In the news: Emotion regulation
Feelings about feelings, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, and more!
Greetings! I’m Eleanor Cummins (aka The Overthinker) and this is The Small Q, a round-up of news-worthy topics in psychotherapy. Have a question for The Overthinker? Share it with asktheoverthinker@gmail.com and it might be included (anonymously!) in the next edition.
Everyone experiences emotions. But we don’t necessarily make sense of them in the same way. The existential philosopher John Paul Sartre argued emotions are magic — a way in which we transform and transcend our material world. In dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), we’re told that emotions have three functions: to organize us for action; to communicate to others; and to communicate to ourselves. The research psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett says that emotions are predictive, rather than reactive. In this framework, every emotion is just the brain’s best effort to prepare for the next moment by drawing on everything it’s learned in the past.
No matter how you define an emotion, “emotion regulation” is probably popping up in sessions — at least if you’re to believe a recent Slate article on the topic. Emotion regulation is an umbrella term for dozens of strategies, both conscious and unconscious, that allow people to turn up or turn down their emotional responses as needed. It can be as simple as refocusing attention from crushing sadness to the ice cream you bought as a treat — or as formal as sitting down and doing the “Check the Facts” worksheet from the DBT skills manual. Of course, not all emotion regulation is considered equal. Compulsive rituals, for example, offer OCD sufferers fleeting relief from their distress, but keep their disorder locked in place.
Needless to say, clients have a lot of feelings about emotion regulation. I’ve met people who are affronted by the idea they can exert some control over their emotional experience. And I’ve met others who wish they had no feelings at all; they imagine life would be so much easier, all 1s and 0s. I’ve also encountered a third kind of person — a group Slate calls the “emotional perfectionists” — who strives to always, always be in control, and believe there is a “right” way to feel in every situation. No matter where we fall on this scatterplot, understanding why we have emotions, and learning to co-exist with them, remains a crucial task of therapy.
🗣️ How do you (or your preferred modality) define an emotion? How do your clients define emotions for themselves? Are these definitions compatible? Does it matter? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Challenge: This week, consider observing your own emotion regulation strategies — both intentional and incidental. What patterns did you discover?
For more on DBT’s emotion regulation skills, check out these adorable video guides from Rutgers University.
Other worthwhile reads:
Postpartum psychosis has been in the news this fall, with stories in both The New Yorker and The New York Times
Interested in working with this population? I’d also recommend Inferno, a memoir by my literary agent Catherine Cho, as well as the case of a woman named Naomi in Rachel Aviv’s book Strangers to Ourselves.
One of the most interesting things about Catherine’s book, Inferno, is the difference in the way the UK and the US handle postpartum psychosis. In the US, birthing parents with psychosis are sent to the psych ward, and kept separate from their babies, compounding the trauma for both parties. In the UK, the birthing parent and their newborn are placed together in a special unit.
The NYT put together a good story about emerging science on weed addiction. Might be time to add cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome to your mental list of possible diagnoses, folks!
I appreciated this essay in The Cut on corporal punishment in evangelical homes, and the damage it can do to young minds.
The NYT followed members of a street psychiatry team around LA County
On one hand, this seems like long-overdue outreach to a vulnerable population, and on the other hand, it’s pretty concerning to see an MD telling a patient a bald face lie like this antipsychotic “will protect your brain from any of the damaging stuff that crystal can do.” 😬
On the theme of accurate psychoeducation, Psychiatry at the Margins author Dr. Awais Aftab broke down how antidepressants actually work. And it’s not even that hard to explain. Here’s his summary:
On last’s week theme of exposure: A case for the middle seat on the airplane
And a ✨BONUS✨ read: I wrote the Letter of Recommendation in the 11/20 issue of The New York Times Magazine! It’s about becoming a tour guide.
Anything I missed? Send your recent reads to asktheoverthinker@gmail.com or comment below.