How to Overcome Frustration;

What is Frustration?

Frustration is known to be the feeling that overwhelms you when you can not do something or achieve something, and at the moment you feel annoyed, irritated, and upset. It is also said to be the prevention or delay of a particular event about to happen, be it emotional or physical. It ends up leaving you very bitter and angry. Frustration often leaves the groundwork for various mental disorders.

 

Ways to Coping with Frustration

Life is packed with feelings of frustration. Starting from the small annoyance of losing something to the biggest irritation of constant failure towards a desired destination. The majority of the goals we truly have cravings for require a level of healthy frustration, being able to understand and manage frustration is needed in order to allow us to remain joyous and affirmative even in challenging times.

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What is Frustration?

Frustration is known to be the feeling that overwhelms you when you can not do something or achieve something, and at the moment you feel annoyed, irritated, and upset. It is also said to be the prevention or delay of a particular event about to happen, be it emotional or physical. It ends up leaving you very bitter and angry. Frustration often leaves the groundwork for various mental disorders.

Where does frustration come from?

There are various sources of frustration but they can be divided into two major parts:-

Internal Sources:

When you are unable to achieve your motive, you feel disappointed and frustrated in your own self. It is possible that you could not give your best because of some irrational fear or due to the loss of self-esteem and confidence. What so ever it may be, it leaves you to feel disheartened and exasperated.

External Sources:

Many times, the sources of frustration is made up of the circumstances you face outside yourself, from your surroundings. People, places, things that stop you from reaching out to your goal can be included in such. It could be said that the main source of frustration is the wastage of time. We’re all used to working in our own daily routines, and we’re all used to the mutual feeling of frustration that overwhelms us when precious time is wasted due to traffic, roadblocks, waiting in line at stores only to later find out what you wanted isn’t available.

Social Media:

I believe that whenever we talk about a mentally affecting issue, we should always keep social media in mind. Even though social media has connected all of us, we cannot ignore the negative impact it had on our lives. Frustration is often caused when we see people doing things that we are unable to do. Go out to places where we cannot go. We also feel the differences between us, such as class differences, color differences, religious differences, etc. And hence, we are left with a feeling of longing, of desperation which causes us to become more and more frustrated.

Signs of Frustration:

People give in to frustration in many ways. Numerous signs can be witnessed in a frustrated individual. A few signs to look out for include:-

1. They give up or quit very easily. And refuse to put up a fight to their challenge because they are just tired of how things have been lately.
2. They lose a sense of self-worth. Their self-esteem becomes really low and they think of themselves as degraded beings.
3. The person gets angry very easily. They feel exasperated. Get moody and sometimes act out in ways that inflict a lot of hate and anger.
4. They experience extreme levels of stress. Often people who are about to face a big challenge in life end up being frustrated in the journey of their preparation for it.
5. They go through feelings of depression, anxiety, extreme sadness, and uncertainty. Such feelings pave the way for serious psychological disorders.

Theory related to Frustration:

• Frustrated – Aggression Theory – This theory of frustration and aggregation implies that aggressive behavior is often the result of frustration. It means that in many cases, these two are linked to each other.

The act of aggression often leads to violence or committing something wrong, that the person did not want to do. It has been one of the lead causes of domestic violence. This theory has been proposed by four psychologists collectively. Neal Miller, John Dollard, Orval Hobart Mowrer, and Robert Scars respectively brought forward this theory in the year 1939.

How Frustration affects our Mental Health:

Frustration is something we all experience. Despite being unpleasant and our reactions being aggressive, frustration in itself is not an illness. But there have been multiple connections between Frustration and mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, psychosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Knowing how frustration affects us, what are its causes, and what is the aftereffect of it, can help us understand the frustration as a whole and we can learn how to overcome it.

Frustration is not a psychiatric diagnosis, but it’s very closely related to your mental well being in two essential ways:

• Frustration can cause mental health problems, and make already existing problems take a turn for the worst. For example, often when we struggle to manage feelings of frustration, we might develop a mental health problem like anxiety or depression.
• Mental health problems can be a cause of frustration as well. You might come across that coping with the daily symptoms of your mental health problem is already too taxing, then possibly there is the need to manage your medication, health care appointments, or treatments of what you are going through, can carry a lot of weight in making you feel frustration and it will cause a lot of stress.

How frustration affects our behavior:

The most common typical reactions to frustration are extreme anger, stress, depression, low self-esteem and confidence, and quitting.

• Anger: Anger or aggression and frustration are closely linked. The frustration-aggression theory is testimony to that. Anger is said to be one of the main results of frustration. You act out, aggressively. It affects our behavior towards others immensely. We become more distant and end up isolating ourselves and go through hard times alone.
• Stress: Stress is also an immediate aftereffect of frustration. Frequently dealing with frustration, mood swings caused by it, and prolonged frustration leads the way for stress. It strains us and distresses our body which leads to our body acting out in various ways.
• Depression: Prolonged periods of experiencing stress and frustration often leads to Depression. You become extremely sad, socially distant, and feel hopeless towards the future. Depression is a very serious mental illness and it affects you in your everyday living. The way you think, the way you process, the way you approach life changes. It becomes a bad phase, and you do not appreciate life for what it is.

How to Overcome Frustration:

• It is impossible to get rid of the frustration completely forever. It is an essential part of the mental process. But the level of extremity you experience it in can be reduced by:-
• Talking about the causes of your frustrations with somebody you trust. Venting out to people who you trust and letting them know what is getting to you instead of lashing out on them has been said to be really useful.
• You can write about it. If you prefer to just keep it to yourself then you can write about it. Letting go of what is frustrating you is helpful.
• Understanding your reason for frustration. If you understand and recognize your frustration and you realize that some things cannot be changed, you would not feel so angry towards the cause.