Suppressed emotions are feelings that you just unconsciously avoid. This is different than feelings that you just actively brush off because they overwhelm you. Repressed emotions can result in health problems over time.
Some people express their feelings openly. Others are likely to hide them. But hiding your feelings doesn't necessarily mean you're suppressing them.
There is way debate about repressed emotions. There are also many definitions.
Suppression is generally understood because the tendency to avoid unpleasant feelings. You unconsciously push painful feelings, thoughts or memories out of your consciousness. This lets you ignore them. You could also be doing this out of fear of damaging your positive self-image. These are raw emotions. But they’ll still influence your actions.
Repressed emotions generally is a solution to protect your mind from painful situations. This can occur to a toddler who’s being abused by a parent or caregiver. They may suppress memories of the abuse and their feelings. You will then not pay attention to them or only partially aware of them. However, the abuse still affects her. It may cause relationship problems in maturity.
In addition, some people are likely to unconsciously avoid negative feelings that threaten their self-image in all their experiences.
Or you think that you just are all the time in charge of how you’re feeling and take a look at to avoid conversations during which others discuss their problems. These are repressive tendencies. You may do that unconsciously so that you just don't must feel sadness or fear. These feelings may cause you to feel like you might be losing control.
You might need learned to suppress your feelings in case you had grown up in a dysfunctional family. Even as a toddler you learn to speak and control your emotions. In dysfunctional families, there are members who don’t receive help with the next:
They can also have problems resembling abuse, addiction, or mental illness. But nobody talks about these problems. This causes children and adults to suppress their feelings and deny their very own needs.
Suppressed emotions may also result in:
- Deny feelings
- Ignore feelings
- Avoid communication
- Avoid touching
- mistrust
Repressed emotions will not be the identical as repressed emotions. Suppression happens if you actively push unpleasant thoughts, feelings, or memories out of your consciousness. That's since you don't know what to do with it.
Some people call suppression a shutdown. Sometimes this causes you to numb yourself while scrolling in your phone, watching TV, or doing other activities that don't require you to feel your emotions.
This variety of behavior will be temporary. You can do that at your workplace if you end up frustrated with a colleague but still must collaborate and complete a project. You push your feelings aside since you don't really know what to do with them, after which take care of them later at home.
There isn't much research to suggest that repressed emotions cause health problems.
But your overall emotional and mental health is directly related to your physical health. Repressed anger or other negative emotions could also be related to the next risk of things like:
- depression
- hypertension
- heart disease
- Digestive problems
- Infections
- Little energy
- pain
You can also be having problems in your relationships. You might need problems:
- Say what you would like
- Facing a conflict
- Feeling connected and intimate with others
You may not realize that you just are suppressing your feelings. If you might be having problems in your relationships or are uncomfortable with negative feelings, these might be signs that you just are likely to subconsciously avoid them.
The best solution to learn to take control of your emotions is to see a licensed therapist. They can provide help to understand your feelings. They may also teach you ways to administer conflict and communicate higher.
You may also practice expressing yourself independently. Try the following pointers alone first after which with someone you trust. If you’re feeling positive or negative emotions:
- Say out loud what you’re feeling in the mean time.
- Use “I” statements to provide help to acknowledge your feelings (“I am sad” or “I am angry”).
- Maybe practice with friends and acquaintances in moments of conflict.
Speak out of your experience when expressing your feelings. Don't blame the opposite person. Be ready and willing to listen to their standpoint.