Over the past few years, the harsh news that has landed on us from different parts of the world may have overturned our previous preconceptions.
Unbearable atrocities reported in the news have broken our hearts, upended our minds, and attacked our faith in humanity, possibly adding to a sense of helplessness. Irrational violence seems to dominate in a world that is being reshaped before our eyes, leaving few people unaffected by what is going on around them.
All this is adding to the stress that many of us experience on a day-to-day basis, possibly pushing some to lose their mental balance. We are asked to retain our calm, reasonableness, and readiness to listen to each other in a world that does not seem to value these things, and this can have a profound impact on our psychological wellbeing.
Some people may become more easily provoked as a result of the surrounding atmosphere, while others may even become desperate or show diminished or blunted reactions. They may lose their previously decent manners and lose the ability adequately to express their emotions or sympathy for others, a situation that psychologists may diagnose as a failure to cope with the stresses affecting them.
Coping refers to the process by which we attempt to manage the stress that the modern world causes. There are two main types, problem-focused and emotion-focused. The latter appears to be easier to adopt, and it may also seem to succeed more quickly, especially when the stressors seem uncontrollable and not readily solved.
However, in emotion-focused coping the core of a problem is merely touched upon. Accompanying negative feelings are dealt with either through physical effort or in such a way that they become less annoying. People might tell themselves that a lost chance was not really important, for example, or that a broken friendship was not a sincere one and that they did not really want to continue it.
They might also say, in response to the news, that the genocide reported on television is far away and nothing to do with them. They might say that a danger is far from their home and therefore that they don’t have to deal with it. They may resolve conflicts by redirecting anger or frustration towards false targets. They may deny truths that are inconvenient.
It is little wonder that this form of emotion-focused coping is often useful and relaxing. By relying on it, we can become more resilient and even “wiser” in some ways. It offers an elegant, low-cost, and apparently effective solution at minimum risk. However, it may not constitute an ideal choice.
By changing our perceptions and transforming our feelings life can seem to be better. However, of course the surrounding environment remains the same. The problems are still there, and the pressures are only likely to increase if they are not removed. While we can deal with ourselves in this way, we cannot deal with the issues that menace our peace and security.
Long term, emotional coping of this sort could even be described as a form of self-manipulation in which perceptions are distorted to meet psychological requirements. This can simply mean freezing the situation.
Our wish to improve the world in which we live and to make a difference to the circumstances in which we exist is liable to evaporate once we feel satisfied as a result of manipulating our emotions in this way, causing us to neglect our real problems. Pain, suffering, and unpleasant feelings can in fact be excellent motivators to take a forward step, to face threats, and to resolve complicated issues instead of avoiding them.
A problem-focused coping strategy, rather than an emotion-focused one, can look like a difficult choice. However, it is one that may in the long term do more to meet our targets. Although we may be defeated some of the time, the consequences of this strategy can be longer-lasting.
* The writer is a psychiatrist, artist, and human rights activist.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 10 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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