Is anyone unable to get a handle on how they feel?

@NellaNutella Sounds to me like you may be experiencing burnout.

Perhaps you don't necessarily need to make sense of your feelings right now. That alone can be an exhausting and endless task, since they are ever changing and I'm not sure they can ever be truly understood.

It's like looking into a kaleidoscope at the best of times.

I would just say go easy on yourself, rest, find inner peace, be at one with yourself.

Maybe after time, going gently, you might feel less tired and all of this could be less overwhelming.

I wish you the very best on your journey.

@NellaNutella

This sounds highly familiar. Emotions are something I've never been able to get a handle on, I've always tried to control them and previously it's made me lose myself. I'd like to think I'm getting better, but I keep running into the walls you describe. I feel so much sadness and anxiety and dealing with it isn't my forte, so my brain ends up muddled and I end up caring little for everything, even the things I'm most passionate about. Ultimately I end up feeling very alone, but for the most part, that's just me making myself feel that way. I'm trying to learn and be better, it's hard, but I think it may be a necessity. I hope your journey to figure out things for yourself goes well.

@NellaNutella

Hey! I used to experience depression for a few years and I completely understand this. There's just so much going on at once, and I used to get this very heavy feeling in my chest, almost like it was hard to breathe and think straight. I think this is common in depression, especially since depression affects how you think and your concentration levels.

At the time something I wish what I could have practiced more was thinking less about my emotions and instead observe them. This might sound a little weird, but it's a technique used in mindfulness practice. So what you do is almost try to disconnect yourself from your emotions and accept them for exactly what they are- thoughts and emotions. Then, like clouds, you watch them as they do what ever they do (get worse, spiral further, get better, go away). The next step is to put a label on as either a Thought or an Emotion. The idea behind is is that when we think too much about what we feeling, we become trapped in them and spiral down further. Giving them a nod, acknowledging them and accepting them gives them less power in theory. I say in theory but I have used this technique for anxiety, anger, hurt and many other emotions and I feel after I have a more realistic view of my emotions. I hope this helps! Feel free to reply if you want to discuss this a bit more. Keep well :)

Handle on how I feel? PPPH!

@NellaNutella

Hi! I do relate to what you said very much! To me many times happened that I would suddenly feel nervous, sad or angry and maybe cried and then when people would come and ask me "what happened?" or "how do you feel?" and "why do you feel this way?" I wouldn't know what to answer! In general I find it very hard to focus on my thoughts and many times I just need to speak them outloud, talking to myself, in order to make sense with a logical reasoning. Lately I'm trying to take time to stop and observe better what happens to me, the emotions I feel and my thoughts. I'm also trying to write them down when I can and re-read them. I find that I was all the time kind of "rushing" with my mind, jumping from one thing to another, and especially when an unpleasant feeling would come up I immediately looked for distraction. And the funny part is that I was assuming to know what was going on! Like "ok, I already know this, it's bad, let's push it aside", but now I realize that with this attitude I wasn't understanding my issues and what was going on with myself really. Always pushing things aside and not looking at them, never took the time to stop, even five minutes, and acknowledge what I was feeling actually, what I really was thinking about. Just saying "it's wrong, or I don't need to feel this way". Maybe I was right in a way, but I'm understanding now that in order to get better I do need to stop, take a look, maybe write what I'm feeling, maybe just sit with it for a few moments, maybe try to explain it to someone else (also writing to myself as if writing to someone else). Often I feel too much pressure in my mind to do this so I just try to relax and acknowledge things, without judgement. And I tell myself that I can come back to the subject in a moment when I feel more rested and maybe write things down and look at it better. I also spoke with someone about this, and I understand that in the beginning the mind can be very confused and the process of writing things down can be messy and confusing but then, if practiced regularly, it gets better in time. Like the mind learns how to notice things that are happening to you, thoughts that are coming up etc. And eventually things start to get a little clearer.

Just wanted to say that I relate to what you said pretty much and share a little bit of my experience! Please feel free to talk it over if you want to! :) Wish you all the best

@NellaNutella

Hi,

This is EXACTLY how i have been feeling for the past one year. And i am so glad to see this thread because for the first time I can relate to someone who is in the same boat as me. I wish i could offer you some advice but i would just like to say that you arent alone and we will get through this.

Take care!

@NellaNutella

I completely relate with what you wrote . There are times when I experience exactly the same . Unfortunately I haven't yet found a way to deal with it . Do u have times when you want to cry and let it all out but the tears just don't come ?? Like inside you are really broken , but you just can't cry.