QTo begin, in this article it is up to us to manage a good definition of emotions in order to be able, precisely, to access those thoughts that most of the time are triggers for them as well as modulators, causing both the emotion and the behavior to end up generating a maladaptive pattern. We must recognize the adaptive and evolutionary value of emotions, that is, there are no maladaptive emotions but, in any case, emotions are topographically maladaptive (very intense or appearing very frequently in various situations). Evolutionarily, thought is the last to develop, therefore, it constitutes the most plausible element to be modified and, in this process of change, emotions will accompany it.
Let’s begin to differentiate some emotions, which are generally talked about non-specifically and this leads to some confusion when working on them during the therapeutic process.
Differences between thought and emotions
Fear
It is an emotional reaction to a dangerous stimulus. It is phylogenetic and there is no thought through. You react without thinking. It happens in the present. If the stimulus turned out to be not dangerous, the reaction was in vain, but it is adaptive to act out of fear in the face of danger. It is a defense of the organism against a changing and potentially dangerous environment. The brain is phylogenetically designed to feel fear when faced with a dangerous or potentially dangerous stimulus. The physical reaction initially involves bradycardia, then tachycardia. The behavioral reaction can involve three innate reactions: standing still (Freezing), fighting (Fight) or flying (in the case of birds, Flight; in us, running away from danger). We refer to these reactive behaviors as FFF (Flight, Fight, Freeze), it is an evolutionarily adaptive pattern for most animals. Also an innate way of reacting is to jump away from danger (also very common in mammals).
There are no maladaptive emotions but, in any case, emotions are topographically maladaptive.
The important thing here is that there is no thought at the moment of fear, but rather a pure quasi-reflex reaction. In fact, the emotion of fear is archaic and is based on the reflexes brought at birth. The Moro reflex, for example, is a reaction of clinging with the arms to the potential fall of the subject; This reaction is innate, that is, not learned, it comes from birth. When patients report being afraid during consultations, they are generally talking about a different emotion, since it is common to confuse it with anxiety or anguish. Fear is not a diagnosis, but is a natural and normal reaction. There are no fear disorders, therefore, there is no treatment for fear. You have to be afraid of what is dangerous.
Anxiety
It is an emotion when faced with an ambiguous stimulus that may or may not represent danger. Your reaction acts at three levels: physiological, cognitive and behavioral. It is an emotion not present but anticipatory of something dangerous or not in the future. It is closely related to fear, since it anticipates potential danger. Anxiety allows us to evaluate the nature of the danger through the senses, even predicting whether it is advisable to confront or flee. There are thoughts mediating between the stimulus and the subject’s emotion. It prepares the body for a possible danger, either facing it or avoiding it, depending on its dangerousness. The brain is phylogenetically prepared to feel anxiety when faced with new events that represent potential danger.
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Unlike fear, which presents bradycardia at first, tachycardia generally always appears during anxiety. This physiological activation makes it easier to maintain alertness. The cognitive reaction is to think and imagine possible dangerous scenarios. Typically, at a behavioral level, we avoid approaching potential danger without even confirming whether it is really dangerous. If you get closer and confirm that it is not dangerous, the anxiety decreases. If, on the other hand, it is avoided without corroborating the danger, anxiety will increase in the long term. Although many people fear it, anxiety is harmless in itself and has its natural and adaptive side. It is an emotion that has many “good” functions, such as allowing us to protect ourselves from potential dangers, keeping us alert, accelerating our actions when necessary. quick coping to solve a problem such as an emergency. However, when anxiety involves excessive avoidance or thoughts that feed back incorrectly, it loses its adaptive function, and this is diagnosed as an “anxiety disorder.”
Evolutionarily, our brain registers dangerous stimuli so that they can be avoided and thus be able to stay alive. This has evolved phylogenetically in such a way that our ancestors who did not possess this predictive ability in the face of danger simply did not survive to leave offspring; Hence, those of us who do survive inherit that atavism that today leads us to react with anxiety to ambiguous stimuli under the axiom: It is preferable get scared and make mistakes than not get scared and die.
Our brains persist in registering dangers, but our current environments are not as dangerous as those of our ancestors. That is, for our archaic brain, a danger is defined as something that can cause us serious harm or kill us. The danger is mortal and our anxiety reaction will be precisely in accordance with that magnitude of danger, generating attack or flight behaviors.
