PS C:\> tar -xf Emotions_Hijacked_v1.zip
Application_Install.exe
When your emotions get loud, they feel urgent. Like if you don’t do the thing right now, something bad is going to happen. But that urgency is a lie your nervous system is telling you. There’s a tool from Dialectical Behavior Therapy called Opposite Action, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: you do the opposite of what your emotion is pushing you toward. Feel like isolating? Call someone. Anxious and want to avoid? Show up anyway. Craving something that’s going to wreck you? Choose something that doesn’t. It’s not magic. It’s not easy. But it works, because emotions don’t have to run the show.
The catch is you have to actually use it. I didn’t, one night. I gave in to a craving instead, and I felt the consequence. But that’s the thing about tools like this, they’re always available on the next try. Every moment is a reset. Emotional urges don’t last forever, and neither does the window to make a different choice. The point isn’t to be perfect. The point is to know the tool exists, and keep it close enough to reach for it.
That is the application. The rest is the source code.
SourceCode.txt
The open-source code below is free, for you to analyze, modify, and build your own application with.
> you know it's not helpful, but you do it anyway: hijacked.exe
Ever feel hijacked by your emotions?
Like you know it’s not helpful, but you still do the thing anyway?
Yeah. Me too.
For me, it’s food, especially the kind that spikes my blood sugar.
Tonight, after a rough day of unexpected neck pain, I gave in to a craving for tortilla chips. Just a handful… and then some.
Now? My blood sugar’s going to be wrecked for a few days.
This is what emotional urges do. They feel urgent. And sometimes, they win.
> simple, not easy, but powerful: opposite_action.dll
But there’s a tool from Dialectical Behavior Therapy that I try to keep in my back pocket.
Opposite Action.
It’s simple. Not easy.
But powerful.
You do the opposite of what your emotion is telling you to do.
Feel like isolating? Call someone.
Anxious and want to avoid? Show up anyway.
Craving junk food? Choose something that supports your health instead.
> every moment is a chance to try again: retry.sh
Tonight, I didn’t use Opposite Action.
And I’m feeling the consequence.
But I’m not here to beat myself up. I’m here to remind myself, and maybe you, that every moment is a chance to try again.
Opposite Action doesn’t erase the urge.
It gives you power over it.
Next time, I’ll cook. Or breathe. Or pause.
Because emotional urges don’t have to run the show.