Smothering or bottling up emotions is suppressing one's feelings rather than expressing them openly and honestly. Also known as expressive suppression (ES), it is a common technique used to regulate difficult emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness or hide them from others.
Searching for a silver lining could be a good coping mechanism, but studies show suppressing emotions to stay positive can negatively affect our health.
Bottling up your emotions means suppressing your innermost feelings. It is when you avoid venting out what you really feel. There is the fear that you may appear weak or just prefer keeping your emotions to yourself, which is common.
“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.”
Over time, we may feel like nobody cares about our needs or desires and that our opinion or voice doesn't matter. It can also cause us to feel stressed, depressed, or anxious. In some cases, we may even feel deeply angry or rageful and develop feelings of resentment toward others.
Suppressed emotions stay in the body. The effects of suppressed emotions include anxiety, depression, and other stress-related illnesses. Such suppression can lead to alcohol and substance abuse. (Read more about the link between childhood trauma and addiction here.)
Stronger negative emotions.
When you don't acknowledge your feelings, you are allowing these emotions to become stronger, according to a study from the University of Texas. Emotional outbursts are "your body's way of releasing that pent-up emotion," says clinical psychologist Victoria Tarratt.
Reticent means either quiet or restrained. If you're reticent about your feelings, you like to keep them to yourself, and you're probably quiet in rowdy groups where everyone is talking over each other. The original meaning of reticent describes someone who doesn't like to talk.
Emotional repression is all about avoiding emotional suffering. It is a coping style used to hide and push away negative emotions. Emotional repression can be thought of as a defense mechanism, where people defend themselves from the negatives and focus instead on the positive aspects of who they are (Garssen, 2007).
Weiten has identified four types of coping strategies: appraisal-focused (adaptive cognitive), problem-focused (adaptive behavioral), emotion-focused, and occupation-focused coping.
Some common coping mechanisms may challenge you to: Lower your expectations. Ask others to help or assist you. Take responsibility for the situation.
A maladaptive coping mechanism may include avoiding a person or a situation which causes you stress, becoming defensive or harming yourself in some way. While adaptive coping mechanisms are healthy and positive, maladaptive ones are negative and could harm your health in the long run.
Smothering or bottling up emotions is suppressing one's feelings rather than expressing them openly and honestly. Also known as expressive suppression (ES), it is a common technique used to regulate difficult emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness or hide them from others.
Some research suggests that emotional numbness may develop as a sort of coping mechanism when a person is facing extreme stress. It can help a person avoid processing information that is shocking or upsetting.
inhibit, suppress. control and refrain from showing; of emotions, desires, impulses, or behavior. check, contain, control, curb, hold, hold in, moderate. lessen the intensity of; temper; hold in restraint; hold or keep within limits.
Alexithymia is when a person has difficulty experiencing, identifying, and expressing emotions.
In psychology, emotional detachment, also known as emotional blunting, is a condition or state in which a person lacks emotional connectivity to others, whether due to an unwanted circumstance or as a positive means to cope with anxiety.
[ ap-uh-thet-ik ] show ipa. See synonyms for apathetic on Thesaurus.com. adjective. having or showing little or no emotion: apathetic behavior.
Emotional stress, like that from blocked emotions, has not only been linked to mental ills, but also to physical problems like heart disease, intestinal problems, headaches, insomnia and autoimmune disorders. Most people are ruled by their emotions without any awareness that this is happening.
What is Schizoid Personality Disorder? Schizoid personality disorder is one of many personality disorders. It can cause individuals to seem distant and emotionless, rarely engaging in social situations or pursuing relationships with other people.
Emotional blunting can be temporary, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours at a time. It can also occur over the long term, from months to years. It all depends on the underlying cause. Experiencing emotional blunting may affect your relationships and how you feel about yourself and the world.