Sticky Emotions Keeping Your Loved Ones From Needed Medical Care?

Douglas Smith is a DePauw professor of positive psychology. In his blog, he offers wisdom on happiness that might help you talk with loved ones who resist needed medical care. Nuggets from Thoughts on Emotions include…

• Negative emotions are “sticky”—more enduring than positive emotions.

• Positive emotions “make us more resilient…[and] trigger upward spirals”

• Negative emotions “cause downward spirals…[that] lead to less energy.”

Smith emphasizes that “negative emotions at times are fully appropriate and necessary…The problem is that we often hang on to negative emotions long after they have served their purpose….”

If you agree with assigning emotions as “positive” or “negative,” and as “high energy” or “low energy,” Smith urges you to find ways to increase those on the right side.

Source: Modified from material of the Human Performance Institute
[copied from blog post of Dr. Douglas Smith]

The only place I take issue with Smith’s approach is with his contention, “We have a choice in our emotional response to an event…We choose to be angry,….” I do not believe we choose our emotions. Rather, we choose to control the expression of many of our emotions that arise. If we want to experience a specific emotion, we choose to set the stage for that emotion to emerge.

To help your loved one, try to understand which specific “sticky” emotions are keeping them from pursuing needed care. See if you can find ways to empower your loved ones to set the stage for positive emotions to emerge—especially high-energy ones that motivate to action. Doing so faciliates the third step to to Healthy Survivorship: Take effective action.

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