Despite what we know, let's face it, moments happen in which we become emotionally reactive – slaves to our thoughts and feelings.

Some ways you may experience this:

• You are about to lose it, you are losing it, you've lost it
• Yelling or screaming back at another in an argument
• A stream of verbal insults
• Thoughts, intention and action to physically lash out
• Uncontrollable crying

In this episode of the podcast, you'll learn about the Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale (SUDS). This is a framework used to measure the subjective intensity of distress or disturbance experienced by an individual. SUDS is a self-measuring assessment developed by Joseph Wolpe using a scale of zero to 10 to rate the level of emotional disturbance.

The benefits of becoming familiar with this scale (you don't need to know it verbatim) is that it provides an instant self-assessment reference to where you are at, in the present moment.

Because the thing with emotions is that if you can name it, you can change it – this is acknowledgement and awareness.

Using the scale and knowing where you are will allow you to pause and take action to process and ease the level of distress. This may help prevent your emotional distress from escalating, and will help you help others when they are not control of their emotions.