greenstorm | Thoughts On Offloading Emotions

I think I tend to use people for offloading negative emotions (like, say, if I go to some unspecified event where something makes me uncomfortable) by talking about them rather quickly after the fact (like getting the urge to call someone on my walk home from said event) rather than thinking through what I feel first. I'm beginning to learn how important it is to me to figure out what exactly I'm feeling, rather than thinking of it as generally pleasant or unpleasant or whatever. Talking it out often does get me there, but it's not necessary. It's just a habitual thing I do, probably because talking it out allows me some analytical distance from what I'm feeling.

This isn't really necessary for me anymore. I can deal with whatever I'm feeling on my own well enough, at least for long enough to figure out what it is and what I want to do about it. Maybe once I've figured it out I'll decide I want to call someone for some sort of distraction or support or whatever, but that can actually come afterwards. This isn't to say that if someone is there conveniently I won't talk to them, but it does mean I don't have to, if it's not the kind of thing I want to be doing with that person.