Everyone experiences strong emotions at some point in their life, and it’s completely normal. However, when emotions become overwhelming, it can be difficult to know how to cope. Whether you’re dealing with stress, anxiety, anger or sadness, having tips that can help you deal with overwhelming emotions can be incredibly helpful.
How To Deal With Overwhelming Emotions in Early Recovery
Sobriety, much like life, can be hard. In early recovery, events and interactions with others, or within yourself, can all lead to negative or overwhelming emotions. Unfortunately, feeling overwhelmed by emotions can increase the risk of relapse in early recovery. It is important to have skills to help cope and manage overwhelming emotional responses.
Here are some tips on how to cope with overwhelming emotions:
1. Observe and describe the emotions.
Emotions have physical, cognitive, and behavioral aspects to them. It is important to observe these aspects and describe them to better understand the cycle of emotions. If we can identify and explain how we feel tense and warm when we are angry, or if we feel clammy, shaky, and loss of breath when we are anxious, we will be better equipped to implement skills and prevent unhealthy behavioral responses to uncomfortable emotions.
2. Reframe negative or overwhelming thoughts.
Thoughts play an important role in coping with overwhelming emotions. After a prompting event, we have individual interpretations to these events. Emotions are self-perpetuated and implementing alternative thoughts when we are overwhelmed can help to break the cycle from feeling frustrated, to angry, to hopeless.
For example, if we do not get a job that we are hoping for, it can be easy to cycle down into self-defeating thought patterns that retrigger hopelessness and feeling disheartened. Instead, you can reframe your thoughts by focusing on the other opportunities and experiences gained from the interview process and what you can do differently. Also known as cognitive reframing, this practice offers an alternative perspective that can also help to ease the negative emotional response.
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3. Become aware of your vulnerability to negative emotions.
The common expression is HALT. Are you hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? This is important to keep in mind to ease feeling stressed and decrease the chance you will act impulsively. Another vulnerability is if we are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If we are aware of our vulnerabilities then we can be at ease knowing it feels worse in this moment than it would if we had felt well rested, were sober, or if we had eaten a fulfilling meal. It is important to make note of our vulnerabilities and engage in self-care to prevent further emotional suffering.
4. Distract yourself.
Distraction can be extremely useful in tolerating the feelings in the moment so we do not act on them in a way that may cause harm to us later. A helpful acronym is ACCEPTS which stands for:
- Activity: Are there activities you can try? This could be visiting with a friend, attending a meeting, or treating yourself to a nice dinner.
- Contribute: You can contribute to someone through service work and giving back.
- Compare: You can compare your state with another’s perspective and increase gratefulness for your situation.
- Emotion: You can try acting opposite to the emotion you’re feeling. If you are feeling sad or low, listen to an upbeat or empowering song.
- Push: You can also try pushing the negative emotions or thoughts away. This should be a last resort to tolerating negative emotions.
- Thoughts: You can try changing your thoughts (see tip number 2 for more information).
- Self-soothe: Participating in self-soothing acts like bubble baths, massages, running, knitting, Sudoku puzzles, or yoga exercises can help you calm you down.
Originally from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), this skill can be extremely helpful in managing stress, anxiety, and negative emotions through distraction.
Preventing Relapse By Coping With Overwhelming Emotions
With these tips, you can learn how to cope with overwhelming emotions and prevent relapse. You’ll be better equipped to handle any task that comes your way with confidence and efficiency. With the right mindset and approach, you can conquer any challenge and achieve your recovery goals.
If you or a loved one is struggling to cope with overwhelming emotions in recovery, Footprints to Recovery can help. Contact our 24/7 admissions department to learn how our programs can help you develop healthy coping skills and maintain long-term sobriety.
