Emotional Sensitivity Vs Emotional Fragility : How to cope?

I'd like to open up the discussion for emotional sensitivity and emotional fragility.

Although I don't agree with everything in this article*, in particular the overall tone. I do agree with the opening distinction of emotional fragility as follows:


"Emotional fragility is extremely different from emotional sensitivity. Sensitivity is more of a quality you might have. Meanwhile, fragility is more of a lack of resources for managing your most complex internal states. In other words, fragility means having a lot of trouble confronting even the simplest daily hardships."

As for me, I am emotionally sensitive pretty much all the time, but sometimes I am emotionally fragile. I am looking for what causes the changeover into emotional fragility. What are the triggers? And how to cope... What are your thoughts? How do you experience it and how do you cope?

I would say that, in my case, the fragility involves fear and anxiety. I have GAD, along with major depression with psychotic features and some OCD. And I find when I'm fragile, I fear for the future as I don't know how to cope.

Let's talk...


*The article is found at the below link. It's not necessary to read the article to participate in the conversation. Anyhow, it is incomplete, in my opinion. Again I do not agree with its tone, in particular what I see as victim blaming/shaming. So Trigger Warning.
Emotional Fragility: The Keys to Understanding and Strengthening Your Ego

I'm glad you expressed a critique of the article referenced. The writer is on to something valid, I believe, in distinguishing emotional fragility from emotional sensitivity. I think it's also valid to say that sometimes people mix up the two and incorrectly rationalize their fragility, by seeing it as a natural outcome of emotional sensitivity, which it is not. Beyond that, though, this psychologist has written a pretty confused article. She's just not a good writer, for one thing. I'm inclined to doubt that she has great prowess as a psychologist either, for some of the same reasons you've mentioned.

She makes some errors of logic. For some individuals, emotional fragility is a chronic part of their mental makeup. As she says, they lack internal resources. They are not well adapted to coping with the rigors of life. However, anyone can experience going through a time of emotional fragility. Anyone can be in a circumstance where they are unusually stressed and don't cope as well as they usually do. This is why we offer special support to the recently bereaved. We expect that they are fragile for awhile.

I would agree that it's not good to be fragile in the face of every stressor all the time. That would meet my definition of immaturity. I don't mean that harshly. There is apt to be a truly sad story underlying an individual's failure to mature. It's not always because that person was spoiled by their parents. Some children are woefully under-indulged, which can easily be as destructive as being over-indulged. It may seem that we see more of the latter than of the former, but I've seen both.

You make some good points, Rose76: the psychologist's writing is poor and her stance is most probably reflected in her work.

I'm going to think about this subject more. There's definitely something here for me to explore in greater depth.

TheGal - thanks for getting thiz article. I enjoyed reading it and other articles at the website.