What is your Favorite Emotion?

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's a difficult choice. Emotions are amazing. I think many people don't appreciate them. I was raised not be emotional. Silently contented was my parents' emotion of choice for their girls. Crying was often punished, anger was always punished, excessive happiness was frowned upon and also punish if it included any loud noises (like too much laughing, jumping up and down with Eee). For a long time I struggled to express emotions and for a period...when my emotional health hit rock bottom, I couldn't feel emotions at all. I always refer to that time as when I didn't exist. If you've ever felt such a complete lack of emotion...it's kind of awful.

My mother encouraged my expressions, but my dad disdained them -- not just "boys don't cry", but stoicism to a deleterious extent -- so I've always had this struggle in me to express my emotions and at the same time tamp them down. As much angst as this has caused me, in one sense that tension has been beneficial, insofar as it has fueled my creativity. Having Dad frown upon the expression of emotion, I turned them into songs and stories, even as outwardly in everyday life I'm as stoic as Dad was.

I think misery is my favorite I don't actually enjoy feeling it but it brings out my creative side. I do my best writing when I let myself drown in my own darkness. The only bad thing is, it can be hard to pull yourself free if you're not careful.

I get a lot of creative juice out of unhappiness, but for me I've found that writing about it helps to cope with it. You're right, it's easy to dwell in it, but one thing I've found is that when I write about my unhappiness (prose or verse) I'm forced to think about it, analyze it, and that process itself often helps me come to grips with it. Not saying that the creative product is worth attention or merit -- it's sometimes schlock and sometimes pretty good, if I do so allow, but whether or not others like it at all doesn't matter, because in the end I write (songs or stories) for myself. It's a form of therapy.

I got home from work tonight about twenty after eleven. Having heard about Nishi's suicide and thought about it my entire shift at work, and having been touched by his outlook, I immediately picked up my guitar and started playing. It wasn't my best playing, but it's helped me process my feelings about his death.

Therapy.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Anger can give you a feeling of power. But that feeling of power only feels good because you need it to replace something.
Anger hurts you mentally and physically. All negative feelings do.
That's my opinion.

While I do partially agree with you, I do think it depends on the individual. Different individuals react differently to different emotions, for me anger is Empowering, it's my favorite emotion, it makes me restless and full of motivation and everlasting rage,which I like. Anger inspires me.

[energizer bunny]

I enjoy that feeling of aliveness that i feel sometimes.

[TheRealJoeFish]

The best feeling in the world to me is knowing that, for the next however many hours or days or weeks, I don't need to hurry, or rush, or meet deadlines or obligations. The feeling I get at the beginning of a vacation, or the start of a weekend, or, even, like today, when I realized that this would be the first Monday in six months when I didn't have any commitments between the end of work today and the beginning of work tomorrow.

I think "relaxation" as a choice in the above poll captured that quite nicely.

[vorlon13]

My first month in 12 Steppers was essentially emotionless. I marveled at the novelty of it, the year prior I suffered from frequent, abrupt, violent debilitating mood swings as a result of my addictions. My attempts at self medicating myself (and my mood problems) was actually causing them.

A plane load of people died in Cerritos CA for me to experience sadness. An odd 'step' in recovery . . .

[Losty]

My first month in 12 Steppers was essentially emotionless.  I marveled at the novelty of it, the year prior I suffered from frequent, abrupt, violent debilitating mood swings as a result of my addictions. My attempts at self medicating myself (and my mood problems) was actually causing them.

A plane load of people died in Cerritos CA for me to experience sadness.  An odd 'step' in recovery . . .

[vorlon13]

Indeed. And that's appreciated.

I encountered a sober but non 12 Stepping (ever) man several years ago that recounted a similar emotionless state when he sobered up.

I realize it sounds alien or frightening to be that way, but 'fright' is an emotion too, and it didn't arise. I was so relieved at being off the rollercoaster the emotionless state was just a relief.

And that state wore off gradually, I was fully functional when I encountered Brian a few years later . . . .

[Thumpalumpacus]

My first six or so weeks of recovery were anything but emotionless -- I felt like someone had pulled the blanket off, now every goddamned emotion I had was on ELEVEN and running on the spin cycle until the next fucking emotion came on, and pray to sweet baby Jesus that it was in a similar vein so I wouldn't get whiplash from a sudden change of course.