Suppressing emotions means choosing not to acknowledge your emotions, thereby failing to express them or take actions to protect your mental health.
In most cases, emotional suppression isn’t seen as a problem because people are conditioned to act this way. We’re told that expressing every emotion we feel is a sign of weakness. Men have it worse. They are raised to believe that not showing their emotions is a sign of strength and manliness. This stigma couldn’t be further from the truth.
Emotions are like energy waves. They vary in intensity and strength and are meant to pass quickly. So, suppressing what you feel only makes things worse because it increases rumination and perseveration.
This is to say that you’ll end up holding on to the feelings you’re trying to avoid, and you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.
The best approach is to find effective ways to express your emotions and move past the negative. In this article, we explore the causes and effects of emotional suppression and provide effective tips on regulating your emotions healthily. Besides, we’ll explore how mental therapy can help you in this.
Table of Contents
What Causes Emotional Suppression?
People don’t express their emotions because they don’t want to be seen as weak. Some want to fit in and be liked, and being overly emotional doesn’t quite cut it.
However, there are many reasons why people bottle up emotions. These include:
- As a means to escape: Bottling up emotions is easier than facing and acknowledging extremely painful ones
- To maintain a positive social image: Some people suppress their emotions so that others can see them in a positive light
- Conditioning: Some have been conditioned to believe that suppressing emotions is a sign of strength
- Positive thinking movement: People who express their emotions are considered negative, so they suppress their feelings to appear more positive
What Are the Effects of Emotional Suppression?
When you’re suppressing your emotions, you may think you’re doing yourself and others a favor. After all, you’re not flying off the handle in anger, having a meltdown, or sulking even though you feel like doing all these things.
However, emotions can’t be fully suppressed.
When you suppress your emotions, they don’t go away, they’re buried in your subconscious, and at some point, they’ll come out. These bottled-up emotions often result in depression, mood swings, unexplained sadness, and other health issues.
Below are some of the consequences of bottling up emotions:
Mental Health Issues and Addiction
Suppressed emotions worsen over time because we’re not giving them or ourselves the deserving attention. Instead of focusing on healing, seeking reconciliation, forgiveness, or redemption, we bury our emotions deeper and deeper, hoping they’ll vanish on their own.
But unfortunately, negative emotions don’t just disappear without any form of resolution.
If you don’t work on embracing and regulating your emotions, they can affect your mental health and lead to addiction.
For example, most people experience an overwhelming feeling of sadness that leads to depression. To cope with depression, they turn to drugs and other addictive substances to cope. It’s a never-ending cycle that results in even worse situations.
Impaired Physical Health
When you choose to suppress your emotions instead of attending therapy or using other approaches to cope effectively, you’re betting against your physical health as well. Our thoughts and feelings impact our bodies and energy systems acoording to cnns.
We hold on to suppressed feelings physically and energetically, which impacts our energy systems and physical health.
For instance, unresolved anxiety and depression can lead to insomnia, high blood pressure, and eating disorders. On the other hand, addictions can have severe effects, including organ failure.
Other ways that suppressed emotions can affect our bodies include:
- Chronic pain issues
- Trauma-related conditions like fibromyalgia
- Physical pain and discomfort
- Poor posture that causes muscular and skeletal problems
- Digestive problems
Recurring Nightmares
Suppressing emotions can also lead to recurring nightmares. You see, when you’re unable to deal with your emotions in the real world, they may leak out in the form of dreams or nightmares.
If you continue avoiding dealing with your emotions, these nightmares keep popping up, and there’s nothing you can do to get rid of them.
The only solution for recurring nightmares is to deal with the root cause of the problem – addressing your emotions and finding a way to regulate them.
For instance, if you’re harboring resentment towards someone, the best way to deal with such a situation would be to talk to the person, express your feelings, and come to a resolution. Doing so gives you closure and allows you to move on. But, most importantly, it frees up any buried emotions in your subconscious.
Emotional Numbness
Sometimes, when you’ve grown accustomed to suppressing your emotions, you may get to a point where you’re unable to ignore and bury your emotions consciously. You get so used to the presence of your emotions that you can no longer detect them.
This is known as emotional numbness.
However, even though you’ll no longer be consciously aware of these negative emotions, they’ll pop up anytime something triggers the same emotion. They can be even worse because you’ve been bottling up emotions for a long time.
How to Express Your Emotions
You shouldn’t suppress your emotions. Let go of the notion that ignoring your emotions makes you stronger or more likable. It’s a form of personal injustice.
The more you suppress your emotions and refuse to acknowledge them, you’re causing yourself more harm than good. You’re basically choosing to put your mental and physical health in danger to be liked and perceived differently. It’s not worth it.
People who love you will allow you to express your emotions as they come because they know that’s what’s best for you. Therefore, don’t be afraid to feel. Instead, find ways to express your emotions and regulate them.
Some of the best ways to express your emotions include:
Talk Therapy
Talking about how you feel goes a long way in helping you deal with your emotions effectively. As they say, “a problem shared is half-solved.” Therefore, find someone you can talk to freely and that you trust and share what you’re going through. It can be a friend or relative.
However, if you can’t think of anyone to talk to, consider therapy. A licensed therapist will provide a safe space without judgment to express and validate your emotions. Besides, counselors provide effective coping tools to help you deal with what you’re going through.
Journaling
Putting your feelings down on paper is also an excellent way of expressing yourself. Ideally, you’ll be removing all the negative emotions you feel into the pages, which can be cathartic. Besides, journaling helps you get a deeper understanding of your feelings.
Exercise
If you’re not big on talking or journaling, getting all your frustrations out on a punching bag can also go a long way. You’ll find that you can restrain yourself when angry because you have a positive way of challenging that anger instead of taking it out on people.
Wrapping Up
Bottling up emotions does more harm than good. If you’ve been doing it because you feel like it makes you appear stronger, now you know it doesn’t.
So, find more effective ways to express your emotions to prevent them from going too far. Calmerry therapists can provide you with the support you need to cope and regulate your emotions healthily.
