Makes a whole lot of sense to ME. Part of why I drank was the discomfort/fear involved in feeling strong emotions (anger is what scares me more than "sadness"). When I first got sober, I felt like I would EXPLODE if I had to feel those feelings.
Well, I never actually exploded. I still find anger a very unpleasant emotion, but I have much less fear of it than I once did. I can now better tolerate it and find constructive ways to deal with it than I did before.
You may be onto something.