EE

I was at my psychiatrist's place the other day, and a patient had come with his old mother. He was agitated, restless, and angry. His mom kept on saying that he should have driven faster because she had seen the speedometer at 40kmph and that a car will stop running at such a low speed. And the man kept on saying that the traffic was such that he couldn't move faster.

I've noticed a change in my family dynamics especially since the beginning of this year. And I realized that this overprotective nature of my parents, this over expressed-emotion (EE) really takes down anyone emotionally. The only difference in the case of somebody with a mental illness is that they are not able to cope with it and spiral further downwards.

My dad reduced his EE, when, after I came back home he told me that he won't bug asking me over and over again about my studies as he used to think that I am not serious about it. He stuck to his word. He had shouted earlier at me as to why I was on the computer all the time. He now apologized saying that he never realized that since my work is on the computer (I'm doing computer engineering), how I could not be on it the whole day.

It was still tough going with my mom. She was overprotective and used to stress up too much about every little detail. She would keep on asking questions about what happened during the day, how will this work out, what will I do about that, and so on...The turning point came after we (my sister and I) sent her on a month long vacation. We stayed away from each other for so long for the first time in our lives. During this time, I was managing everything on my own, and very well. I didn't need anyone to tell me how to do every little thing. When my mom came back, she had changed. She herself told me not to tell her everything and do my stuff on my own, which made me think that this whole circle was about she asking, me telling and me telling so that she wouldn't get tense, which made me tense...This circle self-imposed to a certain magnitude a sense of control by my family. That for me was unacceptable. That for me was a part of my blown-out-of-proportion delusion.

The extent EE plays a role in affecting a person can really mess everything up or brighten up the future. It makes somebody with an illness feel completely worthless and low, or make them independent to a great extent.