Here is a review of a really interesting study regarding on the brain of two different styles of emotion management. The research examined the brain's response to a cognitive technique known as "reappraisal," as well as a behavioral technique known as "suppression." Reappraisal is a method of managing one's response to an emotionally laden stimulus by reassessing the meaning of the event in a healthier, more manageable way, and has been shown to be effective in reducing the magnitude of the emotional response, while also increasing the individual's overall well-being. Suppression, in contrast, involves suppressing a behavioral response to the emotion being experienced, and has generally been shown to increase the intensity of the feeling over time, as well as reduce the individual's sense of well-being. Subjects were shown either neutral or negative stimuli, were prompted to utilize one technique or the other, and the impact on their brains was measured. The article reports the findings:
"The authors found that, while reappraisal reduced negative emotion experience and suppression reduced disgust facial expressions, they markedly differed in their impact on brain activity. Reappraisal resulted in rapid cognitive regulation-related prefrontal cortical activation and subsequent reduction of activation in two brain regions implicated in emotional experience, the amygdala and insula. In contrast, suppression resulted in a delayed component of prefrontal cortex activation related to volitional motor inhibition, but increased the activity of the amygdala and insula."
One of the things I've often told my clients, whether it be in anger management, domestic violence, sex offender, mood management, or any other treatment context, is that the goal of therapy (at least in the context of mood difficulties) is to learn how to manage your mood (and affect), not eliminate it. Feelings are healthy, and every feeling has it's appropriate place. Among the problems people tend to run into are: 1) Experiencing a select number of emotions (i.e. the guy who's default 'negative' emotion is anger), rather than a full range; 2) Only experiencing the extremes of emotions (i.e. certain anger management clients who only experience rage); and 3) stuffing a feeling until it overwhelms them. What I've told my clients is something along the lines of, "It's okay to be angry, but how angry? You want your anger to be constructive (i.e. motivating toward change), not destructive (i.e. expressed through aggression)."
Obviously, this research tends to back up the idea that putting stimuli into perspective is a far more effective emotion management strategy than allowing feelings to "build up until they blow up." There is obviously much, much, much more to managing emotions effectively than this, but I'm glad to see the biological reinforcement of the effort to help people work on the feelings through cognitive techniques, rather than just stuffing things...
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Here is a review of a really interesting study regarding on the brain of two different styles of emotion management. The research examined the brain's response to a cognitive technique known as "reappraisal," as well as a behavioral technique known as "suppression." Reappraisal is a method of managing one's response to an emotionally laden stimulus by reassessing the meaning of the event in a healthier, more manageable way, and has been shown to be effective in reducing the magnitude of the emotional response, while also increasing the individual's overall well-being. Suppression, in contrast, involves suppressing a behavioral response to the emotion being experienced, and has generally been shown to increase the intensity of the feeling over time, as well as reduce the individual's sense of well-being. Subjects were shown either neutral or negative stimuli, were prompted to utilize one technique or the other, and the impact on their brains was measured. The article reports the findings:
One of the things I've often told my clients, whether it be in anger management, domestic violence, sex offender, mood management, or any other treatment context, is that the goal of therapy (at least in the context of mood difficulties) is to learn how to manage your mood (and affect), not eliminate it. Feelings are healthy, and every feeling has it's appropriate place. Among the problems people tend to run into are: 1) Experiencing a select number of emotions (i.e. the guy who's default 'negative' emotion is anger), rather than a full range; 2) Only experiencing the extremes of emotions (i.e. certain anger management clients who only experience rage); and 3) stuffing a feeling until it overwhelms them. What I've told my clients is something along the lines of, "It's okay to be angry, but how angry? You want your anger to be constructive (i.e. motivating toward change), not destructive (i.e. expressed through aggression)."
Obviously, this research tends to back up the idea that putting stimuli into perspective is a far more effective emotion management strategy than allowing feelings to "build up until they blow up." There is obviously much, much, much more to managing emotions effectively than this, but I'm glad to see the biological reinforcement of the effort to help people work on the feelings through cognitive techniques, rather than just stuffing things...