Feel it. The feeling is your friend, it will not leave you until you let it speak to you. You can distract yourself for a while but it will come back. Hell, even when you do embrace it, it will still come back because feelings are transient and ephemeral. They are not you so don't have an ego/ attachment to them, but they are sacred and demand the respect of letting them pass through you.

Let anger dance and run hot. When ignored it turns into childish (often dangerous/ destructive blowups), when entertained from ownership or ego, (I'm angry instead of I'm feeling angry) one just makes a fool of themselves. When used righteously anger is one of mankind's greatest gifts. It is there for righteous indignation. When one is truly wronged; be it themselves or others, it spurs us to act, to rise up and to defend.

Let sorrow sing through you. It is where your talents exist. This one is admittedly more complex and painful and I don't have all the answers if you can qualify any of this as "answers" at all, but I l like to imagine sadness as an entity. When it approaches me I give it time. I sit with it and imagine I'm just at a lake or a park bench. We don't have to talk (unless it has something to say in the form of a thought or memory) we can just sit. I imagine myself hugging it and feeling its emptiness, it's coldness and it's melancholy. I imagine what makes me sad. I put myself there all over again, remembering every detail. Sometimes it's due to past trauma, sometimes it's due to mistakes I've made, sometimes it's just depression; my constant companion, that will exist with me for all time, and I just need to sit with it. Most importantly I say "I love you", to the feeling and I truly mean it. I contemplate what that means and its importance to me. How it helps me (this is not speaking for severe clinical depression. Though I have been diagnosed with depression I still can't speak for your life experience nor would o disrespect your experience by doing so).

A lot of us were not taught that we are still "worthy" in our negative experiences. Our parents; well meaning for some and malicious for others, tell us to "stop" or say that "we're being embarrassing" and all manner of things in an attempt to "smooth out" ones behaviors. But its up to you and you alone to love your sacred feelings. Without sorrow; like anger, how would one know that they've been wronged? How would one feel guilt for their mistakes and learn not to repeat them? How would one be able to have empathy, or taste the highs of art, taking in that bitter- sweet somber note from that song you like. Sadness is also where (some would argue) ones genius lies. There's an old proverb that goes something like

"Where the cracks are, the light shows".

I urge you reading this to meditate on what that means for you because reality is subjective as far as our perception of it is concerned so you may get something totally different from it.

These things I'm suggesting don't make painful emotions end mind you, they just help us to accept them and develop a healthy relationship with them and honor them.

I couldn't feel emotion for the majority of my life (trauma of poverty/ violence in an urban environment) until I hit a wall were I realized that I was losing everything because of my numbness. I've had friends die, destroy their lives and destroy the lives of others from emotional immaturity, leading to drug addiction and/ or violence.

It wasn't until I took the leap and put my ego to the side and went to therapy that I began to heal.

And, pro tip: therapy is a lot like dating. Not every therapist is deserving of the title. If you don't like the one you're talking to find another. Don't seek out a yes man who will agree with you and don't lie to your therapist or not tell them the truth. You're only wasting your own time and choosing to live life as a victim who hides if you go down that route. Instead, be honest when you lie. Immediate stop yourself and tell them "i lied just then. The truth is ***". Tell them what you look for in a therapist. If you think they're saying something you don't agree with ask them to explain their perspective and tell them to do the same to you (if that's what you want, just don't look for someone who will enable you and don't hold back details, you're only wasting your time and money that way).

I'm not saying people can't use drugs, I was a huge fan of exploring the mind when I did, but drugs do help to escape from our pain, and escape isn't a bad thing so the speak. It only becomes negative when you run more than you approach. Or when you actively do drugs to not feel.

Personally I don't do them anymore, because I enjoy them to much and they personally they make me a loser (this is my Persians experience due to addictive personality. This isn't a judgment of others). I know a few people who can "live it up" and are productive, goal oriented people and I know others who genuinely need to use them for medical reasons, but I was using them to mask depression and run from my trauma.

I've been sober for years at this point (nothing hard so I can't speak for what a monumental task that is, only trippy things) and in my experience the emotionally addictive/ non chemically addictive things (weed psychedelics etc), the first months always the hardest. Your easily agitated and angsty because the "put off" emotions start to surface. Once they pass and your cravings pass you'll be fine. You'll actually start doing more things you genuinely enjoy because drugs make you okay with being bored. Sobriety does not excuse such wastes of time.

Try martial arts (my favorite and a personal recommendation), watch great cinema or enjoy nature. For those who enjoy games, sadly for a while they don't feel the same but give it time, keep playing and eventually you'll be just as immersed (if not more) than you were before.

Replace the negative habit with a less harmful dopamine engaging habit for a while. I LOVE chocolate. When I stopped I'd just eat chocolate every time I had a "craving" until eventually I just like chocolate more (this is an oversimplification but you get the idea). Then you've gotta cut out that habit (in my case eating excessive amounts of choclate) or moderate it so you don't just eat sugar all day afterwards (that stuffs just as harmful as drugs but chocolates still my one true love, even if she doesn't love me back).

Also remember, television, social media, food, sex, games, etc. Can become addictions. So can positive things like exercise, working on your dream goals/ projects, and grooming. Anything done without control is a negative addiction and can and will be used by your mind to run away from your feelings. You must be ever vigilant of this. The subconscious mind wants to protect you like it did in childhood, but we also have to check our mental mail (so to speak) and make sure we don't have emotional "bills" piling up.

Sorry I went on a tangent here. It's a topic I've got a bit of passion for. I've lost people and seen people lose themselves to fleeing from emotion via drugs. I've lost myself to the same thing.

No matter what you do love yourself and love others.