Emotional flooding is the experience of being physiologically overwhelmed by emotion — the moment when the wave is larger than the capacity to process it, when thought becomes inaccessible and behavior becomes reactive. It's not a character flaw. It's a nervous system response. It happens more easily to some nervous systems than others, often for reasons that predate the current situation.

Anonymous thoughts about emotional flooding posted here are from people who know what it's like to be overtaken — the honest account of the moment before thought becomes possible again.