Frustration

The human being constantly strives to establish a satisfactory relationship with the environment. Try to meet their needs to live happily and function effectively. But sometimes, the process to achieve the balance between the relationship with the environment and mental health is not easy, since it cannot always satisfy your needs, because in the real world there are different setbacks and unforeseen events, which sometimes, you do not allow you to achieve your goals or cause changes in plans.

The different obstacles or unforeseen events that create a barrier between what you want to achieve and what is actually achieved, sometimes generates an emotion with feelings of helplessness , anger and sadness, this emotion is known as frustration.

What is frustration?

Frustration is an emotional response that occurs in situations in which the subject feels blocked and outraged at not being able to achieve a desired goal. In general, each time we achieve one of our goals, we feel pleased and content, and each time we fail to achieve our goals, we can succumb to frustration and feel irritable, upset, and angry. 

As children we begin to react to this feeling that generates an inner discomfort. In the first instance, when the child begins to feel frustration – from the first year of life – for objectives that he cannot achieve, he feels powerless, he does not understand why this is happening to him, how can it be that there is something that he cannot achieve; These feelings generate negative emotions such as anger, disappointment, and anguish in the child,  but in this way they begin to understand that not everything is possible and that you do not always get what you want.

Determinants of frustration: internal and external factors

Failure to achieve the objectives may be conditioned by internal or external factors.

Internal factors result from the disappointment that occurs in the subject when he cannot achieve what he wants due to real or imagined personal causes, such as lack of self-confidence or fear of certain types of social situations . Another type of internal frustration occurs when a person has conflicting goals that interfere with each other.  The internal conflicts of the individual are another source of frustration, as the mind is divided against itself.

The external factors that provoke a state of frustration in the individual, involve conditions outside the person, such as physical blockages that get in the way, these can include other people or things that get in the way of the desired objectives.

Frustration tolerance

Since many of the things we really want require a degree of frustration, being able to handle frustration is necessary for us to remain positive , even in difficult circumstances.

Every subject has a certain type of tolerance for frustration. This tolerance decreases in the face of repeated frustrating episodes or in the presence of people who generate high levels of frustration in the individual; For this reason, it is important to begin to manage tolerance to frustration at an early age.

When a child stumbles and his father quickly goes to help him, he loses his ability to cope with the feeling of frustration that was generated by the fall. He himself needs to know that he can do it, that he can get up, move on and leave what happened behind him, that is why we must let the child – if he wishes – take charge of that situation.

Poorly tolerated frustration tends to be toxic for those who present it and for those who accompany them , since it causes an accumulation of resentment that can be unleashed under any circumstance. Generally, people who have a low tolerance for frustration have negative emotions , become pessimistic, close their minds and refuse to give or give a new opportunity.

Emotions and feelings that accompany frustration

• Go to
• Irritability
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Resentment
• Disappointment
• Resignation
• Emotional insecurity
• Hopelessness
• Pessimism
• Willpower -high or low-
• Impotence
• Disappointment
• Anguish
• Low self-esteem
• Lack of self-confidence

Anger ya frustration

Some people often confuse the two terms, using them interchangeably and incorrectly. Although they are similar, they can be the result of different causes and they can also cause different responses. Frustration rarely causes as profound an effect as anger, considering the latter as one of the strongest and most powerful emotions .

Anger and frustration can be very similar in some respects, since they are considered negative emotions. But unlike anger – which can lead to violent reactions – frustration can make the individual feel upset and vulnerable, but it rarely leads to physical violence out of frustration.

Probably if a person tends to suffer constant anger or suffers from intermittent explosive disorder , they will present more episodes of frustration; in these cases, frustration could be a trigger for physical violence.

How to learn to handle frustration?

In order to ensure that frustration does not take over our mind,  it has to be controlled and channeled in a positive way . You must have a certain capacity to be able to differentiate the real from the ideal.

To achieve a good tolerance for frustration, you must realize that the idyllic will not always become real, focus on the here and now, and look for feasible ways to achieve your goals.

A good way to control frustration is with relaxation exercises , where breathing plays a very important role in disconnecting those negative emotions that arise with frustration.

Relax, breathe, fill our minds with positive thoughts , breathe again and let negative thoughts and emotions drift away little by little.

Frustration is a natural reaction of our mind, therefore we must let it flow and handle it as such , because trying to suppress or ignore it only generates more accumulated frustration.