Do Any Of You Think In Emotional Feelings?

[falling_wave]

This may be a weird question. Honestly Im not sure if its pretty common or its not so thats why I wanted to post. A lot of times when Im not feeling at my best I think in emotional feelings. Its like the physical reactions that emotions produce or a memory of facial changes while experiencing the emotion. For an example I had an emotional reaction with my T more distressed than anything else. I remember my my face changed slightly and a physical dropping feeling in my chest. I keep going through those five minutes in my memory but I actually feel those same physical sensation every time it plays through my mind. Its kind of weird to me that I dont think about it separate from the emotions at this point but part of me feels like I am searching for some type of meaning from those physical feelings. Do you guys get that ever? Is it circumstantial or just all the time? Thanks.

 

[hodge]

Not a weird question at all. That's basically how I think . . . through emotions. It's pretty much all the time for me.

 

[Friday]

I think in pictures. Still frame. Moving images. Emotions may or may not be attached, as may any other sensory input, or none. Multilingual childhood, although I've only got pieces of languages... I have to translate all my thoughts into words. I prefer communicating without words.

What I find is that emotions speed thoughts until the thought & emotion are indistinct from each other.

One of the biggest tricks I can use is to slow that whole process down. Break the thought and the emotion into 2 distinct pieces.

_________

As a case in point: When I want to die? That's usually a mistranslation. What I actually want (usually) is to not feel this way anymore. That's actionable. I can do something about that. But I have to break the thought & the emotion away from each other in order to get to that point where I can look at what I'm actually thinking.

 

[falling_wave]

@hodge when you think in emotions do you feel them physically each time? @FridayJones I know sometimes its hard to decipher emotion from thought. I sometimes think in pictures too but mostly just whatever physical feeling emotion evoked in me Ill re-feel it when I think of it.

 

[Truthful_Whispers]

I think in anticipation. I try to envision what someone or something will be doing a few seconds into the future, so I am not unpleasantly surprised.

 

[Deleted member 29961]

Like @FridayJones, I think in images, still and/or moving. to me emotions are waves of color, the shades represent the actual emotional content while the brightness represents its amplitude. All this can be translated into a tonal (sound) representation. When I write my poetry, the sounds of the words are at least equally as important as their meaning. When I write my poetry, I am trying to create a visual representation of an emotional state through an audio medium. it may seem odd, but it works for me.

 

[falling_wave]

@Jigsaw Puzzle it sounds like that would make for really good creative or descriptive writing. That's cool you can channel it like that. If I ever share it I'd be interested. Writing is a really awesome outlet and one I use too. I was trying to think if I really think in pictures. I do in a flashback but otherwise not mostly. I can remember people's facial expressions even very small ones visually very clearly though. I think most of us probably end up having some kind of mix.

 

[Tinyflame]

I think I think or remember mostly in feelings, then sounds or words, some pictures, pictures if there are no words. But I can't even really generate ('remember') how anyone looks on cue, sometimes. I might be able to remember how a photograph of them looks (a still image). Conversely I remember small details with clarity. Very difficult question to answer, actually.

I agree with what they say for all people, that we may not remember what others say or even do, but we will always remember how we felt/ how they made us feel. I suppose that applies to individual memories, & also at 'the end of the day' (life).

 

[Fadeaway]

I have quite a few memories of conversations where the audio details are vague. Even memory of the exact topic discussed is vague but I remember exactly how I felt and it is very physical. However, with a memory it is still dulled . I don't feel as strongly as it felt when it actually happened but I can certainly have the knowledge that the feeling was stronger.

In flashbacks however, there is no difference in the intensity of the emotion. I am just wondering by the way you describe it if your experience with your T was a flashback of sorts.

 

[hodge]

Yes, Fadeaway, I do have physical reactions to my emotional thoughts. Though, I, too, often think in images rather than words. That's what therapy has been tough for me. I have to tell myself stuff to feel better.

 

[shimmerz]

I have trained myself (mostly) to notice the action (facial tonality changing) and THEN think 'what is going on right now'. If I can I remove myself from whatever situation it is and try to tease out logically what got me into that state. So for me, the physical is the cue and the thought comes when I realize the physical.

 

[falling_wave]

I am just wondering by the way you describe it if your experience with your T was a flashback of sorts.

Your experience sounds very like mine. Thanks for sharing. I was wondering if it was a flashback too but it wasn't traumatic just distressing. I think it possibly had a link back to something that was traumatic though. Do you guys get flashback of something recent that triggers the same feeling as in the past? I'd be really curious about that. To me it kind if feels like very strong emotional and physical ruminations. Both of those sensations are much stronger than audio or visual but I can pull up both of those too.