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What happens when you suppress your emotions for too long?
A 2021 study conducted in Italy during the first wave of lockdowns showed that when we regulate or ignore our emotions, we can experience short-term mental and physical reactions as well. “Suppressing your emotions, whether it’s anger, sadness, grief or frustration, can lead to physical stress on your body. Emotional information is stored through “packages” in our organs, tissues, skin, and muscles. These “packages” allow the emotional information to stay in our body parts until we can “release” it. Negative emotions in particular have a long-lasting effect on the body. “The reasons we sometimes—or most times—bottle up our emotions can vary, but they all seem to stem from a fear of vulnerability. Out of this fear, we react through self-protective emotional measures,” says Dr. Colleen Mullen, PsyD, LMFT. “Bottling up emotions provides a false sense of emotional safety.” On the other hand, repressed emotions are never processed. The problem with this is they don’t just go away. Instead, they’ll likely show up in the future — often in the form of possible psychological or physical symptoms.
Why do I bury my emotions?
You might unconsciously do this so you don’t have to feel sadness or anxiety. Those feelings can make you feel like you’re losing control. You might’ve learned to repress your emotions if you were raised in a dysfunctional family. You learn how to communicate and control your emotions as a child. When you bottle up negative emotions like anxiety, anger, or sorrow it can disrupt the normal function of your stress hormone, cortisol. Moreover, the risk of developing chronic illness and mental health disorders will increase if you don’t healthily manage your emotions. Many people say that one of the most difficult emotions to handle is anger. Anger can weaken your ability to solve problems effectively, make good decisions, handle changes, and get along with others. Chan, however, says that if you feel emotional and want to cry, it is best to let it all out rather than holding it back. “Crying can be helpful in some situations, but remember that it’s only a means for you to express your feelings, be it anger, sadness, anxiety, frustration or grief,” he says.
What happens if you suppress your emotions for too long?
A 2021 study conducted in Italy during the first wave of lockdowns showed that when we regulate or ignore our emotions, we can experience short-term mental and physical reactions as well. “Suppressing your emotions, whether it’s anger, sadness, grief or frustration, can lead to physical stress on your body. Emotional information is stored through “packages” in our organs, tissues, skin, and muscles. These “packages” allow the emotional information to stay in our body parts until we can “release” it. Negative emotions in particular have a long-lasting effect on the body. Sadness affects the Lungs,61 the Liver,62 and the Heart and may influence the functional relationship between these organs. Sadness and grief induces Heart and/or Liver Blood Deficiency and may also impact the functions of the Uterus. Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust & Enjoyment Understanding our emotions is an important part of good mental health. Below is a diagrammatic representation of the five basic emotions, which contains different words to describe the varying intensity of feelings in these five domains. There are four kinds of basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, and anger, which are differentially associated with three core affects: reward (happiness), punishment (sadness), and stress (fear and anger). Generally, people tend to view anger as one of our strongest and most powerful emotions. Anger is a natural and automatic human response, and can in fact, serve to help protect us from harm. While angry behavior can be destructive, angry feelings themselves are merely a signal that we may need to do something.