hello. i was wondering if people could explain how to recognise feelings of; ? > anxiety > disgust > unease/discomfort ? > pleasure > happiness > excitement ocd mixed with depression wont let me distinguish emotions and im stressed out about a particular situation where i felt; - a weird feeling in my stomach - increased heart rate - chest tightening - wanting to cry - swallowing/dry throat because to me, it sounds like unease/discomfort, but my brain tells me it means i like that situation :( could people please tell me their opinions on what this could sound like to them? not for reassurance, i just want to understand what i felt because my brain went let me myself. also, could someone please tell me what common reactions experienced with ocd (ie groinal responses etc) because while im in therapy im trying to avoid google because ill get trapped down a rabbit hole of reassurance. thanks, id appreciate any help on this one ?

Emotions aren’t felt in uniformly universal ways (for example, if both of us were anxious, I might feel a tightening in my chest and you might feel a pit in your stomach.) There are common things you can associate with emotions (ie when people are sad they often cry), but no universal truths (sometimes people also cry when they’re happy.) I can tell you that this hyper vigilance and hyper scrutiny about your feelings and emotions is very common in OCD and this line of questioning will never make you feel more clear about your emotions. In fact, it will only make you more confused and make things less and less clear over time. Trying to figure out exactly and to what degree you feel every minor emotion is losing battle. And the kind of certainty you’re seeking here is impossible and only feeding the OCD cycle. Next time you’re confused about a sensation, urge, or emotion, stop trying to analyze it. Instead, stop and ask yourself: what am I afraid of here? What does that fear make me want to do in response? How can I choose to lean into uncertainty instead? For example: you feel a tightening in your chest and you assume it’s anxiety, but then you wonder “what if it’s actually excitement?” Rather than trying to bring up the emotion again so you can observe every bodily sensation and thought or replaying the moment in your mind again and again looking for answers or going online to ask what the difference is between feeling anxiety and excitement: stop. Ask: what am I afraid of? In this case, maybe you’re afraid you secretly like something you don’t want to like because that would make you a bad person or a person you’re just not used to identifying as. Next: what do I want to do in response? Acknowledge that you really really want to research things online and figure out exactly what this sensation meant and replay the event again and again until it’s clear. Finally: ask yourself what can I do instead to lean into uncertainty. In this case you can say to yourself “maybe it was excitement, or maybe it was anxiety, or maybe it was another emotion entirely. I don’t know for certain and I don’t need to know with any more certainty.” And just let the anxiety and fear you feel exist and leave on its own without judging or wrestling with it.