Managing Emotions

 

If you experience excessive anger, sadness, or fear, out of proportion to what others might feel in the same situation, you may have difficulty regulating your emotions. Not only do you feel your emotions more deeply than others, but you are more reactive and impulsive when your emotions get activated. You may also have a harder time calming down once upset. 

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This “emotion dysregulation” is often caused by a chronically invalidating childhood environment, meaning that the adults in your life told you (directly or indirectly) that your emotions were wrong. Such experiences can result in an inability to trust your own emotions, leading to negative thoughts, self-doubt, and over-reliance on the opinions of others. 

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The treatment for emotion dysregulation is learning skills to help you validate and reassure yourself, working through negative emotions, and challenging faulty thinking.

 

To find a counsellor specializing in emotion dysregulation, please visit our Counsellors page.