For your emotional health, being able to identify and describe how you’re feeling is essential. While it might seem easy though, many people lose sight of what’s happening inside and what’s triggering different “feels.”
Emotional Categories
Emotions can be put into categories to help with their identification. Three common ones are:
- Joy
- Sadness
- Anger
To fully describe them, let’s look at each one.
1. Joy
When you feel at ease and safe, you’re likely feeling joy. If you are knitting or doing another activity you love, then this feeling might come on strong. Or, if you’re hugging a loved one, that’s another time when this emotion comes up.
To describe how you’re feeling, you might say you’re at peace or satisfied. Or, “I’m excited!” Another descriptor is explaining that you’re relieved.
If you feel like you can’t quite connect to being joyful, it could be that you have a lot of stress or worry. You might also be caught up in thinking about the past, rather than being fully present now.
2. Anger
If you feel like you experienced an injustice, that is typically when anger will build up and show itself. Perhaps you were not able to properly defend yourself or were threatened.
While the common perception of anger is that it is “bad,” that’s not necessarily true. It’s a natural emotion. However, it can become toxic over time.
To describe your anger, you might use words like bitter, peeved, annoyed, vengeful, or insulted. To deal with this emotion in a way that won’t cause issues for you or someone around you, express yourself constructively during drug rehab at a treatment center, within a support group, or while talking with loved ones.
Rather than keeping your anger to yourself, it’s better to talk about it to diffuse the emotion. Try to use a calm tone of voice when describing how you feel to reinforce your emotional health.
3. Sadness
It’s natural to feel sad now and then. It could result from a certain event or a loss. You might also have times when you are uncertain why you are crying or expressing sadness in another way.
To be able to talk about it more effectively, you might say you are grieving or unhappy. Also, you might express a feeling of loss or being heartbroken. Feeling troubled or lonely also signifies sadness.
This feeling can be tough to “turn off,” and it’s not necessarily healthy to do so. Everyone has their own length and intensity of grieving too.
If you feel pain, then it can be helpful to speak with a loved one or a professional, such as a counselor, about it. You might also consider volunteering to feel a part of something bigger than yourself, add meaning to life, and help work through the sadness.
Final Words on Emotions
All emotions have a function, even if they are negative ones. Rather than trying to stop yourself from feeling a certain way, try instead to understand why you have that emotion and how you might react better to a situation in the future.
