Emotions Anonymous (EA) is a twelve-step organization (similar to Alcoholics Anonymous) that helps people who are experiencing problems or difficulties involving depression, anger, broken or strained relationships, grief, anxiety, low self-esteem, panic, abnormal fears, resentment, jealousy, guilt, despair, fatigue, tension, boredom, loneliness, withdrawal, obsessive and negative thinking, worry, compulsive behavior and other emotional issues.
The official website for Emotions Anonymous reports that as of 2007 there were over 1,000 EA Chapters in 35 countries. A search of its World Meeting List includes six live web chats scheduled at various days and times each week and eight telephone conference calls.
The organization was founded in 1971. An audio podcast from its national convention in 1981 is available online. A January 1971 article, “The Role of Self-Conducted Group Therapy,” published in the American Journal of Psychiatry: “People may find EA useful when psychiatric treatment is not available to them, when they have resistance to psychiatric treatment, or as a complement to such treatment.”
A book entitled “Emotions Anonymous“ is available at Amazon.com. One reviewer wrote that its “redeeming feature is teaching people to minimize external stresses. It has an effective method for handling anxiety and regaining composure during minor internal crisis.”
Website: EmotionsAnonymous.org
I’ve been in emotions anonymous for about eight months, and so far, I really love it. Going to the meetings is helpful to me because others share things that have worked for them. I get to hear about possible strategies for coping with stress, intrusive thoughts, conflicts with people, etc. Plus, It’s nice to know I’m not alone. I’m also working the steps, which is a really rigorous and difficult process, but I have learned a lot about myself. I’ve identified some behavior patterns in my life that have caused me a lot of problems.
For me, the best thing about EA is that it’s teaching me to cope with emotions and live with unsolved problems. I think that’s a learned skill, which some people are better at than others. I’m not so great at it, but luckily I have a program to help me!
EA is the ONLY thing that has EVER changed my life for the better. I have been hospitalized 3 times, most recently last fall, and on disability for 3 months, first with bipolar diagnosis and then changed to depression and anxiety. I lived with torment. Always. And I believed that was because I was too weak to handle life.
If you are in need of relieving that torment and being set free, please look ea up.
I’ve been in EA on and off for about 10 years. When I’m working the EA steps, things go well. I have a support network, I am reminded to rely on my Higher Power, I have the EA slogans in my head. All of that keeps me on an even keel.
When I fall away from the program, things unravel, because I am powerless over my emotions. I strongly encourage people to go to EA!!
I have been participating in an online EA group over the last few months. I have been in 12-step recovery for many years, and only in EA for a little while, but this seems to be providing the missing piece, in many ways. As an addict in recovery, I have continued to struggle periodically with the intense and difficult emotions that have arisen and have spent some time trying to deal with them. I have been in therapy for years with slow progress. Side effects of medication has made it difficult for me to use antidepressants. EA has been really helpful as far as being able to be honest with a caring healing community about my emotional extremes, and to be honest with myself. Thanks for this write-up. More people need to know that EA is around.