Emotions play a crucial role in decision-making because they provide valuable signals about the importance and urgency of various situations.
They promote social bonds and cooperation between individuals. Emotions like empathy and trust strengthen interpersonal bonds and facilitate prosocial behaviors.
Emotions are essential for maintaining mental health and overall well-being.
They play an important role in memory consolidation and learning processes. In fact, emotionally charged events are better retained in memory and can make it easier to encode new information. Imagine that!
Emotions help us survive and thrive in our environment. Fear, disgust, and joy are crucial mechanisms for coping with threats, avoiding harm, and seeking rewards.
These things are based on science. (I will include the sources)
The fact is, we take our emotions for granted until they no longer work. And yes, you can be so traumatized, so stressed that your emotions go on vacation. Because they are so important to your functioning, you feel a little uncomfortable without them. BUT! Even if you can't emit emotions, that doesn't mean that pain, trauma, stress, and all other things don't live inside you. Others can't see all of this, but you can surely feel it. Please, please take care of yourself, especially if you are in an acute stress reaction like this.
Sources:
1. Improved decision making:
Source: Phelps, EA and LeDoux, JE – “Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: from animal models to human behavior” – Neuron, 2005
2. Social bond and cooperation:
Source: Kosfeld, M. et al. – “Oxytocin increases trust in humans” – Nature, 2005
Source: Decety, J. & Michalska, KJ – “Neurodevelopmental changes in the circuits underlying empathy and sympathy from childhood to adulthood” – Developmental Science, 2010
3. Mental health and well-being:
Source: Gross, JJ – “Emotion regulation: conceptual foundations” – Emotion regulation manual, 2007
Source: Gratz, KL & Roemer, L. – “Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: development, factor structure and initial validation of difficulties in the emotion regulation scale” – Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 2004
4. Memory and learning:
Source: McGaugh, JL – “The amygdala modulates the consolidation of memories of emotionally arousing experiences” – Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2004
Source: Phelps, EA – “Emotion and cognition: Insights from studies of the human amygdala” – Annual Review of Psychology, 2006
5. Adaptive scalable function:
Source: Nesse, RM – “Evolutionary explanations of emotions” – Human Nature, 1990
Source: Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. – “The psychological foundations of culture” – The adapted mind: evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, 1992
Mental Health
Mental health support
Mental health advocate
Introspection
Perspective
Acute stress response
Depression
Anxiety
Panic
Emotions in decision making
Social connections and cooperation
Empathy and trust in relationships
Mental health and well-being
Memory consolidation and learning
Emotionally charged events and memory
Emotions and survival
Fear, disgust and joy as survival mechanisms
Emotional regulation and adaptation
Importance of emotional health
Emotions and brain function
Neuroscientific basis of emotions
Social neuroscience and emotions
Emotional intelligence and success
Emotions and interpersonal communication
Dealing with trauma and stress
Acute stress response and emotional shutdown
Emotional awareness and self-care
Emotions and psychological resilience
Daily emotional well-being
Emotions and decision making in high stress situations
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