We have all been frustrated at some point in our lives. It is a common emotion but it is not easy to tolerate and if it is not understood, it can negatively affect people's lives. Frustration appears as a feeling when a person cannot satisfy a need or desire. When this happens, the person may become angry, anxious, or very negative.
It is important that people are able to assume that frustration is common because you cannot always achieve everything you want, no matter how much you want. It is necessary to accept the discrepancy between what you want and what you can have, or rather, between the ideal and the real. The problem does not lie in what happens through experiences, but in the way in which the person receives these circumstances.
Low tolerance for frustration
Both adults and children can suffer from a low tolerance for frustration. In fact, in children it is quite common to talk about these terms when the little ones are not able to accept what happens to them willingly. It is as if children have to innately accept the things they do not like, and if they do not, it is because they have a low tolerance for frustration.
In the adult world, it is more or less the same, what happens is that an attempt is made to perceive the world in a more rational way, so the subjects are not always willing to accept that they may have a low tolerance for frustration when they do not accept that their interests or wishes cannot be fulfilled.
When a person expresses his frustration in a negative way and does not channel this emotion correctly, that is when low frustration tolerance appears. Today this happens more often because we are used to immediacy, consumerism and materialism. These three factors incapacitate us emotionally in many ways.
A person who has a low tolerance for abduction has a rigid and inflexible mind, making him or her unable to adapt well to changing circumstances unless anticipated well enough. Usually these people tend to suffer quite emotionally. They feel sad or angry when their high expectations or unrealistic thoughts are not met.
Signs that frustration is not well tolerated
Maybe you think you tolerate frustration well but you really don't, or maybe you want to know if you or someone you know might have a low tolerance for frustration. There are some characteristics or signs that help you know if you really can have a greater tolerance for frustration, or not. Some of these signs are:
- Difficulty understanding your own emotions
- Difficulty understanding the emotions of others
- Impulsiveness
- Impatience
- Demanding with oneself and with others
- They want to get rid of necessities immediately
- If they have to wait for something they get angry
- You can develop anxiety depression in the face of conflicts or obstacles in life
- They think they are the center of the world
- Extremist thinking with no middle ground
- They gined easy in the face of difficulties
- Emotional manipulation
Causes
Normally, the low tolerance to frustration or the little capacity for emotional control in the face of unsatisfied desires tend to resist because of a poor emotional education in childhood. It may also be because they were not taught to wait in childhood or that as children, they received all the whims they wanted. Responsibilities were not taught nor was work on emotional intelligence. There are also other possible causes:
- Temperament
- Social conditions
- Not being able to express yourself emotionally
- Poor self control
- Distortion of reality
- Impatience
Fight low tolerance frustration
There are many examples that you can find on a daily basis where low tolerance for frustration should work, for example: when someone lies to you, when promises are not kept, when there is a disaster in the kitchen, when you fail an exam, when you cannot find what you want, when there are changes in plans at the last minute, when you miss an opportunity, when the food in a restaurant is bad, etc. The list can be endless…
Sometimes, in the most extreme cases than possible, therapy with a professional is needed to be able to find emotional and cognitive strategies necessary to be able to have a better ability to cope with situations of frustration. But if you are aware of your problem and want to try to increase your tolerance for frustration on your own, you may be able to do so by keeping the following tips in mind.
- It's all in your head. You need to learn to differentiate your desires from your needs.
- Accept that you can't always have everything you want.
- They work on emotional skills, empathy and assertiveness to stop responding with an explosion of feelings to an unmet need or an unfulfilled desire.
- Stop being afraid of failure
- Work patience
- Remember that in life you have to make mistakes in order to learn and move forward.
- Meditate and work on inner calm in times of stress.
- Find moments of relaxation during the day to improve your emotional balance.
- Make simple decisions every day.
- Set yourself reasonable goals to achieve on a daily basis.
- Focus on your relaxation if you don't achieve those goals, and think about how you can address them in the future.
- Change your way of thinking, work on positive thinking!
- Ask yourself every now and then: what's the worst that could happen? how can I solve it?
If you have found that you have a problem with frustration, you need to address that problem as soon as possible. Otherwise, you could start to have problems with both your close personal relationships and your professional relationships. It is necessary for anyone to learn to fight adversity effectively, working relaxation and inner peace.
If you do not treat this emotional problem, it could worsen and manifest itself in other disorders or diseases and impulsive behaviors. In this sense, it is very important that if you are not able to work through the frustration on your own, you go to a professional to guide you and give you the necessary guidelines to achieve it.