Am I overreacting, or am I talking myself out of my feelings?

What to do when you feel like your feelings are wrong

Have you ever found yourself questioning whether the way you feel is wrong? It can be quite a tough situation to be in. I, for one, understand the need to correct any potential overreactions. Yet, it's hard to identify whether your doubts about your feelings are genuine concerns or tries to manipulate or suppress your emotion.

In this article, we will discuss the emotional rule book you may have subscribed to and how to approach your feelings when you feel like they may be "wrong".

This article is for paid subscribers, yet I do want to leave everyone with some thought-provoking questions for your own little moment of reflection. If you want to know my take on these questions, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

• Do I question my emotions when I'm faced with differing opinions or reactions from others?

• When have I ever felt pressured to conform to a standard emotional response, even when I felt strongly differently?

• Do I tend to suppress my emotions because I'm worried they might be wrong or inappropriate?

There is no standard to how you should feel in any given situation.

I used to think that in a given situation, everyone should feel the same way. This implied that there were right and wrong ways to feel about something. This belief often caused me to question my emotions, wondering if I was somehow mistaken or overly sensitive. For example, if someone said something that hurt my feelings, I expected my friends to react in a similar manner - to feel the same hurt and anger that I did. When my friends wouldn't react how I thought they would if they felt like I did, I would begin to question my emotions. I wondered if I was overreacting or being irrational, given that my friends appeared unbothered.