I guess what it comes down to is the utility of being able to describe an emotion. For example, the body responds to stimuli and releases neuotransmitters that are likely to activate a "fight or flight" response... at what point can the person in question intervene? Well, if the stimuli is an earthquake then the person in question can only intervene in their fear response after it occurs. However, somewhere in there was the thought "OMG I think this is an earthquake and I feel afraid". In most situations though the "stimuli" is likely to be a seamless set of thoughts that build on one another to provoke an emotion. E.g. "Oh, my H is mad at me. OMG - what happens if he leaves me? How will I afford the house? Raise the kids? I'm afraid." In this case there is the chance to learn coping mechanisms (training our cognitions) to short-circuit the loop that arises from the point of "Oh, my H is mad at me". Like, "OMG my H is mad at me. Wow, he must be having a bad day. Maybe he would feel better if I got him a glass of water and listened to his POV." Either one of these situations when re-experienced may provoke a suprising instant "fear" type response but the excitation in the body is the same as other intense emotions until labeled by the mind. "Fear", "Anger", "Excitement" all feel pretty similar to the body. At least that is the viewpoint of Cognitive Psychology.
I look on it as being a question of "what can I get in control of and when? If I believe that my body has the whole say so then meds would be better able to sort things out. Even meds that we think we understand the mechanisms "seratonin re-uptake inhibitor" etc... still affect different people differently. Why can one person successfully use anti-depressants once during a difficult time and otherwise cope while another must take them for the rest of their life? Is a basic "chemical imbalance" sometimes created by a situation and sometimes by genetics? Seems so. At my work we have individuals whose "baseline" on medications includes daily delusions and hallucinations. These folks take a cocktail of anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers etc... And yet........ The body, the mind, the interactions such a mystery!
