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EMOTIONAL CHALLENGES

Intense emotions are the most difficult to handle

Each day we face personal trials that trigger difficult-to-manage emotions affecting our communication, relationships, and the quality of our lives. For example, romantic jealousy—which we discuss in Chapter 9—is toxic to interpersonal communication and must be managed effectively for relationships to survive (Guerrero & Andersen, 1998). Likewise, fear—of emotional investment, vulnerability, or long-term commitment—can prevent us from forming intimate connections with others (Mickelson, Kessler, & Shaver, 1997). In the remainder of this chapter, we focus on four such challenges that occur all too frequently in our daily lives: lack of empathy online, anger, passion, and grief.