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Emotion Identification

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anthony

Founder
After a discussion in the chat the other day, some members had a lot of trouble identifying what they felt, ie. putting emotions in word to what they feel. I quickly discussed how you do this by working backwards, by saying what is wrong, what is in your mind, then taking keywords, looking those meanings up, within those meanings you will find emotions, you can then find the definition of an emotion by word, often finding more emotions within ones definition, and you continue on, identifying and putting names to emotions that you feel, not by feeling them, hence you struggle to put a name to them, but identifying them by working backwards.

So....

If you struggle to find the emotion you feel... then give me a sentence or two only, and describe what you interpret, and I will use those examples to write a page on how to identify emotions.

Its a time intensive process, and one that only the person can commit themselves to, but if you don't know how, then it can be a bit hard... so I will tell you how, but you still have to do the work, or do it with your therapist... I am not going to do the work for you.
 
It is a hollow, but sharp heaviness in my chest - like a mix of rage, despair and defeat. Sometimes I wake up feeling it and have no idea why. Other times it happens when people around me are upset, sometimes when I have done something embarrassing.

Since I know that I feel guilty easily, I take this to be like guilt. Guilt is an emotion I know when I'm feeling it, if I notice I'm feeling it, and this doesn't feel quite like guilt. It's heavier and sharper. It's not constricting like fear but has a tint of the fear type of texture to it. I would guess this is either shame or self-loathing but I'm not sure. Maybe dread?

(Is this what you were asking for, or do you want examples where we are confident in the end result labeling of the emotion?)
 
Sometimes it is just a physical feeling, a tightness in my chest, difficulty drawing a full breath. I call that anxiety.

Sometimes it's muscle tightness in my neck and shoulders, I call that rage.

Sometimes it's a sick feeling in my stomach. I call that fear.

Sometimes it's just a feeling of emptiness, despair and the sense of being trapped. These feelings don't have a physical component.

I often wake with surging adrenalin, and a sense of self righteousness, like I have been defending myself in my sleep over a never-ending argument:(.
 
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