Dealing with the Feeling of Frustration - a practical method

I created a flow chart to illustrate possible ways to deal with the feeling of frustration.

Wikipedia: "In psychology, frustration is a common emotional response to opposition [or unexpected obstacles to goal fulfillment], related to anger, annoyance, and disappointment. Frustration arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of an individual's will or goal and is likely to increase when a will or goal is denied or blocked." (Wikipedia article).

Is the following chart helpful? Is there anything which should be added or changed?

Quote from Matteng

Stoics tend to see the happy life as erasing frustrations ((a)pathe).

What would be the alternative in Epicurus' philosophy?

Here is the Vatican Saying 21:

"Nature must be persuaded, not forced. And we will persuade nature by fulfilling the necessary desires, and the natural desires too if they cause no harm, but sharply rejecting the harmful desires."

For Epicureans it is important to pay attention to needs -- needs of the body and needs for happiness. And to find practical solutions -- by asking "What is in my power to change?"

And in the Letter to Menoeceus: "...keep in mind that some desires are natural whereas others are groundless; that among the natural desires some are natural and necessary whereas others are merely natural; and that among the necessary desires some are necessary for happiness, some for physical health, and some for life itself."

So for practical application, from modern psychology:

Painful emotions and painful feelings are like a warning light that a need of the body or of the soul is not being met, or we are in danger of losing something we believe that we need. The problem being that when we only have one way to meet a need, than we are stuck if we don't get that one way (or can't use that one strategy). So getting unstuck requires us to see other strategies for meeting our needs, as well as making peace with situations in which can't be changed.

Signs that a need is going unmet, or may go unmet in the future:

sadness

frustration

anger

fear

anxiety

worry

Signs that a need is being met effectively:

happy

enthusiastic

thankful

peaceful

satisfied/content

Some universal human needs:

food/water/shelter/clothing

safety/trust

competence/skills

rest/play

belonging/understanding

respect/consideration

autonomy/choice

etc.

I haven't yet studied Philodemus, so can't add anything from that.

Quote from Matteng

Emotions that cause suffering (pain ? )such as anxiety/obsessive-compulsive disorders should probably be countered as the Stoics or CBT envisage, but perhaps in a milder form?

OCD is a complex issue and is a separate issue than just anxiety (and different than phobias) -- there is probably a lot about what kinds of modalities of modern psychotherapy work for these issues, but haven't researched.

In another thread, there was something about CBT having some problems, and could make some conditions worse.

Quote

Philosophical concerns with CBT methods

The methods employed in CBT research have not been the only criticisms; some individuals have called its theory and therapy into question.^[225]

Slife and Williams write that one of the hidden assumptions in CBT is that of determinism, or the absence of free will. They argue that CBT holds that external stimuli from the environment enter the mind, causing different thoughts that cause emotional states: nowhere in CBT theory is agency, or free will, accounted for.^[215]

Another criticism of CBT theory, especially as applied to major depressive disorder (MDD), is that it confounds the symptoms of the disorder with its causes.^[218]

Side effects

CBT is generally regarded as having very few if any side effects.^[226][227] Calls have been made by some for more appraisal of possible side effects of CBT.^[228] Many randomized trials of psychological interventions like CBT do not monitor potential harms to the patient.^[229] In contrast, randomized trials of pharmacological interventions are much more likely to take adverse effects into consideration.^[230]

A 2017 meta-analysis revealed that adverse events are not common in children receiving CBT and, furthermore, that CBT is associated with fewer dropouts than either placebo or medications.^[231] Nevertheless, CBT therapists do sometimes report 'unwanted events' and side effects in their outpatients with "negative wellbeing/distress" being the most frequent.^[232]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive…ith_CBT_methods

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