OPINION
We live in a venting society.
Open any social media app, and you can find someone railing about this problem or that.
Many of them have a legitimate reason to vent those negative feelings.
And, to some extent, venting about your feelings to the right person can have beneficial effects, according to heart.org.
Bottling up those negative emotions, according to “Is venting good for your health?” on heart.org, “can raise the risk for cardiovascular disease, whereas releasing or managing stress can improve physical and psychological health, lowering that risk.”
It quotes Rachel Millstein, whom it credited as “a staff psychologist in the behavioral medicine program and the Lifestyle Medicine Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.”
“By and large, we do need to get our negative emotions out,” Millstein said. “The ways we do it, though, that’s where it’s healthy or unhealthy, productive or unproductive.”
Venting too much, for too long or to the wrong person, though, can lead to rumination.
“Rumination involves repetitive thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and distress and their causes and consequences,” according to “Rumination: A Cycle of Negative Thinking” on psychiatry.org. “The repetitive, negative aspect of rumination can contribute to the development of depression or anxiety and can worsen existing conditions.” Some of our brains are prone to that downward cycle of processing negative thoughts.
Just because our nature is to follow that trail doesn’t mean we can’t learn new paths to follow. If that’s something you find yourself falling into, psychiatry.org shared suggestions for breaking out of those cycles.
One is to “distract yourself” and “focus on more positive memories.”
Another is to think of a better situation where you were able to work through obstacles, sometimes with “the help of family or friends in remembering past positive experiences,” the list said.
It also encourages you to exercise or to get a “change in environment, especially to a place that has positive associations for you, can help too.”
Chunking an insurmountable problem into manageable steps can also work, the list said.
The report on psychiatry. org also suggested seeking a mental health professional if the negative thoughts disrupt your life.
Remember, there is no shame in getting help when you need it.
Vent away; just don’t lose yourself in the process.
Abigail Bardwell is the Editor & Publisher of the Post-Signal. She can be reached at [email protected].
