According to NAMI, 51.5 million adults struggle with mental illness each year.
Adults who struggle with depression are at a 40% higher risk for developing heart disease than adults without a mental illness. This is why taking care of your mental health is as important as attending to your physical health.
If you’ve struggled with emotional hijacking, you want to know what you can do to handle things better. Keep reading to learn some tips on how to stop emotional hijacking.
How to Stop Emotional Hijacking From Taking Over Your Life
Start With a Pause
Emotional hijacking occurs when your mind and body react to a trigger by entering fight or flight mode even when there’s no real danger. This can affect your relationships and other aspects of your life.
The first thing you have to do to gain freedom from hijacked emotions is to pause and take a step back. Taking a deep breath allows you to gather yourself and control your emotional response.
Recognize the Feelings
After taking a moment to re-center yourself, it’s important to recognize what you’re feeling. Taking a few moments to think about what you’re feeling allows you to escape the flight or fight mode and can help to pull you out of an emotional state.
Having to acknowledge what you’re feeling is a great way to recognize what triggers certain emotions. This practice can better prepare you to confront what you once thought impossible.
Ask Questions
Emotional hijacking in relationships is a common occurrence. Navigating someone else’s point of view and opinions can lead to distraught conversations when you don’t see eye to eye.
One way to stop this emotional hijacking is to ask questions. Trying to understand why someone else feels the way they do can calm an emotional situation. Speaking from a judgment-free place will also allow everyone to feel safe opening up.
Change Your Location
You can stop an emotional hijacking by getting up and walking away from the situation or conversation.
Literally taking a step back can help you process your feelings and come back to the conversation with a more clear perspective of what you’re feeling and why.
When you feel yourself having an overwhelming reaction, you can go outside for a walk to help clear your mind and help you think rationally again.
Ask for Help
If you’re still wondering how to stop emotional hijacking, asking for help is a big part of it. If you’re in a constant state of emotional distress, it’s really easy to retreat into yourself and feel alone.
Seeking help from a counselor can help you learn how to manage your feelings healthily. Whether you’re looking for anger management certified counselors or you want to learn some tools for managing anger for yourself, there are resources out there.
Stop Emotional Hijacking With These Tips
Stopping emotional hijacking doesn’t have to be difficult if you follow some of the tips in the guide above. Taking a step back when you feel yourself in an emotionally hard situation and looking for professional help are key.
Make sure to check out some of the other health and wellness blogs on our site.
