Loss of Objectivity in Adults: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
We all like to think that when we make decisions or react to situations, we’re doing so with facts and logic. Yet, in reality, life isn’t always so clear-cut, so we often make many of our decisions from feelings rather than facts.
All it can take is a moment of a little too much stress or overwhelm, or a lack of confidence, and suddenly, we’re snapping at a loved one. In these moments, our perception bends, emotions color what we believe to be true, and we have a harder time remaining objective.
This loss of objectivity doesn’t mean we’ve become irrational. It’s the brain’s built-in stress response doing its job – protecting us, even at the expense of perspective. When the emotional centers of the brain become louder than the logical ones, feelings begin to masquerade as facts. You might find yourself reacting before thinking, convinced your initial interpretation must be right.
Because it can be hard to determine when we’re making a decision based on emotions or facts, this page can help you understand:
- What loss of objectivity means in mental health contexts
- Signs to watch out for that might signal you’re losing perspective and objectivity
- Reasons you might lose an objective perspective
- Ways to cope with loss of objectivity
- Answers to commonly asked questions about loss of objectivity
What Does “Loss of Objectivity” Mean in Mental Health?
A “loss of objectivity” in mental health involves the moments we’ve all experienced in which emotion takes over and logic takes a backseat. Essentially, it means that we’ve become biased and our feelings and opinions – rather than facts and evidence – influence our judgments.
Humans, to some extent, are wired toward bias. Our life experiences become a framework (called a schema) for how we organize and interpret information. Our schemas inform how we think, feel, and act, and the information we encounter every day gets filtered through this framework. In other words, they color how we make decisions and interact with other people.
So when we’re overwhelmed by strong emotions, we’re more likely to rely on our cognitive biases in how we interpret information and end up making thinking errors.1 Reason becomes sidelined by emotion, and our feelings become evidence. This is called “emotional reasoning.”
With emotional reasoning, we believe that our feelings about things become facts about the external world.2 But when we’re less emotional, we’re also less likely to fall into cognitive bias and more likely to consider facts and multiple viewpoints. This is like the mental version of taking a deep breath before reacting – opening up space for objectivity.
What Does Loss of Objectivity Look Like?
Loss of objective perspective happens when our biases impair our judgment; we no longer think logically, and instead, filter our perspective through emotions.
When we lose objectivity, we often fall into cognitive distortions – inaccurate or irrational ways of thinking.3 Some of these distorted ways of thinking, or signs that your sense of objectivity may be slipping, include:
- Finding yourself starting to take neutral feedback, like a coworker’s comment or a partner’s suggestion, personally
- Feeling like every day challenges are daunting, and small inconveniences trigger huge emotional responses
- Engaging in rigid or black-and-white thinking, where everything becomes “always” or “never,” “good” or “bad,” with no room for nuance
- Responding impulsively or being reactive during conflict instead of pausing to think.
- Consistently searching for reassurance that you’re “doing the right thing” or going back and forth on decisions.
When these experiences persist, they may point to deeper patterns of imbalance, especially when linked to mood disorder cognitive symptoms such as rumination, poor concentration, or emotional instability.
Reasons You Might Struggle With Maintaining an Objective Perspective
You might struggle with maintaining an objective perspective because you’re dealing with more than you’re able to handle. There could be unaddressed fear that’s chipping away at your self-confidence and making even constructive feedback feel like a personal attack. Or you might be so stressed out that it feels unfair when your partner asks you to take out the trash.
Some reasons driving this loss of objective perspective might include:
Chronic Stress
When we’re under chronic stress, our brains redirect energy away from the area responsible for thinking and planning (the prefrontal cortex). Instead, it focuses it toward the area responsible for emotions like anxiety and fear (the amygdala).4
So instead of calmly assessing situations, when under a lot of stress, we might find ourselves reacting quickly, interpreting minor problems as threats, or feeling cornered by our own emotions. This constant stress plays into our cognitive biases and changes the way we see situations, making it more difficult to separate what’s actually happening from what we fear might happen.
Past Traumatic Experiences
For people who’ve experienced trauma, perception can become tinted by memory. Everyday experiences, like a raised voice or sudden change in plans, can trigger responses that are rooted in the past and may be out of proportion to the situation at hand.
Trauma and perspective issues are caused by the nervous system remaining on high alert (called “hypervigilance”) and scanning for danger even after the danger has long since passed.5 So it might be harder for you to remain objective when the trauma tells you that even small conflicts are deeply personal or unsafe, reinforcing the cycle of emotional overreaction.
Anxiety and Uncertainty
Anxiety thrives on uncertainty and pushes the mind to predict, control, and prepare for every possible outcome — often at the expense of reality. Studies have shown that anxious people tend to engage more easily in emotional reasoning, where their anxiety proves that a situation is dangerous.6
For example, when fear becomes the lens, neutral situations can start to feel catastrophic. Anxiety and irrational fears make it harder to stay objective when the emotional alarm sounds louder than logic, leaving little space for you to calmly interpret what’s going on.
Personality and Thought Patterns
Some of us are more naturally sensitive or reactive, which can make it harder to stay neutral when under stress. An example of this might be someone with borderline thinking patterns, who might be more likely to experience dichotomous thinking. Therefore, they may see people or events as either entirely “good” or “bad,” safe or unsafe.7 This all-or-nothing thinking erases the gray area where we find nuance and balance.
