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

15 Answers
Last Updated: 02/16/2021 at 1:50am
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Melissa Strauss, LPC

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I am client focused and believe everyone has a strength. I feel confident in seeing clients with generalized and social anxiety, depression and relational goals.

Top Rated Answers
kittykat
October 30th, 2014 9:10pm
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).
Spirited1
September 24th, 2014 9:17pm
Emotions are essential to the life experience. What's important is how in control you feel and your clarity of mind.
VirtualVirgo
October 7th, 2014 3:28am
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.
Anonymous
October 23rd, 2014 10:32am
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.
Minh
October 25th, 2014 3:30pm
Have you tried looking at the emotion regulation guide that Seven Cups of tea has? It helps you understand Emotion regulation better
JesseK1022
December 7th, 2014 4:30am
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.
Anonymous
December 9th, 2014 5:12am
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.
Jay168
December 17th, 2014 12:03am
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.
Erynn
December 19th, 2014 7:17am
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.
farrahtaam
January 2nd, 2015 4:45am
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.
Anonymous
January 8th, 2015 12:30am
emotion regulation is responsible for evaluating, monitering, and modifying emotional reactions. Emotional dysregulation is when an individual has issues in managing the impact of emotional arousal on of thoughts, actions, and interactions. Emotionally dysregulated people show patterns of responding in which there is a mismatch between their goals, responses, and/or modes of expression, and the demands of the social environment.
Lespoir
April 25th, 2016 6:14am
If you feel you are unable to function well in your daily routines because you find it difficult to manage or regulate emotions, it may be something you may want to consider seeing or speaking with someone about. Emotion regulation is having conscious control of behaviors based on how you are feeling. We can't always choose how we feel but we can choose how we act/react with certain feelings.
Greatlistener87
- Expert in Managing Emotions
August 22nd, 2016 6:35am
Emotional self-regulation or regulation of emotion is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed.
Anonymous
March 6th, 2018 12:06am
If you have trouble with emotion regulations, it means you have a difficult time controlling you're emotions most days and night when they occur.
enchantingsoul2424
February 16th, 2021 1:50am
Emotion regulation is basically a process to describe a person’s ability to effectively manage and respond to an emotional experience. Humans unconsciously use emotion regulation strategies to cope with difficult situations many times throughout each day. Most of us use a variety of emotion regulation strategies and are able to apply them to different situations in order to adapt to the demands of our environment, Emotions, thoughts, and our behavior are all linked together. All of us feel and experience emotions both negative and positive every day. Emotions are a normal part of our everyday lives, humans have the power to experience them. For some though, feeling these emotions can seem overwhelming, like an out-of-control roller coaster. These often include guilt, sadness, feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, anger, self-blame, and low self-worth. Learning how to understand and work with the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors is the central process of emotion regulation .this regulation works differently for every person, Changing any part of this cycle can interfere with the pattern and lead to more positive thoughts or negative thoughts. Talking with friends, Exercising, Writing, Meditation, Therapy, Taking care of self when physically ill Getting adequate sleep , Paying attention to negative thoughts that occur before or after strong emotions Noticing when you need a break, and having your me-time are all common examples of this emotion regulation.if day to day on regular basis a individual is facing issues in such things which help in cope to emotional distress so this can be the part of emotion dysregulation, which should not be ignored and treated carefully There are many healthy things that can uptake this emotion regulation ,can be effective in helping to regulate emotions, though it can take time and practice to learn how to manage troublesome thoughts and feelings in different ways. For example - Take Care of Your Physical Needs , Engage in activities that build a sense of achievement, thoughts play a critical role in how we experience a situation , analysing the situation which causes of feeling low and working according to them because Changing thoughts is easier than changing feelings can help in balancing in all this emotional dysregulation. There are many healthy things that can uptake this emotion regulation ,can be effective in helping to regulate emotions, though it can take time and practice to learn how to manage troublesome thoughts and feelings in different ways. For example - Take Care of Your Physical Needs , Engage in activities that build a sense of achievement, thoughts play a critical role in how we experience a situation , analysing the situation which causes of feeling low and working according to them because Changing thoughts is easier than changing feelings can help in balancing in all this emotional dysregulation.