What are some of the best methods you've found to feel emotions less intensely?

Get older.

Acknowledge them. Allow yourself to feel them, knowing they are only temporary. The more you try to suppress them, the longer it will take to work through them.

Exercise

I used to be very empathic, I cared so much about the world and everyone in it. Making sure people were taken care of, and hoping for the best for everything. I would get depressed when bad things happened and I couldn't do anything about it. But as I've gotten older and the world has gotten so much worse and it keeps getting worse and worse. I find I've adopted an "It is what it is" attitude about nearly everything. I have zero faith in humanity and it's ability to over come the downward spiral we are in, and doubt we will still be here in 100 years, and frankly have gotten to the point were I feel that might be for the best. Time for the universe to hit reset and start again.

It’s less about the intensity of your emotions and more about how you deal with them.

Let’s say you got really angry in public. It’s fine to get angry, sometimes there are good reasons for that. But there are multiple ways to deal with that anger. An unhealthy way would be to run amok and harm innocent people in order to vent. A healthy way would be to calm down, reflect on what makes you angry, and then either make an effort to improve your situation or remove yourself from it.

You can’t help feeling a certain way, but you can choose how you react to your emotions. Try to pick the option that is the least destructive to yourself and those around you. If emotional regulation is hard for you, you can learn coping skills from a therapist.

The box method of breathing for several minutes helps me in immediate situations. And I’ve found doing this on a regular basis helps it become a habit which in general helps me deal with emotions better.

As someone else posted, medication. If your psychiatrist thinks it is warranted.

Therapy can be a godsend. Don’t be afraid to hop therapists at the beginning either—find a good match.

And something that helps me immensely: I use this as a mantra: “I will not always feel like this. Tomorrow I will not feel like this. This will pass.” Treat these strong emotions as a wave you need to ride. But that wave will eventually subside and you cam comfort yourself with that fact.

Why would I want to do that? I wanna feel everything at the appropriate volume.

(not a serious response but a true one)

Antidepressants

Med. I. Cation. Specifically Prozac. It works great for me, but we're all different. Since I've been on it, it's changed my life. So many things were attached to my mental health that I never knew.

I find when I have a balanced life nothing in particular tends to make much of an impact. And when it does, those emotions are important and you shouldn't try to douse them. For example if your mother dies, it's normal and healthy to feel devastated.

What I mean by a balanced life is a meaningful job, fulfilling social relationships both romantic and non-romantic, hobbies and interests- intellectual and physical.

Stay far away from drugs.

About 25mg of Prozac a day and a job that supports my mild drug habit.

Things that work for me, not necessarily recommendations:

• Mindfulness practices
• Always be a little bit too busy for comfort, keeps you from dwelling on things
• Smoke; weed or tobacco, both help
• Deliberately cultivate positive self-talk, don't just uncritically accept whatever you mind tells you

For fear, anxiety, and panic, the 5-4-3-2-1 Exercise is amazing.

Read up on stoicism

Breathing exercises

Mindfulness meditation, not the catchy popular kind your work teaches but the actual Buddhist mindfulness. It's whole purpose is to be able to see the arising and passing away of thoughts/feelings without getting involved.

Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say “Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?”

and if you can't change it, why worry? especially after you've done your best

and also antidepressants and or maybe lithium. ask your psychiatrist about it

For me it's trying to get to the bottom of the reason why I feel a certain way. If I manage to logic myself out of the initial heavy torrent of emotions I can usually talk myself down if I feel it's destructive.

So just thinking about those emotions but not in a way that amplifies them. If I'm angry at someone I would try not to think more reasons why what that person did is wrong but more in the direction of why do I feel angry for them doing that.

If I manage to see my state in such a objective manner I'm able to just decide to stop feeling this way. Often I realise that feeling those emotions, even the negative ones, just feels good and even though I can stop I prefer not too. But at least it's a choice.

Distraction is the best coping method. I listen to audiobooks instead of trying to sleep and I fall asleep faster without the constant stream of internal anxious chatter

The ABCDEF-model works great for a lot of people.

I need the opposite. My emotions are flat as fuck.

Olanzapine

Non serious answer: Birth control. More specifically, depo, or the off-brand variant. (In my experience, I had that affect. For that and many other reasons, I wouldn't advocate this drug as a true suggestion for anyone)

Drugs and alcohol. Numb the body, numb the mind, numb the soul.

I'm going with the definition of "best" meaning "most effective" in this case.

Be exhausted constantly.

seriously, devote as little energy as possible to caring about shit. it works.

Hold it inside until I can get home and take an hour long bath immediately after work or have a manic breakdown the moment I get through the door in front of my s/o

Reviewing pros and cons of your actions helps

I quit drinking. I've had anhedonia for several years now since I got sobe. I have no emotions except occasional anger, but it only lasts for a few seconds.

Forgiving myself for feeling them.

Realizing that my emotional reaction is 1) human and 2) understandable and 3) a reaction, not an inevitability, can allow me to mentally (and physically, if necessary) step back. A sharp emotion is not yet a sharp word, and my initial reaction to a situation can be both normal and wrong, but I’m not locked in to that initial feeling. I can interpret and interrogate and change my mind.

It’s hardly easy to do that in high stress situations, but as a general rule it doesn’t help to fight high emotion with another high emotion like shame. Awareness of what causes them, knowing yourself and how you react and nurturing the patience to give yourself time and space to process can go a long way to making you feel less volatile.

years of depression has a numbing effect 👍

Learn not to give a fuck about meaningless stuff.

Everything and anything that is not closely related to you does not need your full attention.

Focus on your own well-being because no one else will do that for you.

The less you care the happier you are.

EMDR therapy.

It’s crazy but emotions are those things that CANT get lowered or hidden from ourselves … they will always find a way to go through . They are essentially what we are, the only thing I can think of to stop them is death.