LETTER: Recognize emotional manipulation for what it is

It’s so easy to get “riled up” these days. Actually, it seems to be the new “normal.” If we’re not upset, angry, afraid, or indignant about something, we might be accused of being apathetic or “out of the loop” or heaven forbid, that we just don’t know better.

It feels good to be agitated, at least at first. Emotions accompany chemicals in our bloodstream that make us feel a heightened sense of awareness. Being upset, or moved, or agitated can make us feel more alive. Temporarily. But the downside of any chemical high is the inevitable plunge we experience afterward, the emotional hangover. After a while, we discover we can avoid such unpleasantness if we just stay “up there” but, as with anything else, we find it takes more and more stimulation to remain in the same emotionally charged place. Eventually, our bodies cry, “Uncle!” and collapse. Exhaustion arrives and stays on like an unwelcome houseguest. We become cynical zombies moving mechanically through our day.

Huge sums of money have been and continue to be invested in keeping us charged. When we’re charged we don’t think straight, we react, we’re more open to suggestion, we tend to do things, buy things, say things, vote for things that we would not once the emotional response has run its course.

The strongest motivators are fear and anger. Cousin to these two are greed and the need to feel important. Consider this experiment. For the next 24 hours, pay attention to every headline, newscast, advertisement, and Facebook or Twitter entry. Suspend your immediate reaction for a moment, and look behind the curtain. What are “they” trying to make you feel? What do “they” want you to do? Are you being emotionally manipulated? Chances are very good you are.

Scary headlines say, “Buy me!” Fear-filled broadcasts say, “You can’t live a grown up life without tuning in the moment you wake up.” Advertisements say, “You will be seen as important when you own or use this car, watch, deodorant, handbag...” Politicians say, “Unless you vote for me, your children will suffer!” “If you love America, you’ll do this…”

Ask yourself. But is this true? Is this REALLY true? Chances are good it’s not true. Chances are good your chain is being pulled and it’s not for your own good either. Nothing of the sort. Rest assured someone other than you would benefit from your actions taken in an emotional flurry. And the ones that claim the loudest that your best interests are at heart should be the most suspect.

So why am I writing this to you? What do I want? I want you to stop for a moment and do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just stop and let whatever emotions that flared up in response to the entity currently yelling at you to calm back down. The world will not end. Recognize emotional manipulation for what it is, then step back. Gather your thoughts. Let the good in you prevail. Decide what is truly important to you, not to everyone else, but to you. Then gather your strength, calmly and mindfully and choose your next action, the one that will be the first step on your thousand mile journey to making our country and our world a truly better place, a place where fear, anger, and manipulation are recognized as the destructive agents they really are.

Dr. Susan Petro is a Santa Rosa Beach resident.