Ok, I've been promising summaries and getting bogged down with other stuff and not getting a round tuit.

We have continued to talk about emotions, and how complex they are, and how breaking it down into smaller pieces makes it more possible to understand emotions. And you have to understand them and accept them for what they are, before you can change them.

Marsha Linehan says, ""If you don't accept that your tire is flat, you're not going to be able to change it."

There are only about eight or so basic emotions (such as Love, Joy, Surprise, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Guilt/Shame), but there are many variations and combinations that go along with those. I have had people argue with me about anger being a basic, or primary emotion. They have learned that anger is always a secondary emotion. It is true that anger seems to be a reaction to feeling something else first, but in the sense that I'm talking about it is a primary emotion in that it is one that people recognize and understand around the world, and that babies can sense and display without having to learn it. Complex emotions are combinations of emotions, learned emotions, patterns of emotions, etc.

In this model, emotions can become prompting events for new emotions. Such as being mad after feeling afraid, or surprised that you felt happy, etc. To understand all of what you are feeling, you can go through the model of emotions with each separate emotion that you notice, and identify the prompting event for each one, your interpretation, what you can sense, how you express it, how you label the emotion, and the aftereffects.

I think I need to explain a little more about aftereffects. These can be whatever you are left with, or what changes for you as a result of the emotion you experienced. "Intense emotions have powerful aftereffects on memory, thoughts, and even the ability to think, physical function and behavior. In a sense, we can say 'emotions love themselves.' They organize the person in such a way as to continue (or keep firing) the very same emotion." (Linehan, p. 89: Skills Trainng Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder) Emotions tend to keep us feeling them, and we can also go numb and attemt to stop feeling emotions. I'm not sure whether to consider going numb an aftereffect, or simply a behavior. What do you think it is?