Strengthening the psychological dam starts from “good habits”
Author: Yang Zhong The Third People’s Hospital of Changshu
Case introduction: Xiao Li is a young and beautiful resident who has a very smooth working life, but has a rather introverted personality, rich in emotions, loves to make small temperament and is sentimental. After the Wenchuan earthquake, she was very concerned about the news from the quake zone and kept browsing the photos of the quake zone on the Internet, and every time she saw various pictures and related reports, she couldn’t help but cry. Gradually, Xiao Li found that her mood was getting worse and worse, her sleep was light and easy to wake up; her appetite was also significantly reduced, and she felt weak. She wondered why she was more strongly affected by the earthquake than others, and whether she was “congenitally deficient” in psychological quality. Yang Zhong, Clinical Psychology Department, Changshu Mental Health Center
Expert Analysis: Wenchuan earthquake is a psychological trauma for the whole nation, but the intensity of this trauma is very small for Xiaoli, who is far away from the disaster area, so why does Xiaoli still have psychosomatic problems?
Generally speaking, each person has different types of personality traits, and they are matched in a certain proportion. Only when a certain character trait is more prominent and relatively stable, we call it a certain type of character (temperament or personality). Xiao Li is a typical depressive personality performer, and people with this personality tend to be vulnerable to external stressful events and bad moods.
What are the traits of a depressed personality? It is generally believed that those who have 5 or more of the following 7 items belong to depressive personality: ① like quiet, restrained, do not like to joke, and do not like to show their faces; ② have a pessimistic tendency, easy to think of the unfavorable side of things; ③ not always sad, but easy to cause sad reaction or sentimental; ④ lack of self-confidence, in some way lack of energy and initiative, reluctant to take the initiative to undertake tasks; ⑤ careful. (6) honest, dedicated and disciplined; (7) like to meditate and worry easily.
How can people with depressive personalities maintain a good mental state?
First, do reason over emotion, and be the master of your own emotions, “not to be happy with things, not to be sad with yourself”. When you are in a bad mood, first let yourself stop and think about: what makes you feel bad; whether these reasons are real and whether there are other reasons. This will make the emotions smooth.
Second, learn to relax and moderate catharsis. When emotions are tense and anxious, you can use some relaxation techniques to relax the whole body. Sometimes emotions also need moderate catharsis, such as a sudden mental shock, you can find the right person to talk to, you can also go to the appropriate occasion to vent, but also to participate in sports, social, travel activities, etc., so as to eliminate negative emotions, maintain mental balance.
Third, the use of appropriate psychological defense mechanisms. When there is pain or anxiety, you can divert your attention and do what you like to do. The classic practice is to “turn grief into strength,” such as the great writer Goethe, after the loss of love, the emotions of love into literary creation, wrote the famous book “The Trouble with Young Werther.
Fourth, the establishment of a broad social support system. The better the social support system, the healthier the body and mind. In some cases, when problems cannot be solved through self-regulation, you should know how to seek help in time, such as from parents, teachers, classmates or friends for help. If necessary, you can also turn to a psychologist to adjust your emotions and restore a healthy state of mind.
Psychologists believe that everyone has character weaknesses, but you can try to change the way things are done, character will change with the way things are done, slowly become a habit, when this habit is firm, and will take shape as character. “Sow an action, you will reap a habit; sow a habit, you will reap a character; sow a character, you will reap a fate.” This quote from William James, a famous American psychologist, may benefit us for the rest of our lives.