Negative Emotions Defined, Negative Emotions vs. Positive Emotions, How Do Negative Emotions Affect Us & Management Strategies

How Negative Emotions Affect Us

Anger, frustration, fear, and other “negative emotions” are all part of the human experience. They can all lead to stress and are often seen as emotions to avoid, ignore, or otherwise dispute, but they can be healthy to experience. A better approach is to manage them without denying them, and there are several reasons for this. If you are experiencing severe symptoms of negative emotions, it could be an indication of a mental health disorder.

Managing negative emotions also means not allowing them to overrun us. We can keep them under control without denying that we are feeling them.

Negative Emotions vs. Positive Emotions

When we talk about so-called negative emotions, it’s important to remember that these emotions, in and of themselves, aren’t harmful as in “bad.” Instead, it is more than they are in the realm of negativity instead of positivity[2].

Emotions aren’t necessarily good or bad; they are just states and signals that allow us to pay more attention to the events that create them. This can motivate us to make more of a specific experience or less, for example.

Unlike some emotions, negative emotions are not always pleasant to experience. But, like most emotions, they exist for a reason and can be pretty helpful to feel.

How Do Negative Emotions Affect Us?

Anger, fear, resentment, frustration, and anxiety are negative emotional states that many people experience regularly but try to avoid. And this is understandable—they are designed to make us uncomfortable.

• Negative Emotions Can Cause Stress: These negative emotional states can create extra stress in your body and mind. This is uncomfortable and can lead to health issues if the pressure becomes chronic or overwhelming[3]. Nobody likes to feel uncomfortable, so it is natural to want to escape these feelings, and the dangers of unmanaged stress are real. However, there is a feeling that people sometimes have that these emotions will last forever or that the feelings themselves are the problem.

• They Also Provide Information: More often, these feelings are beneficial because they can also send us messages. For example:

1. Anger and anxiety show that something needs to change, and perhaps our well-being has been threatened.
2. Fear is an appeal to increase your level of safety.
3. Frustration or resentment motivates us to change something in a relationship.

Negative emotions are there to alert us that something needs to change and motivate us to make that change.

• Even Positive Emotions Have Downsides: Positive psychologists also argue that while there are many benefits to positive emotional states like hope, joy, and gratitude, there are also adverse effects that can come from them. Optimism, for example, has been linked to many beneficial outcomes for health and happiness as well as a personal success[4].    

Unchecked optimism, however, can lead to unrealistic expectations and even dangerous risks that can lead to loss and all of the negative feelings that can come with it. However, more uncomfortable emotional states like anxiety can lead to motivation to make changes that can create more success and avoid danger. Negative emotions are designed to keep us safe and motivate us to improve our lives, just as positive emotions are.

Strategies for Managing Negative Emotions

Several strategies have been explored and recommended to accept and process negative emotions, as well as emerging techniques that have been developed with this research in mind. As a result, a specific group of approaches is gaining popularity among therapists and coaches.

As outlined in research by Ceri Sims, these techniques have the acronym TEARS of HOPE. Here’s what this entails.

Tears

• T – Teach and learn: This means to embrace self-awareness and increase personal knowledge of your body and mind and how they are responding to stress and other emotional states. This allows you to understand when you are upset and why and better interpret the signals your body is sending.
• E – Express and enable sensory and embodied experiences: This one sounds a little more complicated, but it simply involves encouraging openness and curiosity within yourself to increase your acceptance of what comes.
• A – Accept and befriend: It can be highly beneficial to focus on increasing your self-compassion and tolerance for frustration actively.
• R – Re-appraise and re-frame: You can use cognitive-behavioral approaches to see things differently.
• S – Social support: This can involve the practice of loving-kindness meditation, which can expand your feelings of connection to others and your self-compassion while you invest in relationships.

Hope

• H – Hedonic well-being and happiness: Research shows that it can be highly beneficial to have a 3-to-1 ratio of positive vs. negative emotions, meaning that you add positive experiences to your life, focus on happy memories and savor successes, for example, to increase the amount of time you spend authentically feeling good.
• O – Observe and attend to Try to practice mindfulness and non-judgmentally attend to things in life.
• P – Physiology and behavioral changes: Focus on relaxation, breathing exercises, and self-care.
• E – Eudaimonia: Strive for goals in life and a sense of authenticity.

Additional Strategies

Other strategies are recommended to increase positive emotional states and personal resilience to stress and feelings of negativity so that negative emotional states don’t feel as overwhelming. Because of the research on positivity, we know that this can be a beneficial thing. So here are some additional strategies that can be used to cope with negative emotions.

• Best Possible Self Exercise: This involves envisioning—you guessed it—your best possible self and what that would look like. This exercise has been shown to lift the mood and bring a sense of optimism, bringing lasting benefits.6 This exercise can be done as a journaling exercise or simply a visualization technique, but involves envisioning your life in the future and challenging yourself to imagine the best possible life you can live, the best possible version of yourself that you can be. Research has shown that people who envision their best self for five minutes a day for two weeks experience a more positive mood and an increase in optimism compared to people who spent the same amount of time simply thinking about activities in their day. So for five minutes a day, this is an excellent use of time.

