Experiencing mild stress in everyday life may interfere with people's ability to use strategies to control their emotions, a new study suggests.
The findings suggest that certain therapies that teach people how to better regulate their emotions — such as those used to treat social anxiety and other psychiatric conditions — may not work well during stressful situations, the researchers say.
"We have long suspected that stress can impair our ability to control our emotions, but this is the first study to document how even mild stress can undercut therapies designed to keep our emotions in check," said study researcher Elizabeth Phelps, a neuroscience professor at New York University. "In other words, what you learn in the clinic may not be as relevant in the real world when you're stressed." [7 Ways to Reduce Job Stress]