A fragile personality is a minor, negative personality, normally unable to integrate into life like others. Being emotionally fragile means you have a hard time managing difficult emotions: Little bits of worry throw you into cycles of anxiety and panic. Small bouts of sadness lead to spirals of self-criticism and depression. But, how do you deal with emotionally fragile people? Read on as we give some suggestions
1. Don’t sympathise, but empathise with them
Sympathy is when you feel sorry for another person’s misfortune. Empathy is when you understand their situation and feel their pain by putting yourself in their shoes, when we sympathise we are sucked into the same emotions, which the other person is feeling. We are sharing those painful feelings with the other and helping them cope.
2. Find your breaking point
Your breaking point is the time it takes for you to be influenced emotionally by the sad person in some way. We must have all felt that when we meet an emotionally weak person we are able to give our helping hand. As soon as 15 – 20 mins pass by we slowly start feeling low on energy and sad our self. If we are aware of ourselves we will realise that the feeling of the other person has been transferred onto us.
3. Make your belief system clear and strong
When you are aware of yourself; you are clear of what is right and wrong for you. You follow a path of a strong belief system and show that personality to others. When an aware person is emotionally weak – he/she tries to find the answers within self.
4. Differentiate between attention seekers and truly sad people
There are some people who are not that sad because of their problems. They make a sad face in front of the givers or nice people because they need pampering or care. These are the people who make up their problems and exaggerate them just to get your attention. They are the most dangerous ones as they share mix emotions of manipulation, lies and sadness. It’s very important for you to analyse their situation and perceive if they are actually sad or not.
Emotional fragility vs `Emotional sensitivity
Emotional fragility is extremely different from emotional sensitivity. Sensitivity is more of a quality you may have. Meanwhile, fragility is more of lack of resources for managing your most complex internal state. In other words, fragility means having a lot of trouble confronting even the simplest daily hardships. One can be sensitive but not fragile, which would mean that one can very easily feel an emotion from a stimulus but it's lingering period might be short, thereby not making one fragile
There are a lot of people who try to normalise their emotional fragility. They make the excuse that it’s just the way they are, that it’s how they live their life. “I’m just a sensitive person, and I can’t change that” is usually what most fragile people say.
It’s also important to understand that if a behaviour or attitude only brings you suffering, insecurity, and zero control over yourself, then there’s no room for excuses. Not when all you get out of it is unhappiness. Basically, sensitive people have a broader vision of life. They can deal much better with their needs and the world around them. Fragile people, on the other hand, are very emotionally limited.
How do you get rid of being fragile?
The first step is to become aware of your emotional weaknesses
The second step is to take responsibility for yourself - that responsibility also means leaving behind your past experiences and making changes in the present
Seek help and council by speaking to a professional who can help navigate your emotions
Conclusion
Your emotional health often depends on how you were raised, and the quality of your earliest interactions with other people. But a toxic upbringing or an ineffective education isn’t the end. There’s always time to overcome emotional fragility. We are all allowed to be sensitive to situations, but don’t allow yourself to be fragile. Seek help and find ways to deal with and manage emotions that lead you to the fragile state.
Listen To Podcast S3 E20: Men Are Way More Fragile Than We Think
