Are You Too Emotional?

Source: Courtesy of Krystine I. Batcho

Do some events make you unbearably sad, and others give you great joy? Your ability to be very happy despite times of profound sadness might seem to be a contradiction. More likely, you have a temperament with high affect intensity.

People with greater affect intensity feel stronger emotions than other people do wperhen exposed to emotional content or events. When they’re happy, they can feel like they’re bursting with joy.

But a bad event can make them feel profoundly sad. Such strong emotions don’t occur only for events experienced personally. News items, songs, stories, photographs, or movies can all elicit stronger emotions in individuals with high affect intensity.

Is Being Strongly Emotional a Benefit or a Liability?

Is the tendency to feel intensely a gift or a hardship? When most things are going well in life, the ability to enjoy them enthusiastically is surely a psychological asset. But would exposure to the sad events common in life and headline news be detrimental or overwhelming?

It might seem surprising, but research has shown that people with greater affect intensity are not generally happier or sadder overall than most people. Some theorists propose that feeling great joy can help to alleviate feelings of deep sadness.

In other words, affect intensity can yield a net effect of positive feelings canceling negative ones, resulting in no clear connection between affect intensity and psychological well-being.

Along with intensity, emotional temperament also involves reactivity and being responsive to provocative events. Recent research suggests that having powerful emotions is related to overall happiness in life while being highly reactive to events can have a less favorable relationship to general happiness.

However, when people compare their emotionality to other people’s, the relationship to wellness is a bit different. When high-intensity people think their own emotional reactions are more intense than those of other people, their emotionally intense disposition can be associated with psychological distress.

Being quick to react intensely to negative events can increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and stress when the negative emotion perseverates. On the other hand, being highly responsive to positive events with strong positive emotions has been associated with lower depression and stress when the good feeling persists.

The Risks of Regular Exposure to Sad Events

Source: Courtesy of Krystine I. Batcho

When weighing the benefits and costs of intense emotional responses, it is important to consider the complex role emotion plays in our lives. The advent of online news has immersed us in news coverage 24/7.

Studies have suggested that over time, long-term exposure to news is associated with dispositional happiness and sadness. The more often people view sad stories, the greater their general level of sadness, and the more often they view happy stories, the greater their general level of happiness. Individuals whose emotions are typically more intense are at greater risk for sadness in a news culture dominated by negative stories.

As people spend increasing amounts of time online, they are also inundated with ads, many of which are becoming increasingly intrusive. Research has shown that high-affect intensity individuals respond with stronger levels of emotion to emotionally provocative than to non-emotional advertising.

Such findings suggest that people with high affect intensity are influenced to a greater degree by the events, news, and marketing we are all immersed in. However, research suggests that they are also attracted to and enjoy emotional and social activities, ranging from attending sports events to eating out with friends. Engaging in activities that evoke strong positive emotions can counteract the intensity of negative responses to sad or tragic events and help explain why people who find sad events deeply upsetting are not more likely than others to suffer from depression.

Overall, feeling deeply does not pose a clear risk to psychological well-being. The details of one’s life may determine when and how emotional intensity is an asset or a liability. A fully engaging lifestyle is more likely to buffer an emotional person from allowing negative feelings to linger or persevere. Rather, sadness evoked by scenes of abused or abandoned animals is likely to be counterbalanced by more positive feelings enjoyed in social activities or by engaging in prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering or donating to a worthy cause.

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Maximize the Benefits

Research has shown that people with greater affect intensity are also more likely to be nostalgic. A greater predisposition to nostalgia has been associated with stronger happiness elicited by happy stories and sadness elicited by sad stories.

Nostalgia is correlated with important psychological benefits, including elevated mood, healthy ways of coping, strengthened sense of belonging, enhanced relationships, and enriched appreciation of self, identity, meaning, and purpose. Like nostalgia, affect intensity is related to prosocial emotions such as compassion and empathy.

High affect intensity people can be intimately engaged in the important dimensions of life. Not likely to remain spectators on the sidelines, they are drawn to the complexity of living—both the enjoyable and the challenging.

Remaining psychologically well depends upon directing our emotional depth to serve us and others to the best advantage. If you are especially sensitive to sad images and events, you can choose to avoid overexposure during particularly difficult times.

You could also make an effort to enjoy positive activities, such as listening to inspirational music, having lunch with friends, or taking your dog for a walk. Feeling the emotional pain of others is more likely to become a problem if the sadness persists or leads to habitual worrying or further negative thinking. Engaging in positive activities can prevent perseverating in negative thoughts and feelings.

So, embrace your great emotional capacity and appreciate your healthy empathy. Just be careful to maintain a balance of the happy and sad. Sigmund Freud proposed that life is comprised of both creative and destructive forces. Living fully entails navigating the emotional waves of a meaningful life.

When we feel another’s sorrow, we can experience the need to reach out to help. Feeling another’s loss or sadness reminds us that we can also share in the joys of friendship, love, and belonging in the same world of beauty, pleasure, and challenge. The joys are more passionate, and the hardships more surmountable when embraced together.