What is the opposite of depressed5/24/2023 ![]() ![]() Fear alerts you to danger, anger inspires you to act, etc. ![]() You may remember from earlier in the workbook that emotions, even unpleasant ones, can have beneficial functions. Step 1: When you have a strong emotion, check to see whether it’s working for you or against you. The more you engage in an opposite-to-emotion behavior, the less of the negative emotion you have. For example, you may have heard that it would be helpful for an angry person to pummel a punching bag and "let out that anger" or “blow off steam,” but modern psychology research has found that this activity actually increases the intensity of the emotion. The more you engage in an emotion-driven behavior, the more that behavior fuels your emotion. For a while it was thought that engaging in a lot of emotional expression would help dissipate intense emotions by providing a catharsis. This concept may run counter to your assumption about how to dissipate negative emotion. By interrupting the pattern of mood-dependent behavior, you allow for new thoughts and feelings to arise. Making significant behavior changes can also have a big effect on our emotions. Remember the CBT model? Well, just as thoughts and feelings have an effect on behavior, behavior can powerfully affect thoughts and feelings. In a nutshell, opposite action is using a behavior opposite to your emotional urge to turn down the volume on your emotion. Marsha Linehan, one of the foremost researchers in the area of treating emotional dysregulation, coined the term “opposite action,” short for opposite-to-emotion action, to refer to a behavioral approach to modulating emotions. In this chapter we’ll introduce you to some ways you can make your behavior work for you too. ![]() You have learned some ways to guide your thoughts to more helpful directions. Well, here is where we outline some ways you can use behavior to change thoughts and feelings. Part 8: Opposite Action, Behavioral Activation, and Exposure Lasting Behavior ChangeĮarly on in this workbook we mentioned that behavior can affect thoughts and feelings too.
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