Poll Do You Have Difficulty Recognising Your Emotions?

[dedic8edmum]

I have no idea what I am really feeling unless it is anger fear or a mixture of both. I just seem to stay disconnected most of the time. So I would have to say I seldom recongnise any emotion in me. Great thinking question! Thanks:)

This sounds so much like me! I'm often overwhelmed with fear and anger, that being said I rarley deal with those feelings or address the causes. For me I just learned from a very early age that what I was "feeling" was unimportant. For me, no abuse is unforgivable because, I am able to totally evade any honest feeling. Like another contributor said... "I yearn to feel the pain burried deep inside me and finally cry! I honestly feel that my emotional development was totally stunted. I've only recently sought help for my "issues" but I'm trying to be hopeful! Hey that's an emotion.

 

[void]

emotions

I find that I can talk about my emotions(with no feeling) easily. I have difficulty just feeling my emotions. ???dissociation???

 

[shiraz]

I do emotion 'off-line', I go through the experience like an android and then at some point; anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days, begin to feel something - that is actually progress, it used to be a couple of decades late! Presently, I am learning to recognize that I am not feeling when I should be and to my surprise have even had a few moment of intense feeling actually in a moment when I should have them. Progress, but they get scared off too quickly. It is quite funny actually ... one moment - intense anger with tears in the middle of an argument - and then .. back to the android.

 

[Annie]

numb?

I know I have them...but I am not always aware of what they are. I find that a lot of the time I can rationalize why I shouldn't feel a certain way, but I certainly can't label most.

It's ironic though, I have books on every emotion, that I read to my kids, to teach THEM how to recognize, now if only I could do the same for myself!?
:)

Annie

 

[Bettespaghetti]

How ironic. My therapist and I were covering this topic last week. I grew up not being able to display "negative" emotions and so learned early on to numb, avoid, and disassociate myself from my feelings. So now I will do almost anything to avoid any feeling. I have no idea how to put a name to things going on inside me much less what to do with it.

Glad and sad to see I'm not the alone :I

Hugs!

 

[rallynut78]

Yes! I thought it was a function of my gender. my wife always asks me how I feel about situations and things that she tells me. she can't comprehend that I really have no idea what my feelings are. I take a loooong time to process.

 

[JustJane]

Numbness is my general emotional status. I know if I feel happyu that something is right around the corner to take it away and hurt. Better to not feel anything at all so there is nothing to lose.

 

[Dylan]

My default state is numbness with a dash of vague unease, a sense that something is wrong and I'm missing it...I need to find out what it is, something is coming and I'm missing it.

I was relieved to read that others go through the time-delay, as well. When I was 21 my dog died a very unpleasant death and it was years later that I found myself crying over the incident and the loss. I have many such incidences like that.

I am sometimes baffled by emotions, and even hate them at times - wishing instead to be like Spock or Data from Star Trek. To me, they too often seem like a complete liability, tripping me up, making me unable to "act right". In fact, years ago, before I knew what was going on with me, I contemplated actually requesting a frontal lobotomy to try & just get rid of them for good and all.

-Dylan

 

[void]

Dylan,

If I was Data I'd throw my emotion chip out the nearest airlock. Sucks to be human!!

Void

 

[Annie]

Emotions??? What are emotions???

 

[Lisa]

I was just about to post a poll up asking this question, and thought I'd better search and see if it's been asked before. And I found this! Created by me! I've asked this question before!!

Odd moment... LOL!

Um...

So, it's clear to me that so many struggle to identify emotions. I find them VERY strange. I was in despair a few days back... well, I was having despairing thoughts. I thought that WAS emotion. I think I forgot the difference of emotion and thought... Then I suddenly had this awful achey pain... and I was thinking 'ugh! What's that? Why does it hurt? Is that me feeling despair?? I was already feeling despair I was thinking despairing thoughts...'...

It's so confusing and strange sometimes, because I kind of wonder if that's actually emotion, or physical pain for physical reason!

Ugh. Well...Im glad I searched out my own poll without realising I'd already asked this question! Don't like to think I'm weird in this respect...

 

[Mahtalat]

Sometimes but generally that is because some things that I feel I don't know how to translate into words or english/or any other language for that matter. But I'm generally good at eventually pinpointing whats got me going.