• Gratitude Letter or Visit: This activity involves expressing gratitude to people who have done kind things for you. This includes both minor and significant acts of kindness[7]. This could be a letter to an elementary school teacher who inspired you to be your best or a visit to a neighbor to let them know how much you appreciate knowing they are there. It can be any letter or personal trip and conversation expressing to someone what they have done for you, what it has meant to you, and that you appreciate them. These expressions of gratitude bring significant benefits to the recipients, but even greater ones to the person expressing the gratitude. Most people who engage in this activity report that they still feel positive feelings from it days or weeks later.

• Taking a Mental Health Day: This is like taking a staycation. It involves creating a day filled with positive experiences that you’d have on vacation while minimizing the stress you’d have in your regular schedule. It operates under the same premise that the other positivity-building exercises follow—that an increase in positive emotional states can bring a greater sense of optimism and resilience—and it has the added benefit of minimizing stressors for the day. This can offer an excellent interruption from chronic stress and a chance to recover emotionally. To do this, create a day filled with activities that you enjoy.

Helpful Vs. Harmful – Ways To Manage Emotions

Negative emotions like fear, sadness, and anger are an essential part of life, and sometimes we struggle with dealing with them effectively. It can be tempting to act on what you’re feeling right away, but that often doesn’t fix the situation that caused the emotions. Instead, it may lead to more problems to deal with down the road. 

Some of the harmful ways that people deal with negative emotions:

• Denial: Denial is when a person refuses to accept that anything is wrong or that help may be needed. For example, when people deny that they have complicated feelings, they can bottle up to the point that a person ends up “exploding” or acting out in a harmful way.

• Withdrawal: Withdrawal is when a person doesn’t want to be around or participate in activities with other people. This is different than wanting to be alone from time to time and can be a warning sign of depression. Some people may withdraw because being around others takes too much energy or feeling overwhelmed. Others may withdraw because they don’t think other people like them or want them to be around. In some cases, people who have behaviors they are ashamed of may withdraw so other people don’t find out about what they are doing. But withdrawal brings its problems: extreme loneliness, misunderstanding, anger, and distorted thinking. We need to interact with other people to keep us balanced.

• Bullying: Bullying is when a person uses force, threats, or ridicule to show power over others. People typically take part in bullying behavior because they don’t feel good about themselves, and making someone else feel bad makes them feel better about themselves or feel less alone. It is harmful to both the bully and the bullied person and does not address underlying issues.

• Self-Harm: Self-harm can take many forms, including cutting, starving oneself, binging and purging, or participating in dangerous behavior. Many people self-harm because it gives them control over emotional pain. While self-harming may bring temporary relief, these behaviors can become addictive and lead people to be more out of control and in more significant pain than ever.

• Substance Use: Substance use uses alcohol and other drugs to make a person feel better or numb about painful situations. Unfortunately, alcohol and drug use can damage the brain, requiring higher amounts of substances to get the same effect. This can make complicated feelings even worse and, in some cases, lead to suicidal thoughts or addiction. If you are concerned about your own or someone else’s use of drugs or alcohol, talk to a responsible adult right away to get help. 

The good news is that with practice, everyone can better deal with their negative emotions in healthy ways.  One way to deal with uncomfortable or unpleasant emotions is to remember PATH. PATH stands for:

Step 1: Pause: This step is crucial because instead of acting on feelings right away, you stop yourself and think things through. Then, count to 100 or say the alphabet backward.

Step 2: Acknowledge What You’re Feeling: For example, are you mad at someone, or are you sad because your feelings were hurt by what they did? Whatever you are feeling, it is ok to feel that way.

Step 3: Think: Now that you have taken a few moments to figure out what you are feeling think about making yourself feel better.

Step 4: Help: Take action to help yourself based upon what you came up with within the “Think” step. 

If You Are Having Trouble Thinking Of Ways To Help Yourself, Try One (Or A Few) From This List:

Mood Boosters

Address Your Basic Needs

Process Feelings

Problem Solving

• Make a list of solutions to problems – it can help brainstorm with a friend or family member.
• Make a list of your strengths. There are plenty of things about you that are awesome, no matter how down you are feeling at the moment.
• If a person has upset you, talk with them directly. Fill in the blanks to this sentence – “I feel ______ when (this happens) because ______. Next time, could you please ________.” Example: “I feel left out when there is no room at the lunch table, because then I don’t have friends to talk to. Next time can you please save me a seat?”

Volunteering/Acts of Kindness

• Do something nice for someone you know
• Help a stranger
• Volunteer your time

Hobbies/Stress Relievers

Relaxation Exercises

Ask for Help

We Level Up Treatment Center provides world-class care with round-the-clock medical professionals available to help you cope. In addition, we work as an integrated team providing information about negative emotions and other aspects of treatment. Make this your opportunity to reclaim your life. Call today to speak with one of our treatment specialists. Our specialists know what you are going through and answer any of your questions.

Your call is private and confidential, and there is never any obligation.