social phobia).

As you can see, there are numerous examples of phobia that we can find.

In this case, to overcome the phobia you have to intervene in two important areas: the thoughts that overwhelm you and the avoidance behaviors - since by exposing yourself, you will get used to the phobic stimulus.

2- Anxiety or excessive worries

Surely on some occasions you have experienced this emotion as unpleasant as anxiety, in which your body responds with nervousness, fear of uncertainty, etc.

There are many situations that can cause you anxiety, such as worrying about doing your job well, seeking a balance between work and family life, change of residence, etc.

In most situations, anxiety hinders your performance or task performance, so controlling it will bring you many benefits.

Anxiety, because it has a large cognitive component, requires you to learn to give a different meaning to events.

For example, if it causes you anxiety to think that if you don't finish your job every day you will be fired, you should consider that sometimes we set ourselves unrealistic goals that are difficult to achieve, so nothing happens if at some point you leave part of your work for him. next day.

In this way, you will be able to alleviate your anxiety and, once you have rested enough, you will be ready to continue the work that you left pending.

3- Anger or aggressiveness

Anger is an emotion that arises for many reasons, such as when we see our freedom threatened, when we feel offended, etc. Multiple physiological changes occur in our body, such as facial redness, accelerated heart rate, sweating, muscle tension, among others.

To control your aggressiveness, you must distance yourself - physically and mentally - from the person or situation that caused this emotion, since another common characteristic is that you feel overwhelmed and cannot think clearly.

Retreat to a place where you can manage this intense emotion. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply so that your heart rate returns to normal levels.

Reflect on the specific situation and on what you can do to solve the problem, without having a conception of losing or winning - but rather of reaching a middle ground and avoiding conflicts.

Another aspect that you should take into account, if you are a person who usually has angry or aggressive emotions, is that you improve some daily habits, such as sleeping the necessary hours.

Sleeping little is likely to make you have a more irascible attitude and experience aggression more often.

4- Sadness

Sadness is a negative emotion that fulfills a very important adaptive function: making people around you see that you are going through a bad time and need social support. Another function is to conserve energy to recover after a traumatic event or serious loss.

However, if you tend to have a general feeling of sadness, you should consider following these tips so that you can combat it.

Plan activities that keep you busy. If you isolate yourself, if you focus on the negative of the situation, you will enter a vicious circle from which it is very difficult to get out.

It is recommended that you include activities in your schedule gradually, starting with a 20-30 minute walk, for example.

Later, you can include going out to dinner one day a week with your friends, playing sports, etc.

Talk about what makes you sad. Hiding your emotions won't do you any good either.

Learn to manage your sadness by talking to friends and family, exposing what causes that emotion.

Cry when you need it. Do not avoid crying, since in this way, you can vent and you can recover later.

Crying has been shown to release a series of hormones that alleviate the anguish felt at a painful event.

In addition, it also seems that you can be more open to new ideas after having blown it off through crying.

Look for the positive part of what happened. If your sadness has started after a couple breakup or after a job layoff, you should look for the benefits that your new situation brings you.

For example, you may perceive a layoff as an opportunity to find a job that is more suited to your career goals, or in which you have a better work schedule or salary.

5- Guilt

Guilt is another negative emotion that can make you feel very bad about yourself. This is another adaptive emotion, since it prevents us from misbehaving and being cruel to each other - therefore, it helps to maintain the well-being of society.

To combat this emotion, you can consider some changes, depending on your specific situation:

Talk to the person you have hurt. If you openly apologize, you will be able to shake off the guilt for having acted inappropriately, or at least lessen that guilt.
Correct your mistake. As much as possible, try to make amends for your mistake so that your guilt diminishes.

For example, if you have broken an object valuable to someone else, try to find a way to compensate for it, so that the damage is less.

Learn from your mistakes. If it is already too late and you have lost a friend or partner for having acted incorrectly, try not to repeat your mistake in the future.

Accept that you cannot change the past but you own your future.

We hope that the article has been interesting to you and that you put into practice the advice that we have given you.

6- Envy

Envy is a negative emotion that generates various types of unpleasant feelings such as irritability, anger, resentment, annoyance, bad mood, hatred or exasperation. The reason is not to enjoy the joys of others.

7- hate

This type of emotion generates in a person rejection or rejection of something or someone, to the point of wanting to eliminate it from their life if possible. It is a feeling that discourages dialogue, so reconciliation or change of opinion is practically impossible.

8- loneliness

Loneliness is a negative emotion when it is not desired by the individual. That is, if he feels isolated and without any company and support, he is unwanted. This emotion can be so intense that it could lead to health problems, both mental (dementia, delusions, depression) and physical (hypertension, heart problems).

9- Distrust

This emotion is born when you are not sure about how something or someone will act. Emotion generates uncertainty, fear, and a continual need to watch every step of what you don't trust.

10- Jealousy

Jealousy is born from a person's distrust of their partner in love matters. It is a continuous suspicion that your partner may have feelings of affection or love for another person, as well as that there is a third person who wants to intrude on your relationship.

References

García, PS (2014). Module V. Adult life Topic 2. Emotional well-being Chapter 1. Training to manage emotions.
Ortuño, PR The healing power of laughter and tears.
Piqueras, JA, Ramos, V., Martínez, AE, & Oblitas, LA (2009). Negative emotions and their impact on mental and physical health. Articles in PDF available from 1994 to 2013. From 2014 visit us at www. elsevier. es / sumapsicol, 16 (2), 85-112.
Salanova, M., Bresó, E., & Schaufeli, WB (2005). Anxiety and Stress.

10 NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025