If You Feel More Than Most, Build a Channel
Anger, overthinking, hyperanxiety, depression, or any emotion that exists with such intensity demands a different channel of expression. These are signs that the body is straining under high tension. That tension could come from unresolved emotions, whether from recent trauma or persistent emotional distress. Either way, the body is moving through turbulence without an exit point.
In psychological terms, it's called sublimation. The unresolved emotion finds a way out through other means. Every artist would agree. Their art reflects their inner turmoil. As they age, as they move through life, the same pattern keeps surfacing in their work. Picasso's paintings from his younger days looked very different from the ones he made once he had aged and matured. None of them were bad, but they were certainly different.
The same holds true in every craft. Some writers' early work shows their initial enthusiasm: building characters, giving them shade, giving them personality, building an authentic body of research to write a genuinely good novel. That last part remains constant, but as they mature over the years, they begin to lean toward darker undertones.
At the risk of generalizing, the underlying presumption is that artists who start early eventually experience life in its most brutal form, and that experience reflects in their art because it's the only channel of expression available to them. People who have lived through life's brutal side tend to pick an art form to practice and express themselves. They're well advised to do that, so their energy finds direction instead of tormenting the body.
If you're struggling with heightened emotions, if you're tired of constantly being in the throes of emotion, you need to find a channel to express it. Some take up sports, where a feeling of inferiority gets sublimated into hypercompetitiveness. The passion you see in an athlete, the never-say-die spirit, can often be sublimation of the will to prove themselves.
In my experience, if you're someone who feels a bit more than the rest, you need to build an expression channel where you can let it out. It's frustrating to rely on other people to assuage your fears, to validate your emotions, to calm you down every time you lose your composure. That always ends in disappointment and bad relationships. You don't want to come across as needy and clingy to another person.
Unresolved feelings have a way of surfacing in unexpected ways: in how you handle failure, in how you handle relationships, in how you handle your inner turmoil every time you face rejection. Journaling works because it's a channel of expression. Writing works because it too is a way to vent. Any form of activity, including but not limited to art, gives your inner frustration somewhere to go, and that's better than keeping it within.
We're all wired differently. We can either blame ourselves for being this way, bury our heads in every self-help book that comes out, or figure out a simple path of expression. The whole point of therapy is to express, to feel better. So why not take up the mantle yourself?