ABSTRACT
There is continuity between 'normal' emotional reactions to life events and excessive or extreme emotional reactions. As M. E. Weisharr and A. T. Beck explain: The cognitive content of syndromes has the same theme as found in 'normal' experience, but cognitive distortions are extreme and, consequently, affect emotion and behaviour. A person looking over their life might experience sadness at the wasted opportunities but knows that new ones lie ahead; however, their sadness may intensify and become a prolonged depression if they see such wasted opportunities as the whole story of their life. With physiological reactions, they would be the same for a person who believes they are about to be attacked as for a person who fears making mistakes in front of others. There is no qualitative difference between emotions in therapy and in coaching. Anyone who engages in extreme thinking is likely to experience extreme emotions and find themselves at the extreme end of the continuum.
