Defining Emotions

[JAM2b]

I have been struggling lately to adequately describe how I feel. I used to always use the very basic adjectives: happy, joy, peace, anger, frustration, fear, bitterness

But over the last few years things have changed a lot in my life, and I'm working with a counselor now who isn't just scraping the surface but going through exercises to explore deeper and trying to do some resetting.

I have gone through periods of numbness, anger, disgust, and relief. But what has hit me hardest and is sticking and is very hard to label is.. a very deep exhaustion and weakness with vulnerability. Along with it is also something that is like pain, but I don't know how to describe it. It isn't hurt feelings. It isn't a broken heart. It isn't sharp and stabbing. It isn't raw. It is just always there, very deep inside. It doesn't go away. I don't know what to call it.

 

[ClothedInGrace]

I assume that it's your spirit longing for more. I feel the same way most of the time because I know this world is not enough to satisfy and I am not as good as I should be.

 

[JAM2b]

I know what you are talking about, and I have experienced that. But what I'm talking about is something different. This emotion that I'm having is some kind of pain or wound. I just don't have a good description word for it.

For a little while I thought maybe bitterness, but it isn't bitterness. I just feel frustrated over not knowing what to call so that others can understand what it is I'm feeling.

 

[Dave-W]

I know what you are talking about, and I have experienced that. But what I'm talking about is something different. This emotion that I'm having is some kind of pain or wound. I just don't have a good description word for it.

I understand that. A counselor my wife and I saw a decade ago described it as a pool of unattached hurt. It is the accumulation of physical spiritual and emotional pain gathered over the years and all shoved into this "pool."