Dealing with Difficult Emotions | Tips & Advice

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The discussion centers on the complexities of various emotions, with a particular focus on guilt as a challenging emotion to manage. Participants express that guilt often intertwines with feelings of gratitude, shame, and regret, making it particularly difficult to navigate. There is a notable mention of the emotional toll of unintentionally hurting others, which raises questions about the terminology for such feelings, suggesting it may relate to responsibility or remorse. Additionally, the conversation touches on the prevalence of despair and depression in society, highlighting a sense of losing control over one’s life. Post-success depression is also discussed, where individuals experience a significant emotional drop following periods of intense focus or achievement, leading to feelings of inadequacy despite logical reasoning for happiness. This emotional rollercoaster underscores the intricate relationship between success, failure, and mental health.
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For you, what is the most difficult emotion to deal with? Anger, grief, guilt, shame, anguish, gratitude, euphoria, attachment, dependence? Feel free to suggest other(s) that you find difficult.
 
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Guilt is likely the most difficult emotion for me. I can deal with this emotion but gratitude emotion is bit hard to deal with.

Difficult:
Guilt, gratitude, shame, gratitude, euphoria

Not:
Anger, attachment, dependence, anguish
 
I think in our society, despair and depression have become more widespread. The feeling that you have lost the ability to control things in your life.
 
The feeling that you've hurt someone unintentionally...is there a name for that? That's a bad one.
 
I have trouble with feelings of superiority. And for a man like me, that's a serious problem.
 
lisab said:
The feeling that you've hurt someone unintentionally...is there a name for that? That's a bad one.

That's what I thought guilt would count .. so I just stated it as guilt being most difficult emotion for me.
 
lethargy, laziness...
 
lisab said:
The feeling that you've hurt someone unintentionally...is there a name for that? That's a bad one.
Guilt, regret, remorse?
 
lisab said:
The feeling that you've hurt someone unintentionally.

Evo said:
The feeling that you have lost the ability to control things in your life.

me said:
The feeling you feel after you've let down someone you care for who relied on you for protection.


Haven't tried the last, but I think it'll kill me.
 
  • #10
lisab said:
The feeling that you've hurt someone unintentionally...is there a name for that?
If it really was unintentional it's called feeling of responsibility. If it was actually intentional it's called delusional.
 
  • #11
drizzle said:
Haven't tried the last, but I think it'll kill me.
Or you could reflect on "why did I do that?"
 
  • #12
Post-success depression. (The let-down you get after the high from the success, whatever that may have been).

The only way to avoid it seems to be not to succeed at anything, but that strategy also has its problems.
 
  • #13
AlephZero said:
Post-success depression. (The let-down you get after the high from the success, whatever that may have been).

I'll second that one. But I would probably generalize it to be post-intensity depression. Whenever I remain highly focused for a long period of time - weeks or months - when the pressure is finally off, I go into a deep depression for at least several days. Post-success depression is probably the worst aspect of this because you know logically that you should be happy. But for me, success or failure need not be involved for the depression to set it.

If I ever experience failure, it will be interesting to compare. :biggrin:
 
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