Since starting therapy, I've been learning how to recognise, listen to, understand and cope with feelings. My T's approach encouages me to discover my own meanings and understandings, and I still really struggle with what to do with my emotions. I don't know whether to accept negative emotions and simply let them be or whether I should comfort myself through distraction and other techniques. I just feel like I'm always running from my emotions, and that I use distraction to the extreme - like a form of dissociation. Then again, if I don't do this I become overwhelmed and suicidal. The consequence of all this is that I either don't connect with my feelings or I am debilitated by them.

How do you work with your emotions? Does anyone else have this problem? What's the right balance between allowing emotions and dwelling on them?