» Learn to Manage Emotions – Psych Central News
Learn to Manage Emotions
By: Psych Central Senior News Editor
on Thursday, Jul, 26, 2007
Reviewed by: John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
on July 26, 2007 at 11:31 am
Managing emotions is an arduous task for some but a skill that is essential to success in business and personal relationships. Often individuals who can not manage their emotions choose dangerous or destructive courses of action.
Emotional control, a trait associated with adulthood, is best learned during adolescence, a life period often characterized by wide swings of powerful emotions.
“There’s a stereotype that teens don’t manage their emotions, their emotions manage them,†said Reed Larson, a professor of family ecology at the University of Illinois.
Accordingly, Larson and colleagues studied if teenagers can be taught to manage their emotions. Their article is published in this month’s journal of Child Development.
The concept of emotional control assumes to an extent that the instigation of an emotion is a conscious choice. I fear not – thanks to our earlier heritage, the emotional response, close to our brain stem, is given first stab at processing incoming sensory information. This is historically as a defence mechanism from times with more obvious and vicious predators.
Our conscious mind lags behind most emotional startups. However, of course, as you rightly point out, it can dampen them down, and generally manage them.
If, like myself, you have very intense emotional reactions to a myriad of events, and a history of emotional overload, then an emotional response can often dictate. Frequently, I am held ransome to an emotional response, regardless of my reasoning that the response is inappropriate. I generally have to distract myself upwards of 2 days before the emotion will subside – many situations simply do not allow for an immediate response.
I would like to have appropriate emotional response to situations, but my subconscious is more in control of my emotions than I appear to be.
Hi Neil,
Thanks for your comment and welcome to Talk To Yourself!
As you stated in your comment, my subconscious mind attempts to assert control at times, in ways which are not in my best interests. My search for sanity required more time and effort than I anticipated.
Gene