Anxiety, Depression and Trauma-Related Disorders are all various forms of neuroticism?

Speakeasy76

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-new-home/202111/new-way-treating-anxiety-depression-and-trauma

I saw this article the other day on Psychology.com and found it very interesting as someone who has had periods of anxiety, probably since childhood really. My 12-year old son also definitely has and is being treated for it, as well.

Basically, the theory is that whose who have "emotional-related disorders" like depression, anxiety and even OCD all share the common trait of neuroticism. If you're like me and hear this word, my mind automatically equated it with "crazy." However, what it actually means is the tendency to have frequent, strong reactions to stressful events and that these emotions are out of their control and unpredictable. People with this trait tend to avoid stressful situations and emotions any way they can through typically maladaptive behaviors so as to avoid uncomfortable feelings as much as possible. It's this continuous cycle of avoiding these behaviors that leads to not learning how to deal with them or even recognize them appropriately. Not experiencing them and/or learning that one can in fact appropriately deal with and overcome negative emotions doesn't challenge the fallacy that these emotions are out of our control.

I will say that I tend not to stress over things that I feel are out of my control, like the reports on the omnicron variant. It's things that are more personable to me that I feel like I do have some level of control over are the things with which I experience the most anxiety. However, I think it's really a deep down sense that I will screw things up somehow or did screw something up, something will go wrong, and just general sense of inadequacy. I have food for quite some time to literally and figuratively stuff negative emotions, and didn't realize I was doing it for a long time. Sometimes, I would actually start to really go off the deep end with bingeing because I felt guilty for eating the food, so would continue to eating to try and get rid of those feelings.

I have been on Lexapro for the past 16 months, and feel that I am now able to learn how to just recognize and sit with uncomfortable feelings. For example, the other day I was starting to feel overwhelmed with all I had to do. Normally, I would try to distract myself and even NOT do the things. I took a second to realize I was feeling overwhelmed and that it was ok. I have never not gotten the things that I really need to do done, and it's ok to let some things slide.

Are you someone who has used this "avoidant coping" technique with food/overeating to help avoid feeling uncomfortable feelings?

AKTipsyCat

Yes. Most of my life. I dig myself out just enough to think I've past the hurdle - and then life happens and I find myself at square one.