Now, nowadays, as we expressed above, our dangerous contexts hardly entail a danger of death. Bad news, a ticket with a price increase, a credit card statement, a document document for a civil lawsuit, do not represent a danger to life. However, sometimes, the anxiety reaction is high as if with it we could defend ourselves from these modern “predators.”
Precisely, anxiety disorders are characterized because such an emotion, anxiety, is triggered by a wide variety of non-dangerous stimuli. The person avoids them, without knowing that, in similar situations, the anxiety climbs even higher. Thus, the emotion is inadvertently enhanced and leaves the subject victim of a vicious cycle where more anxiety leads to more avoidance and more avoidance to more anxiety.
When anxiety involves excessive avoidance or thoughts that feed back incorrectly, it loses its adaptive function, and this is diagnosed as an “anxiety disorder.”
As we saw then, anxiety is the protagonist of “anxiety disorders”, precisely, and although there are many techniques to treat them, that is not our topic in this article.
Let’s move on then to other emotions not as well-known as anxiety.
Gonna
It is a functional emotion due to a need to defend ourselves from an attack towards us or towards someone emotionally close. It has a strong adaptive value, in terms of territory and protection. Nowadays, a derogatory or degrading insult or offense towards me or loved ones in my group generates a reaction of anger. Physiologically it is one of the emotions with the most sympathetic activation. The cardiac acceleration and hyperventilation are immediate and the thought becomes both a trigger and a strong modulator that feeds back to the physiological reaction of anger, keeping it elevated. Thoughts like: “He’s doing it to me on purpose,” “He’s not going to beat me,” “He’s underestimating me,” “He’s belittling me,” “He’s bad and I’m not going to let him hurt me,” “I hate him.” and I want it to disappear”, are typical examples in situations of anger. This process does not necessarily occur in front of another person, but it can be in front of an object, or don’t we get angry when the car doesn’t start, or when we can’t untie a knot? Depending on the physiological intensity of the anger, added to the thought that maintains or increases it, the behavioral outcome will be a violent action (hitting, breaking up, etc.). Hence, then, the modification of the thoughts that trigger anger is essential in psychological treatment, to precisely avoid its increase.
The emotions of pity, guilt and shame tend to be inhibitory, since they work antagonistically to other emotions, decreasing their intensity. For example, anger decreases when pity appears, and intense anger inhibits its potential violence if we feel guilt about the potential harm we are going to perpetrate on another. In the event of committing a violent act and then realizing the wrong we have done, guilt appears as an emotion and remorse as a feeling that motivates us to try to correct the damage done. Let’s then go on to define each one.
Blame
It is a very intense emotion, which subjects perceive as intolerable. It is experienced in the chest as a very terrible regret, with enormous anguish. It results from thinking that an action has been committed that involves violating an imperative or command of a moral nature. Thinking that one has perpetrated harm on someone or seriously harmed them generates guilt. This emotion becomes very strong in people with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), who generally attribute harmful actions to themselves that in reality are not harmful or are only ideas.
Here, guilt stops fulfilling its adaptive function of inhibiting violent actions against a peer, and becomes a highly inhibitory emotion of healthy behaviors, as for example, when the patient with OCD experiences guilt for having thought about someone and from there , that something bad happens to that someone; as if thinking could cause serious harm to another. Thoughts can never be dangerous, an action could in any case be. On the contrary, a subject with a high level of psychopathy does not feel guilty about actions that harm others; Here a dysfunctionality of emotion is also observed, since, since guilt is not present, a psychopath has no limit in his actions, and can become a potentially dangerous being.
Learning social norms is closely related to learning guilt. Breaking rules or committing immoral or illegal acts are subject to feeling no guilt or remorse; On the contrary, a normal subject feels guilty about the possibility of breaking those rules and that allows him to live in a society.
Pity
It is an emotion that appears when we observe some characteristic of the other that is inferior to us, evaluating that we can harm them. Even if another person is attacking us and we focus a detail of inferiority on them, we can quickly feel sorry for them and thus abandon the fight. Pity is highly adaptive and is widely used in…