When does managing your emotional responses turn into its own compulsion?
This following article does a nice job in outlining how mental checking can manifest in nuanced ways and in the form of managing emotions. While managing emotions is vital for healthy functioning, it is helpful to cultivate and awareness for when emotional management in itself is a compulsion.
Remember (and as the article states): “feelings are not meant to measure our faith or our true character. They are as fickle as the weather, and they will not flourish in the way they are meant to when we try to scrutinize or force them. Doing so blunts and blocks them.”
OCD and “Checking” our Emotions – Intrusive Thoughts
One of the subtler compulsions I’ve struggled with is checking my emotions to discern if I’m having the “right” reactions to an obsessional theme I’m struggling with. I’ve done this to try and sort out if I’m on board with the obsessional theme or not.
