Mental health awareness is seriously picking up pace today both in the US and elsewhere. People are now recognizing and accepting the presence of psychological and emotional difficulties that many struggle with. They are also developing the knowledge and vocabulary to describe what is happening with them and around them.
A lot of this knowledge, vocabulary and even current treatment techniques are geared to address what is known as emotional or psychological distress.
Emotional or Psychological Distress in a Nutshell
Emotional or psychological distress is the amount of discomfort or unpleasantness, those suffering from various psychological complications may suffer from. Even individuals without diagnosed mental health complications may experience the same.
Some of the feelings that can be perceived as emotional distress include sadness, excessive apathy, excessive worry, intense feelings of rage and so on. Bearing all this in mind, we will now move to how emotional distress may translate to behaviors. This is an indication that you may need a therapist in alabama.
Dealing with the Distress
As human beings, many of us have a ‘fix-it’ attitude to life. Even when it comes to emotional or psychological distress, we try to address it before we understand what it is or where it is coming from.
If you’re sad you might go out for a drink with your friends. If you’re anxious you might take a relaxant, if you’re uneasy you might compulsively immerse yourself in your work and so on. In some cases, our response to such emotional distress may even be yelling or lashing out!
What we’re saying here is people tend to do everything in their power to distance themselves from what feels unpleasant.
This is due to a lack of what you call emotional or psychological distress tolerance!
Emotional Distress Tolerance: What & How
Emotional distress tolerance is the ability to sit with whatever may be going on within in order to observe. The problem with disconnecting from the distress as we feel it is that we do not give ourselves the space and time to explore it. Without doing this, processing the same becomes difficult.
Emotional distress tolerance is not about clichés like the misguided notion of keeping shut and being strong nor does it refer to not needing support. It simply refers to the ability to truly feel and understand (to the best of your abilities), whatever may be going on within. As opposed to reacting and doing whatever you can do run or disconnect from whatever you may be experiencing (especially through unhealthy or harmful behaviors), emotional distress tolerance allows you to simply observe.
This helps when it comes to processing difficult emotions, finding out what may lie within and formulating as well as establishing healthier ways to address emotional distress felt. Birmingham Therapy such as DBT, among other things works to help clients increase their levels of emotional distress tolerance. This in turn helps make them less reactive and teaches them skills to self sooth.
Winding Down
Many of us act out and behave in ways which are unhealthy in part due to a lack of emotional distress tolerance. This being said, with the right kind of Birmingham Therapy and the right kind of work, we can all come to a place where, though we still feel whatever was being felt to begin with, the way we cope and deal with things is a lot healthier!
If you’re reading this and need a therapist who can help you work with any existing mental health complication including anxiety and depression in Birmingham – Alabama, we’re here to help!