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2 Personality Traits Linked To Negative Thoughts
The best strategy for getting rid of negative thoughts.
The best strategy for getting rid of negative thoughts.
People high in neuroticism are more likely to experience negative thoughts. In addition, being introverted is linked to spontaneously remembering more negative life events. Together, both personality traits — neuroticism and introversion — are linked to depression and anxiety. On the other hand, people with stable emotions who are more extraverted are at lower risk of depression and anxiety. Neuroticism and introversion are two of the ‘Big Five’ personality traits, which also include agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. The study included 71 people who were given personality tests and asked to recall some personal memories. Dr Florin Dolcos, study co-author, explained:“We’re looking at traits that are associated with the way that people process the emotional world and the way that they respond to it. We wanted to look not only at how personality traits might influence what and how people remember, but also to examine how that impacts their (subsequent) emotional state.”The results showed that both men and women who were more introverted tended to recall more negative memories. Neurotic women had a tendency to repeatedly return to the same memories, the study revealed. Psychologists call this rumination. Dr Dolcos explained:
“Depressed people recollect those negative memories and as a result they feel sad. And as a result of feeling sad, the tendency is to have more negative memories recollected. It’s a kind of a vicious circle.”Neurotic men, though, recalled a higher proportion of negative memories.
Getting rid of negative thoughts
To get rid of negative thoughts, people use a variety of strategies. For women, trying to suppress negative thoughts did not work, as they returned stronger than before. (See: the problem with thought suppression.) Men who made an effort to think differently about their memories — what psychologists call ‘reappraisal’ — recalled more positive memories. Suppression was not linked to any differences for men. One of the best ways of getting rid of negative thoughts is using flexible emotional control strategies.Related
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Why The “Obesity Epidemic” Is A Mental Health Crisis — Especially For Women
Two-thirds of Americans have this condition.
Two-thirds of Americans have this condition.
Being overweight causes depression, particularly in women.
In addition, men who are very thin — but not thin women — are also more prone to depression.
While depression has been linked to obesity, scientists have debated whether it is a result of the diseases linked to obesity, such as diabetes.
This genetic study suggests that depression is directly linked to obesity, whether or not people have other health issues.
Professor Elina Hyppönen, who led the study, said:
“We separated the psychological component of obesity from the impact of obesity-related health problems using genes associated with higher body mass index (BMI), but with lower risk of diseases like diabetes.
These genes were just as strongly associated with depression as those genes associated with higher BMI and diabetes.
This suggests that being overweight causes depression both with and without related health issues — particularly in women”
The mental toll
The results come from over 48,000 people with depression who were compared to a group of 290,000 people who had provided medical and genetic data.
Dealing with the psychological consequences of being overweight is linked to depression, the scientists found.
Professor Hyppönen said:
“The current global obesity epidemic is very concerning.
Alongside depression, the two are estimated to cost the global community trillions of dollars each year.
Our research shows that being overweight doesn’t just increase the risks of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease; it can also lead to depression.”
Three-quarters of American men and around two-thirds of American women are overweight or obese.
Almost one-third of American children are overweight or obese.
Related
The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology (Tyrrell et al., 2018).
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This Emotional Habit Can Lead To Depression Relapse
Spotting when people try to avoid these sensations is critical to preventing depression relapse.
Spotting when people try to avoid these sensations is critical to preventing depression relapse.
People who have recovered from depression but try to block out emotions — including sadness and anxiety — are more likely to become depressed again. Being open to both positive and negative emotions is critical to mental well-being. One reason is that emotions provide important information: they exist for a reason. Emotions help to inform our thoughts and allow us to understand our experience. Dr Norman Farb, the study’s first author, said:“We don’t like feeling bad things, (but) we don’t really think about the implications of balancing our short-term relief with our long-term health. Our research explains why working to keep feeling is so important. It lays the groundwork for seeing that emotional stress actually robs us of sensation—and to undo stress, one must counter this inhibitory effect.”
Blocking emotions
The findings come from a study in which 166 people were given therapy for depression and then followed up over two years. As part of the study, the brains of participants were scanned while they watched various videos, some of which included emotionally charged situations. The researchers found that people who were more affected by sad videos were less likely to suffer a depression relapse. Instead, it was the people who blocked their emotions that were at greater risk. Dr Farb said:“What actually determined their depression levels was how much that sadness was accompanied by a sensory shutdown.”
Emotions update our thoughts
This helps explain why emotional avoidance can be so damaging over time. When people block out negative emotions, they lose a vital way of updating their thoughts, said Dr Farb:“Our thoughts are there to nail things down so you can hold onto them over time, and that’s fine as long as they keep getting updated—but the thing that updates it is new sensations.”In other words, much as we might like to, we cannot live healthily without emotions like sadness and anxiety. Minor negative events can lead to depression relapse for those suppressing their emotions, said Dr Farb:
“This negative mood gets tied up with thoughts about themselves and can be easily perpetuated over time, and the person can feel worse. If the person suppresses these bodily sensations, their thoughts will compound into more and more depressive reactions.”Spotting those who are trying to avoid sensations early is critical, said Dr Farb:
“We don’t have to wait until the person starts to really spiral, where it takes a lot of resources and time and effort to pull them out. You can start to notice if the person is starting to fit the profile of someone who’s getting really sensory-avoidant. We can address it then, before the person stops showing up to work or taking care of their kids.”
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