Neus, 39, comes to the consultation sad with a mix of emotions that she herself cannot identify. The avalanche of events that have occurred in her life makes feel overwhelmed and I can only repeat «it's that I'm blocked“I don’t know what to do, I don’t even know what to feel.”
What do we mean by mental block?
He mental block It is a defense mechanism of our mind that prevents us from feeling certain emotions, resolving situations or activities. This causes us not to think clearly, affecting our daily actions and limiting our ability to achieve our proposed objectives.
At some point we have all been able to feel blocked And that in itself is not bad, but obviously it is not good either. It reduces our effectiveness in carrying out our usual tasks and can only affect one area, whether it be work, family, economics or relationships.
What are the symptoms of a mental block?
- Have you ever felt nervous when faced with an important situation and didn't know how to react?
- Were you left feeling “paralyzed”?
- Are you unable to accept some aspect of your life?
- Do you think you are trapped, with no way out?
If so, you most likely have a history of emotional block, whose main symptoms are:
- Avoidance of situations or people for fear of doing it wrong, of what others will think or what others will say.
- Demotivation that affects several areas of the patient's life.
- Negative emotions. Increased criticism of others, envy or jealousy.
- Rising concerns.
- It becomes difficult to make decisions.
- Anxiety.
What triggers a crash?
The origin is usually multifactorial and, in addition, it usually has great interpersonal variability. Among the many causes, there are the following: traumatic experiences or low self-esteem.
Under all this lies the stress, anxiety and frustration And when you are blocked, all these feelings feed back into each other.
On the other hand, the inability to make decisions makes us feel vulnerable, we are not able to control anxiety and that further increases the mental block.
Does the blockade serve any purpose?
He emotional block It is activated to cushion the pain produced by negative or traumatic situations that cause intense stress and anxietysuch as:
- Traumatic experience: accident, rape, assault,…
- Sudden death of a loved one.
- Breakup.
- Job loss.
- Serious or chronic illness.
- Unexpected change of city.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional
He blockade It protects us from these types of situations that could be dangerous for our mind, and at the same time, it will allow us to accept what has happened to us in order to return to the starting situation after adopting new tools to deal with what has hurt us.
If I don't treat the blockage, can there be consequences?
If the blockage extends over time it produces emotional, cognitive and behavioral effects which can be harmful at different levels:
- Behavioral: addiction to alcohol and drugs, increase in negative emotions such as anger or resentment, low self-esteem and limitation of our social skills.
- Health: psychosomatic illnesses, immune system disorders or physical disorders such as ulcers, asthma and colitis.
In these cases it is recommended to receive therapy with a psychologistYou can choose face-to-face therapy or online therapyboth are effective. Try one Free session in .
How can you avoid an emotional block?
Following some guidelines, which include:
- Healthy lifestyle: balanced diet, sleeping an adequate number of hours and doing physical exercise. This releases endorphins, hormones that make us feel pleasure and reduce anxiety. All of this has a positive influence on decision-making, eliminating blockages.
- Stress management: It is recommended to modify habits with the help of a online psychologist that will help us identify our behavior in order to modify it.
- Writing: An exercise called works very well free writing This consists of thinking about a point where you have a block, closing your eyes and imagining all the possible words on that subject. Try to forget it and open your eyes. Write random words, without order, sentences that are not related. After a while, look at the last two pages written and you will see that the subconscious has taken care of ordering them for you.
- Relaxation: or mindfulness or meditation. Either is a good process to calm down and try to see more clearly.
- Professional help: If you have a mental block, a psychologist will help you manage your low self-esteem, stress and anxiety. By increasing the first and decreasing the other two, the blockages are reduced.
Sometimes we think that we can solve it with the help of family or friends or even ourselves. However, none of them have the sufficient tools to give you something to fill this empty box with which you arrive at the consultation.
Psychological treatment to reduce emotional blockage
Go to a specialist who can help you. managing emotions to be able to unblock you.
First of all, become aware that you have a problem and find out the reasons that may have triggered it and maintained it over time.
In this way, the treatment is carried out at two levels:
- Cognitive: the cognitive distortions which act as maintainers of the blockade. The help of the psychologist It helps us to have a restructured, effective thought and it works, even though it may still hurt.
- Emotional: emotional re-education and relearning emotions to move on to self-regulation, the expression of emotions and their re-evaluation.
- Behavioral: to work on accepting the traumatic situation, giving it a realistic meaning, which allows it to be integrated into our life story. This allows us to develop the resilience.