Thoughts and emotions have a complex relationship. Conventional wisdom suggests that you don’t really have an emotional reaction unless a thought has crossed your mind. The problem with this view is that some events automatically trigger emotional responses without the need to think. If a bear came charging through your front door, you probably wouldn’t have to think to feel afraid. If someone suddenly slaps you in the face, you will probably feel an automatic shock response without having to think about what happened. Of course, you’d have to notice the bear or the slap in order to feel an emotion. If you were in a coma, you probably wouldn’t react. But, simply noticing something is different from thinking about it. There are many events in life that can trigger emotional responses like this. That said, even if an event directly triggers an emotional reaction, any thoughts you have afterward can alter your emotional response. If you thought that you were going to die when the bear came rushing through your door, your fear would probably increase, whereas if you thought this was a good opportunity to practice your bear survival strategies, you might feel little less afraid. On the other hand, sometimes your thoughts are the primary fuel for your emotions. If someone you know doesn’t say hello to you as you walk down the hallway, and you think this means the person doesn’t like you, you might feel hurt. If you knew, however, that the person’s spouse had just passed away, you might have a very different reaction.
Just as thoughts can influence emotions, emotions can also influence thoughts. Have you ever been in an irritable mood and noticed that many of the thoughts going through your mind were negative or had to do with inconveniences or annoyances? In this case, your mood or emotions were probably leading you to have certain types of thoughts. Indeed, researchers studying depression have found that negative thinking patterns tends to be largely mood dependent. What this means is that, when someone is not depressed, she or he is not having the same types of negative thoughts as when depression is on the scene. In this case, the negative mood seems to bring on the negative thinking. And, of course, once the negative thinking gets going, the negative mood gets even worse. If you’re trying to figure out how to tackle thinking patterns that contribute to stress or misery in your life, it’s important to know about this complex back-and-forth relationship between emotions and thoughts. It’s even more important to know that emotions, thoughts, and actions all influence one another. This means that you can change how you feel by changing what you do and how you think. This doesn’t mean that you just need to think positively or do fun things, and all of your emotional problems will be solved, but chipping way at enduring negative moods involves slow and steady changes in your activities and thinking patterns. If you’re depressed, for example, therapy often involves learning to identify thinking patterns, structuring your day and scheduling activities that you find enjoyable and that give you a sense of accomplishment, and learning to think more flexibly about yourself, the world, and other people. Interestingly, this kind of treatment for depression, often called Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT) can have more enduring effects than antidepressant medication. Some estimates are that the rate of relapse for depression is 60% after people go off antidepressants, compared with 29% after completing CBT. Clearly, changing your thinking and behavioural patterns can have important lasting effects on your life. Time to get started! -Alexander L. Chapman, Ph.D., R.Psych.