The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Psychosis by Maggie Mullen

Author:Maggie Mullen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2021-01-06T22:48:55+00:00

Why Do We Have Emotions?

For better or for worse, emotions are an essential part of being human. In fact, emotions serve several important functions in your life that you may not be aware of. First, emotions help motivate you to act. When you feel scared in a dangerous situation, that fear sends you a strong urge to protect yourself, such as to run away or fight back. The fear you experience communicates how to act in the situation while also causing you discomfort, which provides a kick in the rear end to make the change quickly. Emotions can give you important information about the situation or serve as signals that something is happening that you need to pay attention to.57

Second, emotions can communicate to others how you’re feeling. By observing your body language or facial expressions, other people can understand what’s going on for you and relate to you.58 Something that’s unique to people with psychosis is that they sometimes have trouble expressing their emotions through facial expressions and nonverbal cues due to negative symptoms. You may have had the experience of someone asking you what you’re feeling because they couldn’t tell just from reading your facial reaction. For a long time, health care professionals wrongly assumed that people with psychosis were experiencing less intense emotions because they weren’t showing them outwardly. What we now know is that people with psychosis don’t experience emotions differently than anyone else; it’s just harder for others to read what you’re experiencing just by looking at you.59 For this reason, it’s important to use words to let others—including the people who know you well—know what you’re feeling as it may not be obvious to them. This will help them understand you better and help you both feel more connected. We’ll talk more about how to do this in chapter 5.

In any given moment, multiple factors are influencing your emotions, including your current environment, your stress level, how much you slept the night before, the level of pain you’re experiencing, and your cultural background or upbringing. Sometimes your emotions are influenced directly by your psychotic symptoms. For example, when you hear a voice saying critical things about you, you may feel shame. If you’re having suspicious thoughts about the clerk at the grocery store, you may feel fear. Other times, your emotions arise just as anyone else’s do, like feeling annoyed when your family member suggests you’re off your medication every time you’re in a bad mood.

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