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Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Good Practice Award for Partnerships

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Personal Emotions

"To me, the most important thing in a person’s recovery process is to know that someone cares for you, someone outside yourself, and that you can care for yourself and that you can love yourself and get over those demons that haunt us all, that drive us crazy.

You have to get up with some love in your heart and you have to be able to know that you can do something that you love. It could be a person, it could be a project, it could be anything."

Often, mental health recovery gives rise to all sorts of emotions. These are some that might be familiar. There is also a situation called emotional intelligence.

• Anger • Bereavement • Envy • Fear •
• Happiness • Hope • Love • Sadness •

Anger - the anger response for many is a physical reaction to a situation. It is a normal human emotion, which can range from mild irritation to full-blown rage. It is an emotion, which often results from us feeling, threatened.

Bereavement - the death of someone who is significant to you is one of the hardest things you will experience in your life. Whether it is expected or a shock, the enormity of loss is something that impacts on you in a very profound way. It is an entirely individual experience. No one can tell you how you will or should feel and everyone grieves in their own special way.

Envy - is the desire for another's traits, status, abilities, station, or worldly goods. It need not be associated with an object; its salient characteristic is the unfavorable comparison of one's own status with that of another.

Fear - is an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, whether it be real or imagined. Fear also can be described as a feeling of extreme dislike to some conditions/objects, such as: fear of darkness, fear of ghosts, etc.

Happiness - pleasure or joy is an emotional or affective state in which we feel good or happy. Overlapping states or experiences include joy, exultation, delight, bliss, and love.

Hope - is a desire for something to happen, while expecting or being confident that it will come true. Hope also implies a certain amount of perseverance, believing that something is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary. Hope may be directed toward something minor or towards something extremely significant.

Love - is essentially an abstract concept, easier to experience than to explain. It can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state. In ordinary use, it usually refers to interpersonal love.

Sadness - people often say they are depressed instead of sad. But sadness is different to depression (which can be medically treated) whereas sadness will take its own natural course. Sadness is part of healing. It allows you to emotionally process any loss, grief, change or disappointment and then move on. If you are depressed, moving on is much harder.

Emotional Intelligence
Exactly what is Emotional Intelligence? The term encompasses the following five characteristics and abilities:

• Self-awareness - knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings as they occur, and discriminating between them
• Mood management - handling feelings so they're relevant to the current situation and you react appropriately
• Self-motivation - "gathering up" your feelings and directing yourself towards a goal, despite self-doubt, inertia, and impulsiveness
• Empathy - recognizing feelings in others and tuning into their verbal and nonverbal cues
• Managing relationships - handling interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and negotiations

For more information on this subject, click here.

Feeling Suicidal? Click here
Or if you would like to talk to someone then call Lifeline, Cambridgeshire's Mental Health telephone help-line, free of charge.
It's open 7pm-11pm, 365 days a year.
Call 0808 808 2121

Last revised 7 May 2007

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