What do we usually do when something causes us emotional distress?CA depends on the person. There are those who try to practice active strategies of emotional regulation, but also others who practice an impractical thought scheme, if something worries, annoys or saddens them, stays in their minds and they keep thinking about it over and over again.
Does it help us eliminate these negative emotions? On the contrary. In this way, what causes discomfort is present and does not come out of our heads, which leads us to enter a spiral in which we feel increasingly evil, the problem is that we are not always aware of how we are entering this unnecessary vicious circle. And, if we’re aware, we don’t know how to stop it.
“Even your worst enemy can’t hurt you as much as your own thoughts. “Buddha?
Cognitive psychology holds that the way we process the information and thoughts we have about situations is what determines our emotional experience, that is, the treatment we make of our thoughts has a noticeable influence on our discomfort. There are several more or less effective ways to control this inner experience.
Thus, a person who tries to soften their thoughts and seek solutions to what concerns or saddens them will not feel the same as the person who is stuck with these negative ideas and emotions and will think about them repeatedly without having a real purpose. is consistent with what happens to people with cognitive attention syndrome.
In cognitive attention syndrome appears a model of thought that makes us maintain both the emotions and negative ideas that appear in our head. Because there are a number of metacognitive processes that prevent this vicious cycle from changing and becomes chronic.
“There is nothing good or bad; Is it human thought that makes it look like this?William Shakespeare?
Attentional Cognitive Syndrome is characterized by the practice of a thought model that includes strategies of rumination, anxiety, fixed attention and negative adaptation, let’s look at this process in more detail.
First of all, our loss of attention is fixed on those stimuli or situations that make us feel bad When is our attention running out?Alert? Faced with these negative events for us, this makes its distinction greater than that of positive events (although they also occur), that is, an event has to be much more positive than negative, so that we can consider and appreciate it. when answering the question “how are you?”
In addition, we continue to think about it several times, without being able to divert attention from these negative thoughts and concerns. Finally, the process becomes perpetual by the lack of adaptive emotional control strategies.
“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to think ill of himself. “Goethe?
This unnecessary chewing of negative thoughts leads to depression and anxiety problems. As for depression, cognitive attention syndrome predicts the perpetuation of the negative cognitive trio (negative thoughts about oneself, the world and the future), typical of this disorder. In this way, people with depression ask the question, “Why do I feel that way?”Do I feel this because I’m going through a time of great stress?).
This process is repeated continuously, to become more and more automatic, and that makes it difficult for the positive changes that occur to this person, which also takes a long time to realize. attention to potential dangers that may arise. Threat surveillance manifests itself through recurring thoughts such as “What if this happens?”
The problem is that we can’t think so much about finding a solution and putting it into practice, in case the danger actually happens, on the contrary, the person still thinks too much about the possibility of something bad happening, so anxiety increases. and possible intervention is complicated and, above all, leads you to avoid situations where this danger may occur.
Thus, it is very difficult for a person to have realistic experiences that contradict unfounded thoughts of this threat, certainly attentional cognitive syndrome hinders the difficult task of making our thoughts more flexible when something causes us discomfort, so it is important to be attentive to it to control this disorder and regain well-being.
Images are courtesy of Tiago Bandeira, Alex Iby, and Callie Gibson.