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Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#51

Post by ChefDenominator »

edblarney wrote: post #43
ChefDenominator wrote: post #10

I watched a documentary about heroin addiction in a wealthy northeast U.S. town. I recall being struck at how the parents of the addicts presented in the documentary (who were all young) talked about how all of their kids were always so happy as children. Then, when interviewing the addicts, there was a clear recurring theme that they wanted to do drugs because they could not handle the pain of being off drugs. I did…

A) Most children are happy. B) 'The pain of being off drugs' - for opioids is a deeply physical thing as well. Once they are 'hardcore' it's no longer a matter of 'getting high' it's 'getting back to normal' - i.e. they need heroin to operate normally. The body adjusts to having opioids, and when it doesn't get them it 'feels' miserable. That's the trap, apparently.

The tone of the parents "in comparison with" others. I am not arguing that they were good or poor parents, but I think it is arrogant to assume they were completely ignorant.

They were talking about well after the physical addiction aspects would have subsided. Their issue was that they could not stay off of the drugs, beyond just the issues immediately following quitting.

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#52

Post by sqrt »

bluetwo wrote: post #13

(In my opinion) Negative emotions are indeed useful. Feeling sad or griping about something is not all that bad as long as it helps you define what it is in your life you don't like. The hard part is forcing yourself, after some time in the dumps, to say "OK, no what am I going to DO about this?"

For me, at least, the hardest part is actually executing on what you think you should do.

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#53

Post by edblarney »

ChefDenominator wrote: post #51
edblarney wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A) Most children are happy. B) 'The pain of being off drugs' - for opioids is a deeply physical thing as well. Once they are 'hardcore' it's no longer a matter of 'getting high' it's 'getting back to normal' - i.e. they need heroin to operate normally. The body adjusts to having opioids, and when it doesn't get them it 'feels' miserable. That's the trap, apparently.

The tone of the parents "in comparison with" others. I am not arguing that they were good or poor parents, but I think it is arrogant to assume they were completely ignorant. They were talking about well after the physical addiction aspects would have subsided. Their issue was that they could not stay off of the drugs, beyond just the issues immediately following quitting.

I don't doubt for a second that the parents are disingenuous or self deluded.

I just believe that most parents, looking back at their children when they were young, would say 'they were such happy children'.

I do not believe that 'a happy childhood' in any way correlates with individuals likelihood of using/getting hooked on drugs - or their difficulty in 'getting off drugs'.

Opioid addicts in particular commonly indicate that once they are 'fully hooked' - that the drug stops become a thing of aspiration, rather, they need to take it to 'just feel normal' - and that without it, it's painful. This is the body's reaction to the drug. Being addicted to heroin sets a 'new baseline' for your bodies production of serotonin, dopamine etc. etc. which is unpleasant, and to feel normal, one needs ever more heroin uptake.

In a much smaller way - a similar thing happens with nicotine: the 'mini high' from smoking goes away after a while, at which point, without a nicotine hit - you feel uncomfortable. Getting the 'hit' reverts you merely to a relatively normal state.

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#54

Post by edblarney »

edblarney wrote: post #53
ChefDenominator wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tone of the parents "in comparison with" others. I am not arguing that they were good or poor parents, but I think it is arrogant to assume they were completely ignorant. They were talking about well after the physical addiction aspects would have subsided. Their issue was that they could not stay off of the drugs, beyond just the issues immediately following quitting.

I don't doubt for a second that the parents are disingenuous or self deluded. I just believe that most parents, looking back at their children when they were young, would say 'they were such happy children'. I do not believe that 'a happy childhood' in any way correlates with individuals likelihood of using/getting hooked on drugs - or their difficulty in 'getting off drugs'. Opioid addicts in particular commonly ind…

"I don't doubt for a second that the parents are disingenuous or self deluded."

Meant to say: "I don't think parents are disingenuous or deluded."

