Suppressing emotions can lead to a host of mental and physical problems. When suppressing emotions, people may: Feel numb or disconnected from others.
Emotional suppression happens when uncomfortable thoughts and feelings are pushed out of mind. People do this in a variety of ways, from using distraction (i.e. watching TV), or numbing (through drugs and alcohol), to overeating or controlling food intake.
Repressed feelings are those that are unconscious. They differ from suppressed emotions, which are feelings you intentionally avoid because you're unsure of how to deal with them. When you suppress things, you know that you're pushing them down.
Take time to slow down and be alone, get out into nature, make art, listen to music while you cook your favorite dinner, meditate to cleanse your mind and relax your body, take a bubble bath or a nap to restore.
Emotional avoidance is a common reaction to trauma. In fact, emotional avoidance is part of the avoidance cluster of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, serving as a way for people with PTSD to escape painful or difficult emotions.
Suppression is a psychological defense mechanism where an individual consciously pushes unwanted thoughts or emotions out of their awareness. This coping strategy helps them focus on what they need to do without getting sidetracked by inappropriate impulses or time constraints.
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.
The governor tried to suppress the news. He struggled to suppress his feelings of jealousy. She could not suppress her anger. I had to suppress an urge to tell him what I really thought.
For example, I suppress thoughts of my attractive co-worker not to avoid thinking of her but to avoid acting on these thoughts. Furthermore, thinking of crème brûlée is not in and of itself dangerous; we suppress the crème brûlée to avoid coping with the difficult act of not eating it.
“Suppressing your emotions, whether it's anger, sadness, grief or frustration, can lead to physical stress on your body. The effect is the same, even if the core emotion differs,” says provisional clinical psychologist Victoria Tarratt.
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.
Alexithymia is when a person has difficulty experiencing, identifying, and expressing emotions.
Suppression is defined as pushing unwanted thoughts, emotions, memories, fantasies, and more out of conscious awareness so that you're not thinking of these things anymore.
Expressive Suppression occurs when during or after an emotion experience, a person tries to hide or inhibit the facial expressions that match their emotional experience (Gross & Levenson, 1993). For instance, you would be suppressing your facial expressions if you were disappointed in a present your parents gave you.
noun. sup·pres·sion sə-ˈpre-shən. Synonyms of suppression. : an act or instance of suppressing : the state of being suppressed. : the conscious intentional exclusion from consciousness of a thought or feeling.
They may be impulsive, acting before they think. Aggressive behaviors also include complaining, "backstabbing," being late or doing a poor job on purpose, self-blame, or even self-injury. Many people with PTSD only use aggressive responses to threat. They are not able to use other responses that could be more positive.
Trauma is not physically held in the muscles or bones — instead, the need to protect oneself from perceived threats is stored in the memory and emotional centers of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala.
The posterior insula is the part of the brain that engages visceral sensations in the body. According to Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD, this is likely related to the “pit in your stomach” feeling many people associate with shame. Feelings of shame can also cause the brain to react as though it were in physical danger.