Are you a Super-Feeler?

• Have you been told you are too sensitive or that everything is a big emotional deal for you?
• Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by your emotions—like a knob turned all the way up for anger, anxiety, guilt, sadness, and other emotions?
• Do you experience your emotions so intensely, as being overpowering, that you cannot manage your behavior or think clearly in the moment?
• Do you behave in ways that you later regret because in a given moment you do exactly what you feel?
• Do you struggle to identify what you’re feeling most of the time?
• Are you exhausted from going up and down, left and right, because of overwhelming emotions?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, chances are you are a super-feeler.

As a super-feeler, you’re dealing with emotion regulation problems—as all people do at times—but because of your makeup, you feel most of your emotions at a maximum level, turned all the way up, and despite your efforts, you frequently get stuck on a reactive chain of emotion after emotion, almost on a daily basis. You may wonder . . .

Patricia E. Zurita Ona, Psy.D., “Dr. Z,” is a clinical psychologist specialized in working with children, adolescents, and adults struggling with OCD, anxiety, and emotion regulation problems.

Dr. Z is the founder of the East Bay Behavior Therapy Center, a boutique therapy practice, where she runs an intensive outpatient program integrating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) to support clients getting stuck from obsessions, figure out what they care about, and do stuff that matters to them.

Dr. Z. is a Fellow from the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), member of the OCD San Francisco Bay Area (affiliate from the International OCD Foundation), and a chair of committee for the Anxiety and Depression American Association (ADAA).