Is Pessimism Considered a Mental Illness?
In your life, have you ever been called a Negative Nelly? How about Sunshine Susan? Lonely Lisa? Joyous Jacob?
The latter three are just inventions of a creative mind, but the first one is actually a moniker given to someone who has a pessimistic outlook in life. One who’s negative behavior casts a gloomy cloud in a group. One who expects the worst case scenario to always happen.
And while this is not an entirely accurate description of what a pessimist is, the more glaring issue is how does a pessimist fare against its polar opposite counterpart, the optimist.
Even if you don’t want to, you can’t really help pitting these two behaviors against each other. And for certain people always identify with either of the two personalities, often claiming that “I’m more of a pessimist” or “I’m fairly optimistic about the situation”.
A question emerged before among the psychology industry on identifying pessimism, and even optimism, as a mental illness. Thorough studies proved otherwise, meaning they aren’t classified as such. However, they can cause significant and consequential, even damaging effects in our mental health.
Pessimism: The Downside
Usually, I don’t agree with simplifying definitions especially when it relates to human behavior and well-being, but for brevity’s sake let’s try to narrow down a pessimist and an optimist.
Pessimists focus on the downside, while optimists tend to look on the bright side.
Pessimists are naturally negative, while optimists are inherently positive. In any given situation, a pessimist looks at the bad. Conversely, an optimist always looks for the silver lining.
Medically speaking, having a negative mindset and attitude will hurt you in the short-term and the long-term. It has been said that every thought we have modifies the make of our brains and affects the chemical balance of our bodies.
Consistently harboring negative thoughts impacts our future thoughts, words, and most especially our behavior. Cynicism prevents a person from asking others for help, leading to isolation which is never a good sign for one’s mental well-being.
This is why it’s understandable that most of us are afraid to go down the path of pessimism because it’s usually a lonely and murky road.
Pessimism revolves around ruminating over negative thoughts. Studies have shown that this kind of mental approach to life can damage your brain. What’s worse is that it can lead to the development of depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions.
Society has long condemned pessimistic personalities. Ideally, you are expected to always be a ball of fire or a ray of sunshine in your family, community, school, or workplace. Note the word expected though, as this is far from plausible.
Even if you aren’t really a pessimistic person, there are going to be days when you feel pessimistic.
Both Have Drawbacks, Believe It Or Not
This might be shocking for you to read, but it’s not only pessimism that has a negative mental impact on a person. Optimism has its fair share of disadvantages as well.
In fact, scholarly studies have almost gone to the conclusion that both pessimism and optimism might be symptoms of a deeper mental illness. Although this is yet to be claimed or proven, it’s important to note that going to either extreme can be harmful to a person.
Finding the Right Balance is Key (Like the Jedis Do It!)
I’m not a Star Wars fanatic but I do appreciate the concept behind “the force”. In the popular and world-changing franchise, the force is a ubiquitous power that is wielded by a person to control the light side and the dark side.
In the same vein, we also have that “force” with us to control our positive and negative thoughts. It’s about finding the right balance between having the bright energy of optimism but also preparing for what may go wrong, as pessimists do.
It’s healthy to have attributes and personality traits that are often associated with both pessimism and optimism. Being critical is often viewed pessimistically while having faith and hope are considered optimistic. Both qualities, if managed or “wielded” successfully, will enable us to be the best versions of ourselves.
It is certainly a challenge for us to not just totally accept our inherent way of thinking. What’s important is that we are able to manage, balance, and take control of them by carefully processing our thoughts and emotions. By doing so, we’ll be able to act properly based on the situation at hand.
