Annoyance is a negative emotion that tells us we should avoid a particular situation, activity, or person. Annoyance is a weak signal of pain that can turn into full-blown anger if the thing annoying us doesn’t stop or go away. Avoiding people, things, and activities that annoy us brings relief, fulfilling the purpose of annoyance. …
Emotion is one of the most complex, highly-debated topics in psychology. Even after decades of research, there still isn’t a consensus on what constitutes an emotion. You can’t define what you can’t clearly understand. As a result, there’s no universal definition of emotion.1 Still, a definition we can work with would be: Emotions are signals …
Trauma usually occurs in response to a seriously threatening event. Trauma is likely to happen when stress is intense or chronic, and a person cannot cope with that stress. Humans, like other animals, have three main responses to threats or stressful events: When we fight or take flight in response to a stressor, the event …
A trauma bond gets formed in abusive relationships and can be mistaken for love. It’s a deep emotional attachment that a victim of abuse develops to the abuser. In this article, we’ll look at critical points of difference between a trauma bond and authentic love. Abusive relationships don’t tend to be 100% abusive. If they …
“Why does my husband hate me so much?”“Why does my husband hate me all of a sudden?” If questions like these are doing rounds in your head, it’s time to step back and analyze what’s going on. There are two possibilities: You’re wrong in thinking your husband hates you (more likely) You’re right in thinking …
Sibling relationships are a fascinating mix of love, care, rivalry, and jealousy. Siblings compete with each other for parental resources so they can ensure their survival. But they also have a desire to care for and help each other because they share 50% of their genes with one another. Consequently, the type of relationship you …
We’re hard-wired to seek connection with our closest genetic relatives- our family members. The more family members connect with each other and help each other, the greater the chances of their gene pool to survive and reproduce. In other words, there’s an in-built expectation in all of us to get help and support from our …
Jealousy, like other social emotions such as guilt, embarrassment, and shame, is a complex emotion. People get jealous differently, to varying degrees, and respond to it in a variety of ways.1 Researchers have defined jealousy in numerous ways. I like to keep things simple. Long story short, jealousy is triggered by two situations: When someone …
Anger is an emotion that gets triggered when we feel threatened. The threat could be real or perceived. We’re always angry with an object- another person, a life situation, or even ourselves. Anger varies in intensity. Some events only trigger mild annoyance in us, while others cause us to explode. The more our core biological …
Jealousy in romantic relationships is common and natural. Once you’ve attracted a mate, you want to retain them. So, any indication that your partner may leave you for someone else is bound to trigger jealousy. Another kind of jealousy is also common in relationships but doesn’t get talked about much. It’s when a person feels …