Expressive suppression of emotions - 5 dangers to know
Suppressing emotions happens when you consciously hide your feelings. It seems right initially, but continuously bottling up your emotions can cause a significant loss. It builds pressure inside your body, and eventually, due to any minor incident, it bursts vigorously, and you even can't understand what's happening to you. It can often lead to an embarrassing emotional release.
Throughout the day, you feel several emotions, like joy, anger, and sadness. But in actual cases, you do not fully express every emotion you feel—some emotions you fully express or regulate while some of the feelings that you don't show.
However, if you are habitual in hiding your emotions, you should be aware of the following detriments that happen to you if you do not express your feelings.
Mental exhaustion
When you suppress an emotion, you may hide the memory of something that had made you uncomfortable in the past. You cannot, however, forget a memory on purpose, so your mind will work overtime to avoid thinking about something you do not want to remember. According to a survey, expressive suppression may cause poor memory accuracy and distortion.
Short lifespan
According to the National Library of medicine, emotional suppression increases the risk of premature death by more than 30 per cent." However, humiliation, sadness, or anger are negative feelings nobody wants to experience. But trying to ignore how you feel can make things worse. Once you start acknowledging how you truly feel, you will live a less stressful and healthier life.
Health Issues
Expressive suppression of emotions can put your health down. According to the research, hiding emotions are closely related to depressive symptoms. When you don't acknowledge your true feelings, stress develops inside your body that, causes slow digestion, gas, vomiting, and ulcers. Additionally, during stress, the muscle tightens, which reduces blood flow and ultimately cause headache.
Disrupted communication
Hiding your emotions prevents you from communicating clearly with the people in your life. Due to this lack of communication, conflict may occur. If you cannot solve problems, they will probably keep happening. You might feel angry and resentful, which could lead to the battle you want to avoid.
Furthermore, you may start avoiding people who trigger certain emotions, possibly losing valuable relationships. With time, emotional suppression can become so much of a habit that it happens unconsciously, meaning you begin losing touch with your emotions.
Relationship strain
When you stop expressing your feelings in front of people, they start losing trust in you. If they know that you are not telling the truth, they might feel hurt by your behaviour. They may also lose confidence in their ability to understand you or realise they don't really know you. Consequently, you may lose a relationship that you want to protect.
Expression of suppression is important
Expressive suppression of emotions may be a handy skill, yet it presents certain dangers, all, towards the person themselves.
Learn about 10 Healthy Ways To Release Your Anger, Emotional suppression – 5 red flags not to miss and Emotional Benefits of Crying.
Our professional experience creators can help you release suppressed emotions.