How do you identify your emotions?

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I've become better at identifying anxiety, stress, and paranoia over recent years - this is all very good, it means I'm much better at avoiding situations where these feelings may come about, and I know better how to manage them. However I still struggle and there's a *certain feeling that particularly bothers me yet I'm not 100% sure what it is or why it happens...if I don't know that then it's hard to prevent or manage.

Any tips for learning to identify emotions?

Finger prints, foot prints, retinal scan, blood, and DNA tests.

It can take a lot of inquiry. I write it out. I start with the thing I'm trying to identify and then ask myself "what do I need to know about [enter unidentified emotion/reaction here]" and then just start writing out whatever comes to mind. Sometimes it takes a while and this probably isn't as natural a process as maybe you're looking for, but it helps me a lot. Sometimes a small confusing reaction will end up uncovering some much bigger thing that I'm trying to avoid. And avoiding just makes it bigger and scarier.

I always thought I was good at identifying my emotions. I knew when I felt good and I knew when I felt bad. It wasn't until quite recently that I realised I'm actually quite rubbish at identifying emotions. When I feel bad/low/down I'm not sure what I'm feeling. I'm not sure if I feel anxious or depressed or frustrated etc. All I know is I'm feeling loads of negative emotions. I can't really tell the difference between some of them. I don't even understand why I can't do so.

^^^

I was a lot like this. I tend to group a whole slew of negative emotions as "frustration" and I can identify when I am happy. I am actually fairly good at identifying anxiety because of a history of panic attacks. Confusion tends to include frustration, but is also distinct from it.

I think that's most of my repertoire right there.

Buddhists have been using skillful means
in addressing the challenge of managing
wholesome and unwholesome thoughts,
out of this comes the practice of
Mindfulness. I attend three Sangha/
mindfulness meetings a week.

I am committed to this practice as I can
now observe the movements of my
thoughts, that if unobserved can lead
to emotional states, which in turn can
lead to mindstates, which in turn can
lead to depression and anxiety.

The formality of a Buddhist Sangha is
very AS friendly, no cross talk or small-
talk is allowed, the low stimulation
environment combined with the gentleness,
and warmth of the community, makes
the experience a valuable one for me
in my practice of managing my thoughts
and emotions.

I'm half and half on this one. When I am depressed or anxious I can't always figure out why. Worse still, there are times when I am depressed or anxious that I don't even know I am in that state and can only identify it by the other symptoms that some along with those feelings. Then again, I also suffer from depersonalization so my ability to sense things is pretty bad anyways.

I taught myself using a little, extremely useful book I happened to have at home. It's called "The Language of Feelings" by Viscott. I never again had any doubts. It's short, sweet and written so clearly and simply that it was a pleasure to learn from it. I don't know what I would've done without it, probably fumble for years. I can't recommend this little book enough, even if it's a bit hard to get because it was published in 1990.

Here: http://www.amazon.com/Language-Feelings ... f+feelings

The first reviewer on the page has it spot-on, too.

nametags

Um, it's hard for me to say. Most of the time it's blatantly obvious to me how I'm feeling. It's like knowing what color something is.

I guess the one thing I can think of is to focus in on yourself, without distractions, and feel what comes up. If you find certain thoughts popping up in your head, think of what emotion that thought implies. (Eg when I think 'no one cares about me', I'm probably feeling hurt and rejected, or else feeling ashamed and projecting it onto others.)

I find it really hard too, have got good at recognising anger, frustration and happiness (all of which seem to come in extremes now) but I still get really confused the rest of the time. There's a feeling I can't express atm which I really don't like, sort of like a nauseous guilt where I feel almost physically sick and nervous but it's not related directly to anything, no idea what it is.

I can definitely relate to what you've written because I used to think I was good at recognizing how I'm feeling as well, until it became apparent during my ADOS assessment with a Psychologist that I'm not; she asked me questions about how I can tell when I'm happy or sad etc, as well as how I identify when I'm angry. My answer to these questions was that I don't exactly know what I feel at the time, but it's usually different to my usual emotions, and that these peculiar emotions tend to distract me from my interests or whatever it is that I'm doing at the time. I also said that I was 'at a crossroads' between being in a state of happiness or sadness, or just not knowing what I felt..to be honest, those questions baffled me, and for that I took a while to answer them.

Last edited by KnarlyDUDE09 on 04 Aug 2012, 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I try to reconcile weird physical sensations from within my body with what makes sense for me to be feeling at the time. I only vaguely know the difference between my own emotions from the inside other than the GOOD and BAD labels others have described.

Actually, I think I can go as far as saying I have 2 emotions (main ones): uncertainty/bewildered; I'm not feeling a particular way, and startled; any emotion that deviates from my usual state i.e. anger, annoyance.

We do not need to identify all the emotions, but it is good practice to be able to know what ones are positive/negative.

All negative emotions need an outlet like quaker said. Hope thats the name anyway.

Meditation is a good way to relieve the negative emotions and the are thousandsto choose from.... It is not always sitting down crossed legged. I am able to practicemoving meditation after years of practise and stay calm no matter what the situation may be.