Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Venting doesn’t work

slate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 193 posts

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#41

Post by blhack »

One of the most stressful projects I ever worked on had a really great way of dealing with the stress (a policy that I created).

Every meeting, at the beginning of the meeting, everybody was required to complain for 5 minutes. Just talk about all the stupid decisions that got us to this point, how unreasonable the timeline was, any staffing issues you were having, any parts you needed, etc. 5 minutes. You are required to complain.

It helped a LOT, and almost a decade later when I interact with that team, we still all look back glowingly on that practice as something good.

It was a tense project, and that "you have to complain for 5 minutes" completely broke all of the tension, and let us all work together effectively. If we hadn't implemented that policy, we might not have finished the project on time.

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#43

Post by floatrock »

jboynyc wrote: post #13
sudden_dystopia wrote: post #4

If true, wouldn’t this undermine the entire psychiatric approach of behavioral cognitive therapy and ideas such as confronting one’s fears and talking through problems?

From TFA: “chatting with friends can bring closure when they help you reconstrue an event, rather than just recount it. What does that look like? Asking why you think the other person acted that way, prodding to see whether there’s anything to be learned from it all, and just generally broadening your perspective to ‘the grand scheme of things.’ Unfortunately, this type of meaning-making is far from common outside of…

Article also mentioned the “The thoughts you water are the ones that grow" idiom.

CBT is often about reframing or "reconstrueing" a negative or damaging viewpoint into something less emotionally charged. Venting is just watering and reinforcing the emotionally charged pathways -- the "gasoline on a fire" analogy.

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#44

Post by JAlexoid »

antisthenes wrote: post #29
JAlexoid wrote: post #16

Catharsis(aka venting) has had a multiple studies saying that it doesn't work. Stop venting. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1967-02716-001 - it's even in the abstract.

This is your 3rd post in the thread, alleging that catharsis doesn't work. Now, personally, I don't have skin in the game, so I can't tell you whether it works or not. But the fact that you're citing a 1967 psych study done on 9 year old kids tells me you have some kind of agenda for whatever reason. Not only are most psych studies flat out junk, but the 50s and 60s was the time of particularly egregious junk science…

I can link you to another bunch. Because I took interest on the subject. I've been told to "vent" almost all of my life and only a few years ago I got exposed to this research.

I'm citing one of the earlier ones and there's plenty of newer studies.

My "allegations" are based in research and not empty words(unlike the accusations in your comment)

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#45

Post by ascii_pasta »

JAlexoid wrote: post #27
ascii_pasta wrote: post #12

There's a saying "the squeeky wheel get's the grease". People usually do what works for them. thats exactly why we still see fist fights, disinformation, yelling, racisim, war, complaining, etc. It does what it was intended to do. Otherwise, people would do something else.

A leaky cauldron gets thrown out, is the counterargument here. If you want to be angrier or as angry - catharsis is great.

Thats why I love these types of sayings!

It doesnt always get grease, does it!

It depends on the usefulness of the source of the squeek! For me it translates as 'be worth helping'.

This even works for your couldron, is it worth fixing?

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#46

Post by unfocussed_mike »

This is true, I suspect.

Except if you make it funny.

Funny venting -- exasperated joking -- is an enormously effective stress reduction tactic.

The key point really I guess is that you have to have gone looking for the laugh before you let it out; that is likely the therapeutic value.

"HELLO POLLLLLLYYYYY!"

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#47

Post by darkerside »

JAlexoid wrote: post #17
awb wrote: post #9

It sounds like the aggressive behavior was measured pretty soon after hitting the punching bag. It would be interesting to run the test again after the adrenaline has worn off. I don't think proponents of catharsis are claiming that screaming at a tree if going to instantly make you calmer, it's that later that day you might feel better. Also, participants were instructed to focus their anger on the perpetrator of th…

Do you know of a single study that supports catharsis? Because all studies I know of disprove or end up inconclusive.

I think this begs the question in assuming there is just one type of catharsis. In my experience, things like this can be done productively or unproductively, effectively or ineffectively. It's all about the execution, and different people use the same word for different things.

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#48

Post by swagasaurus-rex »

klyrs wrote: post #38
antisthenes wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know catharsis was extremely helpful in my grieving process. Realistically, I'm not sure how you would even design a study to accurately measure the effects. Any sort of cathartic experience would necessarily be self-reported and we all know the accuracy of self-report studies.

For the value of an anecdote: in my grieving process, I tried several forms of catharsis: hitting a heavy bag, yelling, running and biking angry. In every case, it made me more angry. I got worse. The anger turned inward. It wasn't until I stopped that approach that I made any progress in my grief. > Any sort of cathartic experience would necessarily be self-reported and we all know the accuracy of self-report studie…

> Since the students weren’t randomly assigned to either vent or not, it’s possible that the most anxious are the ones who chose to vent (so that venting was correlated with increased anxiety, not the cause of it)

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#49

Post by keerthiko »

A proper venting process, like a heatsink or coolant, needs a mechanism to absorb the unwanted energy efficiently, and then disperse it. Asking folks to express anger or spend energy without it specifically drawing from the negative emotions within is like pouring coolant fluid from a bottle over your CPU box.

I think carefully channelled energy, however, can really help calm. I don't necessarily think it's catharsis really, as it would tend closer to meditation. Practising a martial art, trying to focus on something creative, going on a long run, playing a mentally demanding game (chess, go, starcraft) — with the right mindset, these allow you to harness your negative feelings into an activity that exists in its own sandbox, and then get processed in a way that only makes sense inside that sandbox. It's important that your activity is one where you have practised not getting further enraged (no 'tilting', as we say in video games) when you fail/perform badly inside your sandbox.

When you leave the sandbox, you find a tiny bit more peace with whatever enraged you.

Re: Venting doesn’t work

#50

Post by Swizec »

JAlexoid wrote: post #17
awb wrote: post #9

It sounds like the aggressive behavior was measured pretty soon after hitting the punching bag. It would be interesting to run the test again after the adrenaline has worn off. I don't think proponents of catharsis are claiming that screaming at a tree if going to instantly make you calmer, it's that later that day you might feel better. Also, participants were instructed to focus their anger on the perpetrator of th…

Do you know of a single study that supports catharsis? Because all studies I know of disprove or end up inconclusive.

Anecdata but a good boxing session after a stressful workday always makes me feel better. High intensity running also works. Great for relieving various undirected frustrations. Especially of the angry kind.

Writing in a journal does wonders for the more subtle things. When your mind is running in circles trying to process something. The act of writing it out helps me avoid circles and get to a conclusion.

The only thing that never does much is bottling it up inside.

Post reply on HN