How do I know if I have trouble with emotion regulation and what does that mean anyway?

Emotion regulation is about the ability to experience and process emotions in a safe and healthy way. Extreme responses to different stressors aren't healthy -- for example, severe anxiety or depression over small criticisms, unchecked anger and frustration at small aggressions, and continued feelings of shame or guilt or worry about issues that have already been resolved. Learning to regulate emotions means learning to identify irrational responses, as well as learning how to process and sort through emotions in a healthy way. Healthy ways of coping with emotions involve venting to people, community support, journaling, art, and self-care like taking hot baths or watching your favorite TV show. The 7 Cups guide on managing emotions is a great place to start. The best thing you can do for your emotional regulation is to keep track of what emotions you feel, and in response to what. This can help you to figure out whether your emotions are irrational, and if there are any patterns that you need to track (ie: depression, anxiety, mania).

Emotions are essential to the life experience. What's important is how in control you feel and your clarity of mind.

The term, "emotion regulation" is essentially how you 'regulate' or control your emotions. A pretty good indicator of poor emotion regulation can be something such as overreacting to something you normally wouldn't, or reacting in a way that seems out of character for you.

Emotion regulation is simply being aware that you are feeling a certain emotion and acknowledging it and dealing with any unpleasant emotions in effective manner. If you have trouble with it, you tend to feel your emotions take over you and you have less control over them.

Have you tried looking at the emotion regulation guide that Seven Cups of tea has? It helps you understand Emotion regulation better

Emotion regulation is basically controlling your emotions to be what you want them to be or what you think they SHOULD be in a situation. If you can't control those emotions and you find yourself acting out in ways that don't match what you want or feel you should the you're having trouble. Managing your emotions is hard but when you can't manage or regulate your emotions, it disrupts your interactions with others because they can see it too.

Emotion regulation is when you are able to control your emotions. Managing emotions are very difficult and sometimes it can effect how we interact with others.

We have trouble when we resort to negative emotions and feel extremely overwhelmed with the situations we are going through. There would be a pattern of unhealthy behaviors that are led from inability to control the emotions. Emotion regulation is all about being aware of what we are feeling and not acting on impulse.

Trouble with emotion regulation often means we don't know how to manage or lessen our emotions. Our emotions are often BIG and fast. They last however long they want to last and we don't really know how to reduce them. They sometimes change quickly and we can get very swept up in them. We find it hard to see past the emotions to a more rational state of mind - you might notice this if you often find yourself looking back asking "what was I thinking?", feeling regret, or feeling something obvious for some reason never crossed your mind. This is a term you may often hear from a mental health specialist, and it really just means that you might benefit from some help learning new ways to identify and regulate your emotions.

Failing to properly regulate your emotions indicate that you may constantly experience mood swings, or get angry easily, or your self-confidence and self-esteem may take the form of an insane roller coaster ride...either way if you are unable to regulate your emotions in a healthy manner (emotional eating - we've all been there!), then you may want to take a step back and reflect upon the cause of these emotional turmoils.