Hi Wolfie,

I think feelings and emotions are the same things.  I'm curious what you mean though.  What I have found helpful over the years is to try to identify what I'm feeling by putting it into words such as saying out loud or writing down:  "I'm feeling angry or sad or frustrated or glad or happy or excited or overwhelmed or lonely...etc."  I do have to stop what I'm doing to figure it out and with practice it comes more easily in time.

When I have a hard time naming the emotion I'm feeling, especially if I'm feeling it strongly, that's when it can be overwhelming.  That's not a good feeling  -- to be overwhelmed by one strong emotion.  So, I try to stop, figure out what it is I'm feeling and why (if I can pinpoint why) and usually that works to help release the strong feeling I may be having.

Doing creative work most definitely helps a lot.  It can be anything creative, too.  Art, music, dance, knitting!  I find that gardening is a wonderful way to center myself and it's much more effective than knowledge ever was, that's for sure. It's hard to do gardening when living in a place like Vermont where the winters are so long!  I've done a lot of movement therapy which is simply dancing to music in an odd therapeutic way, but it's not something I'd do in public!   That also releases emotions that may be pent up inside my body.  

One other thing I've discovered in myself over the years is that the extreme anger and outrage that I felt because of my childhood abuses, were actually masking the profound underlying feelings deep sadness, loss, and grief that I was not able to face.  There were times when I was unable and afraid to cry because I thought that if I started crying, that I would never stop.  It wasn't true.  The crying always stops and it also releases emotions and I definitely feel so much better after a good cry.  It can be very scary to face sadness or grief, though.

Maybe that's what you're talking about when you say?

Or easier, we long for a new pain to forget an old pain, like with drugs its often funny and amazing in the beginning and we think it is a help and than the problems increase.

Above all, I have learned to be patient with myself in all of the things I've mentioned above.  Everybody gets to go through recovery from a painful life event at their own pace.

Cynthia