Emotions
Our emotions make us human. Though unique, they connect us. Emotions reveal what matters and ingrained patterns from our past. Explore the science of emotion here. Learn where feelings come from, how they shape behavior, and research-backed strategies for understanding and harnessing their power.
Key Terms
- Mood Disorder
- Anxiety
Mood Disorder
Mood disorders are a broad umbrella term used to include all different types of depressive and bipolar disorders. Conditions which affect mood can range from feeling extremely low to extremely high. Whilst it is normal to experience periods of different moods, mood disorders are characterised by emotional extremes and difficulties in regulating mood.
Learn More: Am I Depressed or Just Sad?
Anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterised by feelings of worry, fear, and tension. For many people, anxiety can become a mental health concern if they find that they are regularly experiencing anxious feelings, their fears or worries are out of proportion to the situation, and they find they are avoiding situations which may make them anxious.
Learn More: Why am I anxious for no reason?
Frequent Asked Questions
There are two primary components of OCD: obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted and persistent thoughts, images, sensations, or urges that cause anxiety or distress.
Obsessions can be focused in one area, such as experiencing unwanted thoughts solely about religious scrupulosity (worries about blaspheming, sinning, or otherwise violating your religious doctrine).
But, more commonly, obsessions occur across several different themes, including but not limited to concerns about contamination, safety, aggression, symmetry, sexuality, identity, morality, and perfectionism.
Obsessions are intrusive and distressing, and people usually try various strategies to quell them. You might have experienced this yourself and discovered that these strategies often backfire, providing you with only temporary relief before the obsessions roar back with a slightly different nagging concern.
One common and understandable strategy is to avoid anything that provokes the obsessions. Avoidance can be physical, as in refusing to go to playgrounds when intrusive thoughts about harming a child are present.
However, avoidance can also be cognitive, emotional, or sensory, meaning that you begin to do mental gymnastics to avoid certain thoughts, feelings, and sensations that remind you of your worries. It can be downright exhausting!
You might carve out whole areas of your life to prevent obsessions, only to end up feeling drained and more defeated -especially when OCD affects your relationships or other important areas in your life.
Learn More: OCD Intrusive Thoughts
Free-floating anxiety describes feelings of discomfort, uneasiness, worry, and anxiety that can appear for seemingly no reason. This anxiety can often feel generalized or random and does not appear tied to any particular object or situation. Trying to stop anxious feelings is a form of resistance and can strengthen anxiety.
Learn More: Anxiety For No Reason
