Emotion Regulation

This is our topic for the summer in my DBT class. In the homework for the week, I chose an anxious evening for my example. There are many emotions to choose from, of course.

In my example, I chose a prompting event as a recent evening where I thought people were talking about me - and negatively. I then figured that they were going to kick me out of where I live. I wanted to take Ativan. My heart was racing, my breath was quickened. But I didn't. I told myself that I didn't actually know what they were talking about and it could be about someone else. The after effects of the emotion were that I had many thoughts that Ihad to get rid of and memories of other bad times when they had talked about me. However, what this emotion did do for me was that I willed my anxiety away; I did not need ativan; I watched tv instead. I feel I was effectivebecause my anxiety was reduced and without drugs.

We have other emotions we talk about in this module, ofcourse, but I chose anxiety for my homework this week. I feel that this is going to be an interesting module. Its also the longest at about 11 weeks. As part of the reading, we have lots of emotions listed, including examples of actions taken in that specific emotion.

We take emotions for granted, but they aren't always so simple.