On any given day, you likely experience a whole range of emotions. You might wake up feeling happy and ready to start the day. You might feel some frustration when you can’t find your car keys or your phone. You might feel a little embarrassed when you arrive at work late for a meeting. And you might feel annoyed when the people in the meeting start bickering over project deadlines. Your day has barely begun, and you have already felt a whole bunch of feelings—and that will only continue throughout the rest of the day.
Most emotions come and go as situations change throughout the day. You can be excited about your child getting a good grade on a tough assignment one moment and sad about a trusted colleague’s impending retirement the next.
But sometimes an emotion lingers—and if it is a difficult emotion, that can lead to mental health challenges. In this blog entry, we will consider three such emotions and how they can impact your mental health. Those emotions are anger, loneliness, and grief.
First, a Disclaimer
We want to be clear here: All emotions are useful to one degree or another, and it is not helpful to think of some emotions as good and others as bad. When we talk about anger, loneliness, and grief, we are not suggesting that you should try to avoid or suppress those emotions. Rather, we are suggesting that finding ways to handle those emotions skillfully can help protect your mental health.
All About Anger
To our point about all emotions being useful, we invite you to think for a moment about times you have been angry. Sometimes, that anger probably has not served you well. Perhaps you were overly harsh with someone who made a mistake, for example. But on other occasions, it is likely true that some well-directed anger inspired you to right a wrong or improve a situation for someone who was being treated unfairly.
But what if you find yourself feeling angry a lot—and often out of proportion to any given situation? In that case, it is possible that your anger is a symptom of a mental health disorder like depression or anxiety. When that is the case, talking with a doctor or a therapist is the best way forward.
Lookout for Loneliness
Loneliness can be a tricky emotion because it is possible to feel lonely even in a crowd, and it is equally possible to feel just fine even when you are alone. The feeling of loneliness has more to do with whether you feel connected to others in meaningful ways.
Part of making those connections is understanding what sorts of relationships work best for you. Are you an extroverted person who gets a lot of energy from being around other people in a fast-paced environment? Are you an introverted person who needs plenty of alone time to recharge and think things through? Do you fall somewhere in between?
Finding and nurturing the kinds of relationships that work best for you is a good way to keep loneliness from upending your mental health.
Grappling with Grief
When it comes to difficult emotions, few can compare with grief. The loss of something or someone important to us is never easy, and the feelings that come with that loss can seem overwhelming at times. Grief can have a negative impact on your mental health whether you are experiencing a mental health disorder or not.
Everyone grieves in their own way, and the duration of the most intense feelings of loss varies from person to person and from situation to situation. Being gentle with yourself is an excellent first step toward managing grief. Leaning into healthy routines (or starting new healthy routines) can also be helpful—as can nurturing the same sorts of relationships that we wrote about above.
Avoiding isolation is a key to managing feelings of grief, so drawing strength from your positive relationships is always a good idea.
If You Are Struggling, We Would Be Happy to Help
Carolina Dunes Behavioral Health—located in Leland, North Carolina—offers high-quality psychiatric and behavioral care that is personalized to meet your specific needs. We treat anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, suicidality, and dual diagnoses involving substance use disorders.
