Emotions

Emotions, or affect, is the

Are emotions and mood the same?

Mood is self-regulating and oscillating.

 

Feelings can guide, but shouldn't control.

 

What are emotions?

 

• anxiety and fear
• grief
• aggression
• anger
• rage

here is a picture of many emotions

 

 

according to Abbass:

• emotions are neurobiological events
• frigntening, unacceptable or painful emotions are blocked by anxiety and defenses
• current situations can trigger old emotions
• these processes are unconscious
• based on >3000 case studies, in patients with somatization, these emotions almost always include rage, guilt about rage, craving of attachments and grief

 

 

How do our Emotions Affect Us?

Emotions can get in the way of higher functions, overwelming cognitive capacity.

 

According to Dr Ravi Bains, Dalhousie psychiatrist, given emotions have specific neurophysiological pathways that manifest consistently.

For example, rage can begin with a feeling in the stomach that extends to the chest and ends in the hands. Repressed rage, on the other hand, has the opposite manifestations, ie beginning in the hands and spreading to the stomach.

 

Mixed emotions can be tough to handle; hating the person you love the most (ie a parent) can be very difficult on the psyche.

 

"You cannot control your emotions, but you can control your behavior"

 

Emotion-focused dynamic therapy is what Dr Abbass does to reverse somatization