Are You Too Self-Aware?

In all areas of life, there can be too much of a good thing. When it comes to some aspects of our mental health, this can also apply. If we think about it, there are many benefits to being self-aware. It can help us assess our needs, articulate our feelings, and address certain mental health symptoms. However, too much awareness can keep us in a holding pattern where we may be diving deeper and deeper, but are unable to see change. 

Sometimes it can be helpful to think of it like a car. We can read a user manual, understand how cars work, and research the history of cars, but that doesn’t mean that we are comfortable with driving. Mental health is similar. We can read about it, understand how our brain works, research the history of mental health, and that still doesn’t mean we will be able to implement change or health coping skills. 

A lot of this is rooted in avoidance of feelings. But how could that be? If we are knowledgeable about mental health, doesn’t that mean that we are engaging with our thoughts? While that is partially true, more often than not, people are often thinking of their feelings instead of actually feeling them. When we feel our feelings, we want to remember that it means we will engage in all body sensations that accompany those feelings without trying to justify, judge, or contextualize them yet. What we are referring to, is known as intellectualization. Which is exactly how it sounds. Intellectualization is a defense mechanism that uses logic and reasoning in order to distance oneself from being uncomfortable. This usually results in an individual using facts and information instead of labeling and addressing their underlying feelings. 

If we go back to self-awareness, we can almost consider a surplus as a form of intellectualizing. If we are limiting ourselves to the ‘what’ is happening with my mental health, and ‘why’ it is happening, we might be gaining more insight, but we are limiting ourselves when it comes to addressing the emotion that the ‘what’ and ‘why’ is causing us. If this goes too long, we can end up unintentionally suppressing our feelings, which will inevitably have its own ripple effect in our life. 

It is important to differentiate between healthy intellectualization and unhealthy intellectualization.

Unhealthy intellectualization might sound like:

• Only addressing facts

• Needing to appear as calm

• Unable to articulate/refusing to acknowledge how you felt while recounting something emotional. 

• Believing emotions can be explained away from reasoning

• Feeling lost in your thoughts and detached

• Not addressing physical effects of feelings

  
  

While healthy intellectualization might sound like:

• Addressing facts AND feelings

• Showing how you feel externally

• Taking stock of what is happening in the body as well as in our mind

• Having insight into when there has been too much intellectualization

• Using reason and facts to help expand on feelings instead of using it to explain the feeling away

• Knowing that feelings need to be acknowledged and will not go away on their own

  
  

It can be helpful to start bringing awareness to how you are talking and thinking about your feelings when learning about your mental health. If you are diving into materials to explain away your feelings, this might be a sign that you could benefit from walking through your feelings with a mental health professional. While there are always benefits of being knowledgeable we want to be mindful of when we are engaging in too much of a good thing.