Indeed, research suggests people who avoid emotion tend to have higher pain levels, increased cardiovascular risk, and higher cancer rates, as well as increased depression, anxiety, and problems in relationships. Instead of avoiding what we feel when we are vulnerable, we need to shift our approach.
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.)
And avoiding emotions can also lead to problems with “memory, aggression, anxiety and depression”. A study from the University of Texas found that by not acknowledging our emotions we're making them stronger.
You might want to avoid love because you're afraid of getting hurt. This might stem from a fear of the unknown, but past negative experiences with love can also play a role. In other cases, watching other people's relationships crumble and lead to turmoil and strife may have marred the whole idea of love.
It can cause emotional trauma.
A person who is ignored feels a wide range of confusing emotions. They may feel anger, sadness, frustration, guilt, despair, and loneliness, all at once. Naturally, such emotional confusion can have a damaging effect on your psyche.
Emotional invalidation is the act of dismissing or rejecting someone's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. It says to someone: “Your feelings don't matter. Your feelings are wrong.” Emotional invalidation can make you feel unimportant or irrational.
The psychology behind the silent treatment is that it can be a mind game for some people and, in some cases, can be used as a form of manipulation. Along with the emotional roller-coaster, it tears down your sense of self-esteem and sense of self-worth.
Why People Emotionally Shut Down. Trauma, prolonged stress, anxiety, depression and grief all contribute to feeling emotionally shut down. Nemmers says medication, while lifesaving for many, can also trigger a side effect of emotional numbness.
Men often feel that they need to be self-reliant and provide for their loved ones, so it is not appropriate to express their emotions. This behaviour can be reinforced in the stereotype of the heroic male, so often represented in popular culture.
People who suppress their emotions do so when they are not confident in themselves. Mainly, they fear you might reject or hate them. As a result, they make the best out of the little time they have with you and try their best to protect it.
People who repress their emotions tend to focus on their physical health and seek physical health solutions for emotional health problems (Abbass, 2005). Just like a physical wound may fester and become infected if left untreated, the accumulation of unaddressed emotions can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression.
When you ignore a guy, how does he feel? He may feel hurt and heartbroken if you continue with this act for far too long because it will send across a message that it's between you two. He will think you are done with him and would want nothing to do with you.
If you ignore them, they might not think that you're interested in them. They might not think you're worth their time, so they'll stop trying to get to know you. And if they stop trying to get to know you, then it'll be hard for them to like you and for them to be interested in a relationship with you.
Ignoring is powerful because you take what they desire, away. Lowkey, this ends up turning into a form of revenge without you even trying to do so.
They want you to feel a sense of obligation or sympathy that they think will make them more likely to get what they want. The simplest example of this kind of emotional manipulation is the silent treatment, when someone punishes you by ignoring you.
The process of healing, forgiving, and moving on takes time. You cannot just wake up one fine day and choose to forget what happened to you. Healing takes time, and so you need to give yourself that time. More importantly, there is no timeline for learning how to emotionally detach yourself from someone.
Past abuse, neglect, and trauma can contribute to emotional detachment. 1 Children who grow up in abusive situations may use this detachment as a way to cope.
An emotionally unavailable man has a difficult time knowing how to engage in the real-stuff conversations. In some instances, he may have some capacity to listen, but is emotionally shutting that part of himself down so that you don't get too close. If that's the case, you will likely feel shut down and alone.
Emotional distancing, or emotional detachment, is the inability of an individual to completely engage with their own feelings, or the feelings of others. Severe emotional distancing can start interfering with a person's social, emotional, psychological, as well as physical development.