A few words about emotions and emotional health.

by matt bridgman

We are all familiar with emotions. Moods. Feelings. As human beings, we are emotional beings. We are designed to experience emotions. Specific structures in the brain are designed to generate emotions for us. Well known structures of the brain, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, and the structures that make up the basal ganglia (including the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus), and others, are together referred to as the limbic system. This system is responsible for generating our experience of emotions.

As you know, emotions come in all shapes and sizes. We have pleasant emotions, such as happiness, joy, excitement, gladness, and satisfaction. And we have unpleasant emotions, like anger, fear, worry, sadness, anxiety, disgust, guilt, and embarrassment. 

Notice that I did not refer to these emotions as “good” and “bad,” but rather as “pleasant” and “unpleasant.” In my opinion, none of these emotions are “bad.” All emotions, both pleasant and unpleasant, are, at their core, “good,” and serve important purposes. 

This brings me to the idea of emotional health. What is emotional health exactly? When the emotional center of the brain, the limbic system, is in healthy working order, it generates emotions from moment to moment in reaction to whatever is going on in the moment, in a way that is consistent with that event. 

For example, when we are enjoying ice-cream with a friend, the limbic system should be generating happiness and other pleasant emotions. When we or our children win a soccer game or karate match, our limbic system generates excitement and other very pleasant emotions.

On the other hand, when we lose our job, our limbic system generates unpleasant emotions: maybe fear, anxiety or anger. When our best friend moves away, the limbic system generates sadness. 

When trying to understand our emotions, it is important to remember that one of the main purposes of our brain is to keep us alive. Our brain uses emotions to help achieve this purpose. Therefore, when we accomplish something, or something positive or good happens (something that promotes our survival and thriving), our limbic system generates pleasant emotions as a way of reinforcing our behavior to accomplish more or do more of what worked well. 

When something negative happens (something that threatens our survival or thriving), our limbic system generates unpleasant emotions, as a way of either teaching us to avoid those situations, or motivating us to learn to manage those situations differently. 

For example, the joy and happiness that I experience when sharing ice-cream and a good conversation with a friend, motivate me to repeat this behavior again in the future. We of course know that social interaction, and a good social support network is good for us in many ways, not just for the emotions it generates. My brain wants to promote this healthy behavior. 

On the other hand, when I get a bad grade on a test, my limbic system will hopefully generate a little anger or disappointment. My limbic system intends for this unpleasant emotion to motivate me to study harder for the next test, or seek out help from the professor. 

HOWEVER….while this is how it is SUPPOSED to work, we all know that it doesn’t always work this way. Unfortunately, sometimes the limbic system goes haywire, and generates emotions that are inconsistent with whatever is going on in the moment. For example, generating an unpleasant emotion when I am sharing that ice-cream with a friend, or generating fear/anxiety even though there is nothing particularly wrong going on in that particular moment. Or sometimes the right emotion is generated, but to a degree that seems too extreme.

There are many, many reasons for the limbic system generating emotions out of step with whatever is going on in the moment. There can be genetic reasons for this. There can be biochemical reasons (like unbalanced neurotransmitters such as serotonin, or hormonal reasons, such as from a thyroid disorder). Formal disorders, such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and generalized anxiety disorder, all involve a malfunctioning of the limbic system in some way or another: some part of that system is not doing its job correctly. 

Sometimes it is the fact that our mind likes to wander, and what we think about then affects our emotions. I may be watching my child playing his heart out at a ball game, and experiencing an expected pleasant emotion. The very next moment my mind wanders away to a problem at work, and the limbic system immediately generates a feeling of stress. 

Sometimes our limbic system gets into a rut: when many negative events are occurring frequently in life (as in when life is more stressful), the limbic system gets into the habit of generating those (appropriate) unpleasant emotions, to the point that when something good happens, the limbic system has kind of forgotten how to generate the pleasant emotions. 

This is turning out to be a long post. So let me finish up here with a few summarizing ideas.

1. The brain is designed to generate both pleasant and unpleasant emotions.
2. Pleasant and unpleasant emotions both have a purpose: to influence our behavior in some way that will help promote our survival.
3. Emotional health involves our limbic system generating emotions that are consistent with whatever is going on in the moment. 
4. Unfortunately, for many different reasons, the limbic system malfunctions and at times generates emotions that are out of sync, or inconsistent with whatever is going on in the moment.   


In future posts I will write about dealing with “limbic system malfunctions.” 


I am sure that I have explained myself 100% clearly (yeah right). Please comment below if something I have written doesn’t make sense and I will be happy to clarify. I look forward to reading any comments, agreements, new insights, or even disagreements that you may have.


Thanks for reading.