Have you ever pretended to hide your emotions?

Maybe you did it to push all feelings away. But do you know does it work or not? In this article, we will talk about emotional suppression and the risk factors that you should not miss at any cost.

Emotional suppression happens when you push unwanted thoughts and emotions out of your mind. People do it in various ways, such as feeling numb or disconnected from others or may experience anxiety or irritability.

Let's consider an employee whose boss shouts at him for a petty reason. Obviously, it makes him angry, but he does not direct this anger back at his boss for fear of losing his job.

What does he do to get rid of his anger?

Instead of redirecting his emotions toward his boss, he dumps them on his helpless juniors and yells at them.

What if he couldn't dump his anger on his seniors for some unavoidable reason?

Then he dumps it on his family members at home. That is how emotional suppression work.

5 Red flags of emotional suppression that you should never ignore

Here are five warning signs you shouldn't ignore. If you recognize these feelings, it's time to deal with them.

  1. Emotional suppression disturbs the digestive issue. As it is true gut is also called the second brain. And emotions like fear, joy, nervousness, and anger are felt in the gut. So, when you feel anxious, it causes disharmony in the gut. Hence you need to learn how to deal with emotions.
  2. When you choose not to confront something, you may feel anxious. Your anxiety may increase if you don't speak up. When all these moments add up, fear almost becomes your natural state. It is essential to be able to relax, which requires you to cope with emotions so they can be eliminated.
  3. When you bottle up your emotions, you're acting out a character. You're acting like someone who has no significant issues, or they feel fine with what happened. This role can be draining, and a division can arise between who you really are and what you act like. Think about why you feel different socially and whether you are comfortable sharing your feelings with others or not.
  4. Suppressing emotions often cause them to explode over little things. That tiny thing might be enough to push you over the edge. Or maybe that small thing is just another case of something going wrong. Whatever the reason, you need to address your feelings as they come. So, you can let it out sooner or later.
  5. Hiding emotions cause a lot of distractions. It revolves around the entire coping mechanism and causes depression-related issues.

Read more about Emotional regulation,  Emotional suppression and emotional repression and Emotional balance.

The road to recovery from emotional suppression

Suppressing emotions is not a good thing. It may lead to a host of mental and physical problems. If you feel yourself suppressing emotions, you must find healthy ways to deal with them. We at emotions.market deal with emotions. We use Plutchik's wheel of emotions and our experience creators can help you better regulate your emotional suppression, giving you happier life. We are not medical specialists or therapists. We only deal with pure emotions. 

Scientific evidence on emotional suppression

Emotional suppression, is a form of emotion regulation defined as the "conscious inhibition of emotional expressive behavior while emotionally aroused" (Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1993)). Emotion suppression is a cognitively demanding form of self-regulation, yet nowadays, expressing your emotions may be considered lack of manners. Iwamitsu et al (2009) suggest that it is "essential to encourage suppressive patients to express both negative and positive emotion clearly and appropriately".

Learn about Expressive suppression of emotions - 5 dangers to know.