How do you handle emotional pain?

What do you do when it feels like your life is falling apart? 

Crises happen. When life gets messy, and it most reliably does, it is at times harder than hard to keep ourselves upright and unified in the middle of the craziness. Our bodies do weird things. Our brains do even weirder things in response. We get swallowed up by traumas from the past, engulfed by something that has happened, is happening, or that we’re terrified won’t ever stop happening.

Many people experienced feelings of “Why me?” “What have I done to deserve this?” although some offset this by saying that it could happen to anyone and there were people worse off than them. 

However, these feelings could resurface when people were having a particularly bad time.

Furthermore, the daily mix of worldly and personal woes is endless: kids struggling, marriages exploding, businesses collapsing, people dying, friends hurting, countries starving, contingencies battling, and bodies ailing.

Feelings of anxiety, frustration, anger, low self-esteem, isolation, guilt etc. all contributed to low mood or feeling down. Many said they often felt tearful, although for some having a good cry could be therapeutic. But with the right treatment, self-help strategies, and support, you can speed your recovery. Whether the traumatic event happened years ago or yesterday, you can heal and move on. 

What is emotional pain?  

Emotional pain is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless and vulnerable in a dangerous world. Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and alone can be traumatic, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective facts that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized. 

Useful tips to overcome emotional pain

• Don’t isolate yourself.
• Participate in social activities.
• Stay grounded.
• Seek professional help.

Despite this, many went out to find counselling helpful. Some found antidepressants helped to get them through a particularly bad time, sometimes in combination with counselling. For some, reaching a low point prompted them to seek help. A few people told us that they had thought about whether life was worth living and had contemplated suicide and urged others to pick up the phone and contacted a therapist or a relationship counselor.

If you still feel that you are not able to manage, please don’t hesitate to seek professional help.