One of the most common flawed modes of behavior performed by every sufferer who enters into a harrowing episode of stress, depression or anxiety concerns the words they use to describe situations and events they are confronted with. In using powerful, emotive words, sufferers will trigger the fear response and the more they use such words, the worse their suffering gets.
Powerful, emotive words are part of everybody’s vocabulary. Sometimes, we use powerful words when we lose our temper or we become angry and frustrated. In this state, we give vent to our feelings and the emotions within us have an outlet.
This is fine. For most people, once their emotions have been expressed, they return to their usual selves and life carries on as normal.
But it doesn’t work like this if you are prone to stress, depression or anxiety.
In these states, sufferers will react negatively to every event they are confronted with in their lives. One of the negative reactions concerns using powerful and emotive words that can make even the most insignificant of events a major problem. Words can and do have that much power and in this article, I’m going to show you how this works with three of the worst words you can use to assign meanings to events. They are:
Nothing, everything and never.
For example, let’s say your relationship with your spouse breaks down. Here’s how using the above words can trigger stress, depression or anxiety:
“Well that’s it. EVERYTHING has gone wrong in my life. I’m NOTHING without him/her and I know I’ll NEVER be happy ever again.
”Can you see how flawed this highly emotive reaction is and can you see how these words – seemingly innocuous by themselves – have made one event a major, stressful episode by assigning a catastrophic meaning to your whole life?To avoid arousing such fearful emotions, here are three better, much less emotive words you can use to lower the intensity:
For everything, use ONLY. For Never, use TEMPORARY. For nothing, use SOME.
So let’s use these words to find a less intense meaning to the event in our example, the breakdown of an intimate relationship:
“OK, my relationship is over, but it ONLY affects my love life. SOME things will change but other areas of my life – my work, my friendships, my hobbies and my social life will carry on as normally as possible. I’m hurting now, but this is TEMPORARY and things will get better in due course.
”Can you see how using different words can dramatically reduce the impact and make much clearer sense of the event? This is exactly why some people never enter into a stressful, depressive or anxious episode even when they are faced with the most trying of circumstances, such as relationship breakdown.
Everything, nothing and never are just three of the emotive words used by sufferers. There are many more – including expletives that are far too strong to use here – but if you use the three alternatives I’ve given in this article, you will drastically reduce the chances of entering into an episode of stress, depression and anxiety.
Be aware of the words you use to assign meanings – mind your language!See you soon.
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