Emotional arousal

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Becoming aroused | Being aroused | So what

Whilst we feel emotions on an ongoing basis, we sometimes enter a state of arousal, in which our bodies experience heightened physiological activity and extremes of emotion. This can be both powerful and dangerous, both for ourselves and for others.

States of arousal can be positive and negative and include fear, anger, curiosity and love, which are felt with an overpowering intensity that drives us to act, often in an unthinking way.

Becoming aroused

Emotional arousal is a process, which means it happens as a sequence over time. Understanding this is a step towards being able to manage the process.

Arousal triggers

Arousal often happens through a trigger, which appears through one of our senses. Thus, for example, arousal can happen through:

• Touch: A punch, kiss or caress
• Vision: Seeing something shocking or desirable
• Hearing: A sudden noise or somebody saying something
• Smell: An evocative odour that triggers powerful memories
• Taste: Of wonderful or disgusting food

The process of arousal

Arousal typically happens when the body releases chemicals into the brain that act to stimulate emotions, reduce cortical functioning and hence conscious control, and create physical agitation and 'readiness for action'.

Being aroused

The effect of arousal

In situations of negative stress, we enter the fight-or-flight state, when primitive responses designed to keep us alive are kicked into motion.

In sexual arousal, our bodies prepare themselves for sexual intercourse and our brains go into overdrive in a state of intense desire for completion of this most basic of acts.

In other states of stimulation, people report feelings of 'being more alive', as senses become more acute and the skin prickles in excitement.

The desirability of arousal

For many people being aroused is a pleasurable state that plays to basic needs for stimulation.

Even negative states such as fear and anger have their benefits. Angry people report feeling all-powerful, perhaps harking back to neonatal states of infantile omnipotence.

Fearful people also may access early memories of being subsequently comforted. Fear is also a common factor in many hobbies, especially extreme sports, where people do things deliberately to become aroused, from skiing to watching horror movies.

In states of depression, the opposite occurs and suffers may be unable to feel any sense of arousal, interest and engagement with the world.

So what?

By understanding the process by which people become aroused, you can gain control of whether and how arousal happens. The first place to start with this is yourself. If you become emotionally aroused, then you are losing some control. This is often not a good thing, so learning self-control can be a critical skill.

The next step is to understand how others become aroused and learning to control that process, from activating triggers to managing emotional states.

See also

Stress