Emotional Anguish: The Paralyzing Overwhelming Fear
Emotional anguish is like a whirlpool that captures everything. They catch us from within and fill us with fear, anxiety, restlessness and even overwhelming sadness. They are a kaleidoscope of negative, destructive emotions.
Byung-Chui Han, a well-known South Korean philosopher and expert in cultural studies, defines our world today as “the burnt-out society.” If there is one thing we all have in common, it is anxiety and emotional anguish. According to Him, the reason for all this lies in our performance culture, where we try to lead our children to work for success in all aspects of their existence.
Therefore, we experience pressure from society to stand out and achieve success. In addition, we live in a culture of multitasking that was introduced to us at an early age. You have to do many things at once and in a short time. It is the law of the jungle where not everyone can survive or integrate effectively, where it is common to be caught in “anguish”, of Norse suffocation which is related to nausea, suffocation, and which means stress, stress, severe mental pain or suffering.
Emotional anguish: What’s wrong with me?
When we talk about emotional anguish, the same question always arises – is anguish the same as anxiety? Or are the two different psychological states? Until recently, we left the concept of anguish in the philosophical world, and distinguish it from clinical conditions. Søren Kierkegaard, for example, defined this as the fear we experience when we realize that our future is uncertain. Therefore, the quality of our lives will depend on the choices we make.
Sigmund Freud, on the other hand, differentiated “anxiety neurosis” from “real anxiety”, the latter being a pathological condition. It is different from the purely philosophical reflections. We can say that there are mainly two types of anxiety, one called existential and the other defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) which often refers to symptoms of many mental disorders.
Characteristics of emotional anguish
Emotional anguish paralyzes us. While anguish usually has a nervous trigger factor, anxiety is like a pillow in times of uncertainty, against something we cannot control or predict.
When this uncertainty arises, the concern increases. Obsessed, catastrophic thoughts and worries arise. Things like Facing an exam, making a choice, waiting for an answer, or even facing something that we feel we are unable to handle, usually generates anxiety. There are also studies that show that there are people who are more prone to experience anxiety. This is because the neurochemical reactions are produced by hormones and neurotransmitters. Therefore, an increase in adrenaline or a decrease in gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) makes us more or less predisposed to bad feelings.
Emotional disorders have many physical symptoms such as dizziness, digestive problems, chest tightness, fatigue and muscle tension.
How can my emotional anguish be treated?
Poets, writers and painters channel their anguish through art. Most of them have experienced existential anguish. This is a recurring emotion in humans because we can almost never completely free ourselves from this understandable feeling of emptiness when we look at ourselves and our future. But we must do something when that feeling blocks us and pushes us into the corner of helplessness.
Again, Byung-Shul His idea reminds us that we coexist with uncertainty. And insecurity is the direct trigger of emotional anguish. Therefore, anyone who believes that this condition can be solved with psychiatric drugs is wrong (as long as it is not a serious condition). What we need to do is learn to deal with the ups and downs of life, to better deal with the unpredictable and to deal with the things that are far beyond our control.
We have a different approach to solving the problem. Cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and attention-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) can help in many ways. On the one hand, they can help reduce and deal with our anxiety, negative thoughts and negative emotions. On the other hand, they can also help point out the cause of the problem. Let us change our attitude to feel more authorized and take responsibility for ourselves in this increasingly complex and demanding world.
