Anhedonia is a reduced ability or inability to derive pleasure from activities from which you previously derived pleasure. It has two main types: 1. Physical anhedonia It’s the inability to derive pleasure from stimulating one or more of the five senses. For example, you may no longer find foods pleasurable that you previously found pleasurable. …
The terms ‘enmeshment’ and ‘codependency’ are often used together and sometimes interchangeably. That’s because the two concepts are closely related. Even though enmeshment and codependency are overlapping concepts, they have subtle but important differences. Enmeshment Enmeshment occurs when two or more people in a relationship setting, like a family, have a single, unified identity, which …
Thoughts can be conscious (voluntary) or subconscious (involuntary). If I ask you to solve a math problem, you’ll use your reasoning or conscious thought. The same is true for goal-setting, planning, and decision-making. All these require conscious thought. Conscious thoughts that arise from the conscious mind are a recent evolutionary phenomenon. The conscious mind is …
Overstimulation, or sensory overload, is when the sensory information you receive from one or more of your senses exceeds the information processing capacity of your brain. Our brains have a limited capacity to process sensory information. Processing sensory information consumes mental energy and bandwidth. The brain does what it can to conserve energy. It’s designed …
Have you ever wondered why the same situation affects different people differently? For instance, you may be able to handle rejection well, but your friend gets depressed and loses sleep over it. While humans have many genetically programmed universal behaviors, it’s not just our genes that program us. The environment in which we’re raised also …
The purpose of emotions is to motivate us to take action. Therefore, you can use emotions if you want to make someone do something. Nothing drives human action like emotion. Emotional manipulation means using emotions to make someone do something that is not in their best interests but in the best interests of the manipulator. …
Aggression is any behavior intended to harm others. The harm can be physical or psychological. Here, the key word is ‘intended’ because unintended harm is not aggression. For instance, accidental harm like hitting someone with your car is not aggression. Punching someone definitely is. It gets blurry and controversial when we talk about the different …
The famous psychologist Erik Erikson came up with the stages of psychosocial development. The gist of his theory is that as we progress through life, from the day we’re born to the day we die, we go through some developmental stages. There’s a challenge to overcome in each of these stages, a conflict to resolve. …
Relationships are complicated. If you think quantum mechanics is complex, wait till you get into a relationship. When two minds collide and enter into a relationship, all sorts of chain reactions get triggered. It’s not just two minds colliding; it’s a collision of intentions, perceptions, misperceptions, assumptions, interpretations, misinterpretations, and behaviors. A mishmash of these …
A person suffering from Entitled Dependence Syndrome depends on others in an exaggerated way. The key phrase here is ‘exaggerated’ because humans, being social species, are by nature dependent on other humans. However, when this dependency crosses a certain threshold, it turns into entitled dependence. Humans tend to form reciprocal relationships with others, meaning their …