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#55

Post by kough »

xvedejas wrote: post #50
ada1981 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often, depression is actually an avoidance of the underlying emotions -- very often anger. Unexpressed anger goes inward and is directed toward the self, which becomes experienced as depression.

Is this an accepted psychiatric phenomenon, or just some Freudian bullshit?

> implying there's a difference

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#56

Post by jschwartzi »

xvedejas wrote: post #50
ada1981 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often, depression is actually an avoidance of the underlying emotions -- very often anger. Unexpressed anger goes inward and is directed toward the self, which becomes experienced as depression.

Is this an accepted psychiatric phenomenon, or just some Freudian bullshit?

Insofar as a therapist with a psychology degree has said OP's words to me, it's accepted by some professionals.

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#57

Post by DavidTNcl »

noname123 wrote: post #28

Inspired by this thread, I looked up Freud's 12 Human Defense Mechanism when negative emotions stew in our mind to look at how I delude myself on daily basis: https://kevinfitzmaurice.com/self-esteem/self-esteem-issues/... 1. Over-compensation/Projection: To overcome my greatest fear that I'm just a programmer making a comfortable living but ultimately making meaningless web apps for BigCo or for startups but afraid…

Take up gardening. And build a hot rod.

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#58

Post by OvidNaso »

altonzheng wrote: post #44
Sapph wrote: post #33

How I see negative emotion is, it's similar to what physical pain teaches us. You touch a burning stove. It hurts. You learn this action -> undesirable outcome and avoid doing it. (Sometimes it can take a few times though!) Just that with negative emotions, sometimes it's less obvious the cause or it's an interplay between a few. And sometimes, there's a time delay between an action and the negative emotion. That's w…

The issue with depression is I think this emotional signaling can be entirely miscalibrated, and sometimes, you do you have to figure out a way to override those signals.

Or, it's rat park...

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#59

Post by alphapapa »

MarkPNeyer wrote: post #7

I just read "life of a slave" by frederick douglass. It's been helpful to calibrate my emotional responses. I try to treat emotion like sound or light - a signal from the outside world, with appropriate responses. When I get upset at things now, I compare whatever's bothering me to "being a slave, being whipped for teaching fellow slaves how to read the bible" - and i realize how unimportant the thing was. This abili…

Jesus did not go around saying, "Hey let's be nice," nor did he get crucified for saying that. Jesus called out the Jewish leaders of the day for being hypocrites, people who laid a heavy burden on their followers but did not live up to the standards they set, who made up and imposed strict rules while completely missing the point. They crucified him because they felt threatened by him, that their power structure would collapse, and then they wouldn't be powerful anymore. Nothing's changed in that aspect of humanity--the powerful always want to preserve their power.

He did not call people to be nice, he called people to be good and faithful. There is often a big difference between being nice and being good. By contemporary standards, if Jesus had gone around being "nice," he never would have confronted anyone or accused them of sinning.

Jesus certainly did get angry sometimes, but his anger was justified, and he did not lose self-control.

You can't separate Christianity or Christ from God. Think about this: if Jesus was not who he claimed to be--the son of the living God--then he was surely crazy, because he got himself killed for nothing. He could have avoided all that suffering and death by just being nice and non-confrontational, and going to a place where people didn't want to kill him.

Re: Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being

#60

Post by jschwartzi »

altonzheng wrote: post #44
Sapph wrote: post #33

How I see negative emotion is, it's similar to what physical pain teaches us. You touch a burning stove. It hurts. You learn this action -> undesirable outcome and avoid doing it. (Sometimes it can take a few times though!) Just that with negative emotions, sometimes it's less obvious the cause or it's an interplay between a few. And sometimes, there's a time delay between an action and the negative emotion. That's w…

The issue with depression is I think this emotional signaling can be entirely miscalibrated, and sometimes, you do you have to figure out a way to override those signals.

This can happen if you grew up in an abusive environment and learned that even people who are supposed to love you unconditionally can be dangerous.
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