Intellectualization

A concept to understand and not overuse.

Happy Friday! Quick sidenote! I’ve been realizing that I put too much pressure on myself to write long form content, which requires more time and editing and effort and then I get sidetracked and perfectionistic tendencies show up and I need to be writing on my laptop not just my phone and then and then and then…

Shifting that right now! By intentionally incorporating shorter pieces here that will hopefully benefit you :) Onward.

Okay, that said, we need to talk about intellectualization as a psychology concept. Simply put, it is using reason and intellect to avoid feeling our emotions.

The new added layer is that mental health content on social media has made this defense even more common. Scrolling, consuming and distracting ourselves with information can be a wonderful adjunct to effective work, however when we lean too heavily into it we end up actually creating distance from ourselves and our emotions. In essence, we numb ourselves from our experience, but we think we are helping ourselves because now we know all 8363 ways anxiety might show up in our body. Let me explain.

Intellectualization *can* be an effective tool. It helps us apply logic and rational thought to a situation. It allows us to not get bogged down by the emotional aspect of things. Many of us who experienced parentification, charged emotional experiences or trauma growing up learned this to be a verrrry effective coping skill.