“There is some evidence that bottling up your emotions can lead to physical stress on the body,” says Dr. Mullen. “The stress caused to the body can lead to increased diabetes and heart disease risks. Other effects can be memory difficulties.”
Bottling up negative emotions like anxiety and anger can disrupt the normal function of your stress hormones called cortisol. This results in lowered immune function and an increased risk of developing a chronic illness. Not expressing your emotions is also a gateway to developing mental health conditions.
But if you're having a tough time, stifling your negative thoughts doesn't make them go away. Instead, bottling up emotions can be unhealthy for your mind and body. A series of studies over the past few decades show that suppressing your emotions can – and does – affect your body and your mind.
Research suggests that suppressing emotions often leads to anxiety and panic attacks. Sometimes people hold back their emotions out of fear, and this can then lead them to feel anxious.
To “bottle up” means to suppress your feelings. It is when you refrain from venting out that you end up bottling your emotions. Be it due to the the fear of seeming weak or the unwillingness to feel the negativity, but avoiding challenging emotions doesn't make them go away.
They are at risk of depression, anxiety, mood disorders, self-injury, and eating disorders10. Bottling up also prevents the emotional processing of traumatic events, resulting in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and symptoms such as intrusive flashbacks, dissociation, emotional numbing, and phobic anxiety11.
The effects of suppressed emotions include anxiety, depression, and other stress-related illnesses. Such suppression can lead to alcohol and substance abuse.
Studies have shown that suppressing emotions actually endangers your health and well-being, both physically and psychologically. Emotional suppression (having a stiff upper lip or “sucking it up”) might decrease outward expressions of emotion but not the inner emotional experience.
Hiding your feelings has a high cost. A study from the University of Texas found that when we avoid our emotions, we're actually making them stronger — this can create serious implications for your body and mind. Bottling up emotions can make people more aggressive,” according to the research.
When we don't express ourselves, we repress important parts of who we are and cause ourselves considerable struggle and lasting mental and emotional pain. Our frustration turns to rage. Our isolation turns to depression. Our restlessness turns to panic.
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.
“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.”
But over time, repressing your tears can lead to cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension — or even cancer. Yikes. So if you need to bawl and are able to take a minute, it's in your best interest to go ahead and cry before going back to your regularly scheduled programming, says Dr. Van Groningen.
Researchers have established that crying releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, also known as endorphins. These feel-good chemicals help ease both physical and emotional pain.
Alexithymia is when a person has difficulty experiencing, identifying, and expressing emotions.
In today's world where every person has the freedom of speech, these beliefs may act as roadblocks. Another reason people bottle their emotions is to avoid getting hurt. Suppressing one's feelings may prevent us from being vulnerable in front of others.
Numerous studies have shown that ignoring emotions can lead to short-term mental and physical reactions too. Anxiety and depression are just some of the consequences of suppressing these underlying, automatic, hard-wired survival emotions, which are biological forces that should not be ignored.
By compartmentalizing to avoid dealing with traumas and triggers, we run the risk of becoming overwhelmed, angry, emotionally unavailable, shut down or people-pleasing (analogous to our fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses). It can also cause one to feel disconnected from our truth and needs.
General signs you are emotionally repressed
secretly think anger and sadness are 'bad' rarely if ever cry or yell. overreact when angry or sad (blowing up when you are asked to dry the dishes more carefully) think you feel 'fine' all the time and see yourself as 'laid back' and 'easygoing'
Sometimes this emotional distress is the result of the actions of others. Other times, it might be the result of regret, grief, or loss. In other cases, it might be the result of an underlying mental health condition such as depression or anxiety.