Cultural norms are a common factor that hold some people back from verbally expressing love. For others, love is simply expressed in different ways, explains couple and family therapist Young Byun from Relationships Australia NSW. A difficult upbringing or past toxic romantic relationships can also play a role.
Researchers describe alexithymia as a construct relating to a difficulty experiencing, identifying, and expressing emotions. It is not a clinical diagnosis, and mental health professionals do not consider it a disorder, although it may occur alongside some mental health conditions.
apathetic. / (ˌæpəˈθɛtɪk) / adjective. having or showing little or no emotion; indifferent.
We might be afraid of conflict, afraid of judgement, or feeling tired, hopeless, or unsure of how the other person will respond. Communicating an emotion that might not be shared by someone else leaves us feeling vulnerable. Vulnerability is vital for good communication. It's also scary.
Low emotional intelligence, burnout, and stress
Emotional intelligence may be linked to empathy. If you haven't developed this type of intelligence, you may also have low empathy. Being under prolonged stress may also lead someone to be less tolerant of other people's behavior and have lower cognitive empathy.
Longer term, there's an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, says Victoria. 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.
According to experts, many people often hide their emotions to protect their relationships. Specifically, the person you care about does things that make you feel uncomfortable. However, instead of expressing discomfort, complaining, you choose to hide your true feelings.
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.
From an early age, men are conditioned to believe that expressing their feelings is out of character with the male identity. Doing so can ruin their image of being strong and stoic. Specifically, men are told that crying in front of other people will threaten their masculinity. The same can be said about mental health.
In plain language: Men often feel most loved by the women in their lives when their partners hug them, kiss them, smile at them, and explicitly offer gratitude, praise, and words of affection. Men also feel loved and connected through sexuality, often to a greater degree than women do.
“Surface acting” refers to the type of emotional communication that involves covering up your true feelings while you put on a false front. Typically, in surface acting, you're trying to cover up such negative emotions as anger or frustration because expressing them would get you in trouble.
To hide your feelings from a love interest or people generally, focus on acting and speaking casually, avoiding others, or lying about your feelings. Express your emotions or channel them into healthy activities—but don't use drugs and alcohol to cope.
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.)
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.
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. It can decrease your sense of self-worth.
Along with the emotional baggage it carries, extreme sadness can cause distinctive physical sensations in the chest: tight muscles, a pounding heart, rapid breathing, and even a churning stomach. As you can see on the body map, survey respondents pinpointed the chest as a major spot for the manifestation of sadness.
Some conditions may play a role in a lack of empathy such as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Some people, known as dark empaths, understand the feelings of others but don't feel these feelings themselves. They might act like they care, but deep down, they don't feel sympathy for you or have a desire to help. They use their understanding of your feelings to manipulate you.
People with a low level of empathy is unable to understand your feelings in a situation that you experience, they can only think how they may react in that situation, but this excludes your reality and your perspective on life. Empathy gives you the ability to understand all people, not just those you feel sorry for.
Sometimes people struggle to upon up with others because of mental health challenges that they're dealing with. This could include things like an eating disorder, bipolar disorder, or other personality disorder. People with depression and anxiety may also struggle with opening up on a deeper level with people.
Definitions of unemotional person. someone who is seemingly indifferent to emotions. synonyms: stoic. Antonyms: emotional person. a person subject to strong states of emotion.
as in to stifle. to refrain from openly showing or uttering held back her tears until she was alone. stifle. suppress. choke (back)