Unpacking Neuroticism: Understanding and Managing Your Inner Demons

Ayeshmanthi Dissanayake
3 min readMar 16, 2023

Each one of us has different personalities. I am sure you already know what type of personality you have. (Personality is defined as the character sets of behaviors cognitions and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors) you are. Sometimes you may have taken different types of personality tests from the internet. Neuroticism is also one of the big five personality traits.

Traits are characteristic patterns of a person. Big five personality traits include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (its the tendency to experience negative emotions and more intense emotional reactions to threatening or frustrating situations)

Research says getting high scores in personality traits are a good sign. High scores mean better outcomes, such as position emotions, better relationships. On the other hand, high neuroticism tends to put us at risk of physical and mental health issues. Experts say neuroticism could be passed genetically. It makes you overall an unhappy person. This particular trait is not easy to change, but it may change with time and age with a great amount of effort.

How to say no to neuroticism

Therapy

This is considered one of the most effective ways to reduce neuroticism. A person who faces therapy needs to make specific thought patterns, relationships, lifestyle factors, and sometimes medicine.

Taking some deep breaths

When you feel you can not control your emotions any more. Take a moment to take some deep breaths. This will make a significant impact even though you feel like it’s a small step. Pausing for a while and taking your mind away from the incident itself make your mind calm.

Be mindful

Knowing what disturbs you is an essential factor. What makes you anxious. Knowing how you act in a situation, how you feel about your reactions. Taking time to think about these facts and improving your behaviour in these particular areas will make you stay more relaxed in stressful events.

Practice self-acceptance

Be kind to yourself and appreciate that you are trying. Loving your self has a significant impact on self-image and improvements. Understand that you are human, and you are born to make mistakes. So always love and learn about yourself for a better you.

Exercise

This would help you in great ways by producing good hormones. These hormones (serotonin and endorphins) help you reduce your neurotransmitters to boost your mood. Also, there are a lot of benefits cause exercise would structural changes in the brain. Which would give you the chance to be less sensitive to stress.

Proper diet

Psychology experts are more into the research findings of food. It found that your diet is directly connected with your mental health. Providing a healthy diet increased people’s mood and reduced symptoms of depression. Also, including magnesium-rich food in the diet would help improve positive health conditions.

You can always practice the above methods to be less neurotic. This particular condition can be reduced even when it seems impossible to change. With an incredible amount of patience and practice, it’s possible. Its also evident that you will see a reduction of neuroticism with age.

--

--

Ayeshmanthi Dissanayake

Empowering through writing, freelancing, and counseling. Passionate about personal development, relationships, and psychology.