Extreme Emotions

I am 19 years old. From the time I was young, whenever my father used to get angry at me he used to hit me. He used to kick me on the face, pull my hair or smack me with shoes or sandals. Even now he still hits me sometimes.I have lost all respect for him. Never in my whole life has he ever encouraged me in any way. If I ask for advice, he gives sarcastic comments. I am not saying that he is the worst person in the world, in fact he can be very jolly and generous depending on his mood. But most of the times he says things which hurt a lot.

I think its all because of these things that I have very strong emotions. I am short-tempered, emotional and very stubborn. Once I decide I am right its very hard for me to change my mind. I am a very strong-willed person, but most of the time I keep my emotions, specially my anger,well hidden from people I dont know very well.It eats me inside. Still, many people I know take me as an oversensitive person. They take it as my weakness.

I dont have any problem being a social person, in fact I have many friends. My problem is reacting too strongly to certain things. I was offered a part-time job but my father didnt allow me to do it. When I heard that a friend got a job and she is happy with it, I was overcome with such a strong feeling of jealousy I couldnt think of nething else. I was thinkin of rude stuff to tell her to make her feel bad. I ponder over little things that for example a person said to me in jest and I feel so angry or embarassed that I affect even my family members around me.

The other day my boyfriend spoke to some girl and it was completely innocent but I reacted so strongly that I shocked even myself. Nowadayz I am getting so depressed about every little thing that all I do is cry. I like solving my own problems but I am desperate now. And so I am asking for your help.

Many people have strong feelings, but they but they hide them and do not show them to others like children do. They put up a grown up front. Is psychotherapy an option for you?

One way of managing strong feelings is to think of different parts of your mind as your childish and grown-up mind, and see the strong feelings as the child within you taking over, and thinking, what would my grown-up mind do, how would my grown-up mind think in this situation.

Read about responsible thinking.