Support For Coping With Overwhelming Emotions
Getting back our objectivity is about learning how to keep our emotions from overwhelming us and running the show. Below are some of the most effective therapeutic and coping approaches for adults struggling with distorted or emotionally driven thinking:
Evidence-Based Therapies
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely used and effective approaches for managing unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.8 CBT teaches us how to identify distorted beliefs, challenge automatic assumptions, and replace them with more realistic perspectives. CBT for thinking errors shifts us away from, I can’t do anything right, toward, I’m trying my best. This change can open the door to self-compassion rather than criticism.
Another approach that supports managing emotions is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). One of the main focuses of DBT is how to manage intense emotions. Using tools like mindfulness, DBT helps you learn to pause, name your feelings, and respond intentionally instead of reflexively.
Therapy for emotional regulation can strengthen tolerance for uncertainty, allowing you to maintain objectivity even under pressure.
Relaxation Techniques
When we feel overloaded with emotions, logic becomes harder to access. Relaxation techniques, like grounding, meditation, and deep breathing, lower the overwhelm and keep your attention on the present.9 Using tools to pause, breathe, and reflect can stop you from making cognitive biases and losing objective perspective.
Mission Connection: Manage Emotions With Professional Support
Stress and unresolved pain have a way of bending how we see things, much like the way heat rising off the pavement distorts the air. At Mission Connection, we focus on helping you regain your footing when life becomes overwhelmed by emotions. Through evidence-based care, like CBT, DBT, and trauma-focused approaches, we help you recognize unhelpful patterns, process underlying emotions, and strengthen your ability to think clearly under stress.
If distorted thinking or emotional overwhelm has been steering your decisions, compassionate distorted thinking help is available. Reach out to Mission Connection today to begin restoring calm, confidence, and perspective.
FAQs About Loss of Objectivity in Adults
If you still have some queries about why loss of objectivity happens, the following responses to FAQs on the topic may help.
1. Why Do Emotions Make It Harder for Me to Stay Objective?
Emotions sometimes override logic because when we experience strong emotions, like feeling threatened, rejected, or ashamed, the part of our brains involved with these emotions (the amygdala) becomes more active. At the same time, the area responsible for reasoning (the prefrontal cortex) becomes, temporarily, less active.
This reaction, meant to protect us, is more like driving with the emergency brake on; meant to keep us safe, yet it slows our ability to move smoothly through the world. Being consistently stressed or overwhelmed by experiences can worsen this imbalance in the areas of the brain, leaving us reactive even in safe situations.
2. How Can I Tell if My Reactions Are Disproportionate?
To figure out whether your reactions are proportionate or not, it might help to notice how you feel afterward. If regret, confusion, or shame consistently follow your reactions, or if loved ones describe you as “defensive” or “hard to reason with,” your emotions may be outpacing logic. This isn’t about blame – it’s an invitation to pause, reflect, and begin learning how to slow the emotional rush before it takes over.
3. Do I Need Residential Mental Health Treatment If I Can’t Handle My Emotions?
You do not necessarily need residential mental health treatment if you can’t handle your emotions. While some people may benefit from the structure of residential treatment, others can manage with outpatient programs. It all depends on your circumstances and the severity of symptoms. If you feel unsafe, worried you can’t control your emotions, or feel your life is significantly disrupted, then residential treatment may be best.
4. Does Mission Connection Treat Emotional Regulation and Objectivity Loss?
Yes, we provide therapy for emotional regulation, cognitive restructuring, and trauma recovery. By using personalized mental health evaluations to find what works best for you, we’ll help you learn how to interpret your emotions without being overwhelmed by them and rebuild confidence in your decision-making.
References
- Da Silva, S., Gupta, R., & Monzani, D. (2023). Editorial: Highlights in psychology: cognitive bias. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1242809. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1242809
- Gangemi, A., Dahò, M., & Mancini, F. (2021). Emotional reasoning and psychopathology. Brain Sciences, 11(4), 471. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11040471
- Grinspoon, P., MD. (2022, May 4). How to recognize and tame your cognitive distortions. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-recognize-and-tame-your-cognitive-distortions-202205042738
- Datta, D., & Arnsten, A. (2019). Loss of Prefrontal Cortical Higher Cognition with Uncontrollable Stress: Molecular Mechanisms, Changes with Age, and Relevance to Treatment. Brain Sciences, 9(5), 113. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9050113
- Smith, N. A., Voisin, D. R., Yang, J. P., & Tung, E. L. (2019). Keeping your guard up: Hypervigilance among urban residents affected by community and police violence. Health Affairs, 38(10), 1662–1669. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00560
- Arntz, A., Rauner, M., & Van Den Hout, M. (1995). “If I feel anxious, there must be danger”: Ex-consequentia reasoning in inferring danger in anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(8), 917–925. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(95)00032-s
- Napolitano, L. A., & McKay, D. (2007). Dichotomous thinking in borderline personality disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 31(6), 717–726. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9123-4
- Nakao, M., Shirotsuki, K., & Sugaya, N. (2021). Cognitive–behavioral therapy for management of mental health and stress-related disorders: Recent advances in techniques and technologies. BioPsychoSocial Medicine, 15(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13030-021-00219-w
- Engelhard, E. S., Pitluk, M., & Elboim-Gabyzon, M. (2021). Grounding the connection between psyche and SOMA: Creating a reliable observation tool for grounding assessment in an adult population. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 621958. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621958
