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Emotions can be signals or alarms that something is happening. •• Gut feelings can be like intuition—a response to something important about the situation. This can be helpful if our emotions get us to check out the facts.
- Overview
- Why does it happen?
- What kinds of emotions get repressed?
- Can it really lead to physical symptoms?
- How do I know if I have repressed emotions?
- Is it possible to release them?
- The bottom line
Repressed emotions refer to emotions that you unconsciously avoid. These differ from suppressed emotions, which are feelings you purposely avoid because you don’t know exactly how to deal with them.
Say you and your partner have a fight and decide to break up one evening. You still have to meet with an important client at work the next day, so you decide to suppress, or push aside, your feelings until you get home from that meeting.
Suppression can sometimes be a good short-term solution, as long as you make sure to address those emotions sooner rather than later.
Repressed emotions, on the other hand, don’t get a chance to be processed. But that doesn’t mean they simply disappear. Instead, they might show up as a range of psychological or physical symptoms.
Emotional repression often relates to childhood experiences.
Much of what children learn about behavior and communication comes from their primary caregivers.
So, you’ll probably feel pretty comfortable expressing your emotions if your caregivers:
•frequently talked about their feelings
•encouraged you to share how experiences made you feel
•normalized your positive and negative emotional experiences
For the most part, people tend to repress strong emotions, especially those associated with discomfort or other unpleasant experiences.
This includes emotions like:
•anger
•frustration
•sadness
•fear
“Hold on,” you might think. “My emotions don’t make me sick… do they?”
They actually can, in a way.
There’s no evidence to suggest emotions directly cause illness, of course. Sadness can’t give you the flu, and anger doesn’t cause cancer.
But research has linked emotional repression to decreased immune system function. If your immune system doesn’t work properly, you might get sick more frequently and recover slowly.
Repressed emotions can also factor into mental health conditions, such as stress, anxiety, and depression.
These issues often cause physical symptoms, including:
It’s not always easy to recognize when you’re dealing with emotional repression, and there’s no definitive test you can take.
If you do have repressed emotions, however, you might notice a few key signs. These signs might show up in your feelings or your behavior — both toward yourself and other people.
If you have trouble expressing or regulating your emotions, talking to a mental health professional is a good first step.
A therapist can help you explore potential causes of repressed emotions and offer guidance and support as you begin to address these reasons.
Therapy also provides a safe space to:
•work on naming and understanding your feelings
•increase your comfort level around talking about emotions
•learn more helpful methods of emotional regulation
It’s natural to want to avoid feeling bad. Plenty of people feel at least a little afraid of confronting deep, intense emotions, especially those they link to unpleasant or unwanted experiences.
While it may sound a little counterintuitive, learning to embrace those negative feelings can actually help improve emotional well-being over time.
Getting more comfortable with your emotions, even the ones that don’t feel great, can help you navigate the challenges of life more successfully while also improving your relationship with yourself and anyone else you care about.
Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health. In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues.
- Crystal Raypole
• RESPECT your emotion. • Do not JUDGE your emotion. • Practice WILLINGNESS.
- Understanding how you relate to your emotions. What is your relationship with your emotions? It is important to take the time to reflect on this because what you think about negative emotions will influence how you feel about them and how you behave and respond to them.
- Educating yourself about emotions. What is the point of having emotions? What are the different positive and negative emotions designed for? The Pixar movie ‘Inside Out’ is a fantastic illustration of this and a fun and gentle introduction to thinking about the function of different emotions in their own right.
- Understanding how emotions show up in your body. To cope with emotions, you need to understand how emotions manifest in your body. Different emotions show up differently in your body, and this varies from person to person.
- Learning the triggers to your emotions. Being in touch with our bodies can help us detect our emotions sooner and identify what may have triggered them.
Free therapy worksheets related to emotions. These resources are designed to improve insight, foster healthy emotion management, and improve emotional fluency.
Jan 18, 2023 · WORKSHEET: Learning to express emotions. A five-question reflection journal entry. Why do we find it difficult to express our emotions? Expressing our emotions is a highly subtle and complex thing. It’s a fine balance that we need to walk – deciding when to express them, or when to keep them in.
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Oct 18, 2024 · Learn about repressed emotions, their causes, consequences, and how to overcome emotional suppression for better mental health and relationships.
