Undoing Depression

Okay, I'm at the point in Undoing Depression where O'conner is laying out his twelve steps for recovery from depression. His number one is to feel your feelings. Depression rests on a bed of defense mechanisims to keep us from feeling our true feelings. This insulation eventually becomes what we percieve to be our true personality when it is really just a front.

I realize that I am currently insulating myself but at the same time I disagree with O'Connors belief that there is nothing to fear from truly experiencing or expressing your feelings.

I spent 8 years in a state of relative normality in which I wasn't afraid to feel or express my feelings. One of the things I discovered is that I am a very angry person. I am pissed off at many past hurts and continue to get pissed off by little things. Usually my first impulse at disappointment is not to be sad but to be angry. However I don't have a bad temper, nor am I particularly harsh when angry. I just yell and bitch and then I'm okay.

But no one accepts this. Our society teaches that one shouuld not express anger. People usually get very uncomfortable when I express or experience my anger. I am shunned, I am considered dangerous. O'Connor cannot honestly tell me it's safe to express my emotions when in doing so I actually run the risk of being misunderstood and rejected.

How can I express myself honestly when no one really wants to deal with the truth?

Emotions are dangerous because of their social implications. O'Connor needs to come up with a better arguement then to simply feel one's feelings. It don't work.