[Carmina]

Mood swings are so complex, I was watching "Logan" the other night feeling really low and crying the whole time because I was that child, but then found myself breaking into laughter in response to a humourous moment despite the tears still running down my eyes.

Do you find yourself laughing inside of crying or crying inside of laughter? When feelings are so close to the surface I find they tend to run into each other, like paint colours in the rain.

[Trace14]

Originally Posted by Carmina

Mood swings are so complex, I was watching "Logan" the other night feeling really low and crying the whole time because I was that child, but then found myself breaking into laughter in response to a humourous moment despite the tears still running down my eyes.

Do you find yourself laughing inside of crying or crying inside of laughter? When feelings are so close to the surface I find they tend to run into each other, like paint colours in the rain.

I think they are two different emotions and a reaction to two different things. Can they happen at the same time? Yes. At my Dad's memorial I was sobbing, but then someone would mention something funny he did and I would laugh. Where as paint colors in the rain would mix and make different colors, I think more of it as oil in water. They both can occupy the same space but be completely separate. Emotion and people are very complex.

[Carmina]

Yeah good example. I guess I'm wondering if there's a point where it's not so much different emotions being felt at the same time but that the barriers between emotions themselves start to break down and they begin to flow into each other. After all if you go right back to a newborn baby, before their emotions start to differentiate, and much before they can start to name and categorise them, they are just a big blob of 'want' and 'need'. Fundamentally they all come from the same place that exists below and before words and categories of things.

[Trace14]

Originally Posted by Carmina

Yeah good example. I guess I'm wondering if there's a point where it's not so much different emotions being felt at the same time but that the barriers between emotions themselves start to break down and they begin to flow into each other. After all if you go right back to a newborn baby, before their emotions start to differentiate, and much before they can start to name and categorise them, they are just a big blob of 'want' and 'need'. Fundamentally they all come from the same place that exists below and before words and categories of things.

I expect that would be true to some point but even a baby knows when to cry when something is uncomfortable, hurts, scares them. How do they know that? Puzzles me But as we get older and do know what hurt, fear, pain feel like they are all separate though you could feel them at the same time. But we know what they are and where they came from. People do laugh so hard they cry, even though there's no sadness associated with it. So I guess each situation is independent but could be expressed at the same time. Just my opinion though. Interesting topic for sure.

[Fuzzybear]

(((((((( Carmina ))))))))

[Carmina]

Originally Posted by Trace14

I expect that would be true to some point but even a baby knows when to cry when something is uncomfortable, hurts, scares them. How do they know that? Puzzles me But as we get older and do know what hurt, fear, pain feel like they are all separate though you could feel them at the same time.

Yes that's what I mean by emotional differentiation, for a baby they just respond to an internal feeling or external stimulus and initially their reaction is just to cry when they experience any discomfort (and laugh or smile in response to pleasure) but eventually they learn how to express feelings in more complex ways, at first by having different types of cries/behaviours for different things then gradually through language. Gradually, over several years (via the terrible 2s etc) they develop emotional regulation. But newborn babies are probably the ultimate when it comes to emotional lability and rapid cycling mood swings because at that stage the boundaries between those moods have barely begun to form. So what I'm wondering is when we experience trauma in childhood does this interfere with the development of emotional self regulation and if so, does this play a role in emotional lability and mood swings in our adulthood? It implies that we may be needing to go back through that process.

[Trace14]

Originally Posted by Carmina

Yes that's what I mean by emotional differentiation, for a baby they just respond to an internal feeling or external stimulus and initially their reaction is just to cry when they experience any discomfort (and laugh or smile in response to pleasure) but eventually they learn how to express feelings in more complex ways, at first by having different types of cries/behaviours for different things then gradually through language. Gradually, over several years (via the terrible 2s etc) they develop emotional regulation. But newborn babies are probably the ultimate when it comes to emotional lability and rapid cycling mood swings because at that stage the boundaries between those moods have barely begun to form. So what I'm wondering is when we experience trauma in childhood does this interfere with the development of emotional self regulation and if so, does this play a role in emotional lability and mood swings in our adulthood? It implies that we may be needing to go back through that process.

<<So what I'm wondering is when we experience trauma in childhood does this interfere with the development of emotional self regulation and if so, does this play a role in emotional lability and mood swings in our adulthood? >> I would say yes to this. But how would you go back through that process now that you "know" the difference?

[Carmina]

Originally Posted by Trace14

But how would you go back through that process now that you "know" the difference?

I wasn't seeing this as a conscious thing we 'need' to go back through, more just wondering whether when emotional responses are damaged they 'bleed' into each other and become more fluid at times (despite what we 'know' feeling is deeper).