Emotional rescue

Lately I've been thinking and researching about understanding and processing emotions. More specifically, MY emotions!

I believe most of my depression issues (or 'sadness' even) are due to trying to inhibit my emotions for much of my life. I convince myself I am wrong for feeling this way or that, so I attempt to stifle any and all emotions, and that stuff has to come out in the wash somehow (almost always negatively).

I do have to admit, now that I've stopped taking Sertraline as a "mood stabilizer," I find I'm a bit more sensitive - or anxious - when I start to feel one way or the other. For instance, if I find myself getting angry, I immediately think, "Oh no! Here it comes again! I knew I couldn't live without being drugged!" Rather than understanding and accepting that everyone gets angry sometimes, I tend to freak out.

I remember one of the things I liked best about one particular counselor I had - he helped me feel okay about how I was feeling. If I was sad, he helped me understand that, yes, I should be feeling sad. If I got angry, there was usually a legitimate reason to be angry. It was not wrong to feel the way I felt, but the challenge was what to do then.

Anyway... I stumbled upon this article by Gregg Henriques, professor of psychology at James Madison University: 'Understanding Emotions and How to Process Them.' This is exactly the sort of thing I was trying to find, and I think it a good place to start for anyone struggling with such. It's mostly something I want to remind myself to revisit now and then.

The article starts off with:

"The mental health of our society is far from ideal. Rates of stress, depression and anxiety are increasing. The data on college students is especially troubling. There are likely many reasons for this increase, including fast paced, rapidly changing society, increasingly levels of social loneliness and isolation, misguided attempts to medicate negative feelings, and existential confusion about the truths of the human condition. But perhaps the central reason I see is that people seem deeply confused about the nature of negative emotions and how to process them."

Yes! As for me and my mind, this is what I need!

So, this is where I have started. We'll see how it goes...