All emotions serve a very vitual purpose: they are manipulations of the ego-mind to fulfill its survival agenda.
The only reason you are alive is because emotions have kept you from dying. And so your very life hinges on them. You use them not only to physically survive, but even more importantly, to maintain your self-image.
Which is precisely why Truth and ego-death is the scariest thing you can experience.
Emotions are no joke. Emotions are the equivalent of someone holding a gun to your head and telling you to dance.