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Keeping Your Emotions Bottled Up Could Kill you

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Keeping Your Emotions Bottled Up Could Kill you

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This article brings attention to the fact that most people who bottle up their emotions are at higher risk for certain types of cancer and heart disease.

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Having been born and raised in England, I am intimately familiar with the habit of keeping a "stiff upper lip." As a cultural phenomenon, this means that emotions -- positive or negative -- are not readily expressed, at least not in public. Some may take this as good manners, others as signs of rigidity and unnatural restraint. In any case, researchers warn that perpetual emotional suppression is nothing benign but can lead to potentially serious mental and physical health problems and even premature death.

One study conducted by psychologists from Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Rochester found that suppressing emotions may increase the risk of dying from heart disease and certain forms of cancer. This confirms earlier studies that have linked negative emotions like anger, anxiety, and depression to the development of heart disease.

The health risks increase, it seems, when people have no way of expressing or acting on their feelings, the researchers say. We know that stress can build up and become chronic when our "natural" fight-or-flight responses meant to help us survive in conflict situations are frustrated. Similarly detrimental effects may occur when negative emotions remain unexpressed.

Some experts suggest that acknowledging emotions, especially distressing ones, and airing them from time to time is an important component of mental health.

In our culture, people quickly feel guilty or ashamed when they appear as being overly negative or critical, says Tori Rodriguez, a psychotherapist and writer based in Atlanta. We are biased toward positive thinking, which is worth cultivating, but problems arise when people start believing they must be upbeat all the time, she says.

"Anger and sadness are an important part of life, and new research shows that experiencing and accepting such emotions are vital to our mental health. Attempting to suppress thoughts can backfire and even diminish our sense of contentment. Acknowledging the complexity of life may be an especially fruitful path to psychological well-being."

But how about positive emotions? Can they make us healthier? Yes, especially if we allow ourselves to express them, a separate study from Harvard found.

Individuals with great emotional vitality have a much lower risk of developing heart disease compared to the less emotionally expressive, according to Dr. Laura Kubzansky, a professor of human health and development at Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study report. There are mechanisms at play we don't fully understand yet, she says, but there is evidence that positive emotions can provide some sort of "restorative biology."

Obviously, neither positive nor negative feelings arise in a vacuum. An essential part of emotional well-being is our ability to create and maintain a conducive environment where our various needs are satisfied and our bodies, minds and souls are nourished. Not all, but a great deal of that is within our control and can benefit from our care. That in itself should give us cause to feel better.
8 Reasons You're Still Mad

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Keeping Your Emotions Bottled Up Could Kill You

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Having been born and raised in England, I am intimately familiar with the habit of keeping a "stiff upper lip." As a cultural phenomenon, this means that emotions -- positive or negative -- are not readily expressed, at least not in public. Some may take this as good manners, others as signs of rigidity and unnatural restraint.

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"You'd never say "It's cancer, just get over it""

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"You'd never say "It's cancer, just get over it""

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Feelings: Handle them before they handle you | Mandy Saligari | TEDxGuildford

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Feelings: Handle them before they handle you | Mandy Saligari | TEDxGuildford

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In this video Mandy Saligari explains how different ways you act as a child can affect you way into your future.

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Feelings: Handle them before they handle you | Mandy Saligari | TEDxGuildford

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"Loneliness is not cured with human company, but with contact to reality"

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"Loneliness is not cured with human company, but with contact to reality"

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-Anthony de Mello

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Take Off Your Mask- How Emotion Suppression Can Be Deadly. 

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Take Off Your Mask- How Emotion Suppression Can Be Deadly. 

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The man in this video explains the dangers of suppressing your emotions, such as dangerous for your health in long terms and short terms.

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Take off your mask - how emotional suppression can be deadly

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Did you know that suppressing your emotions can actually be physically harmful? In this talk about the dangers of emotional suppression as well as some suggestions for expressing your emotions in a safe way.

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Emotion Suppression: Effects on Mental and Physical Health

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Emotion Suppression: Effects on Mental and Physical Health

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This article talks about what happens to people when they suppress their emotions, it also touches on what cultures emotion suppression came from and why.

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Sometimes when we experience a trauma such as a car accident, witnessing violence or abuse, our minds protect ourselves by shutting off our emotions. The same way our pain receptors shut off to manage intense pain, our mind suppresses strong, negative emotions during times of crises to protect our well-being.

However, suppressing your emotions consciously and deliberately in times when there is no trauma (e.g. death of a family member, loss of a job, argument with a spouse, anxiety for a test, etc.) can lead to damaging effects on your mind and body. Emotion suppression, which essentially is an avoidance of emotion, is a coping strategy that many people employ mistakenly thinking it is healthy or the right thing to do.

Common signs that you use emotion suppression as a coping strategy include

* distracting yourself as a way to keep yourself from reacting

* avoiding talking about the situation because you don't want to feel negative emotion

* avoiding places, people or objects that remind you of the negative emotions you don't want to feel

* using substances (such as alcohol or other illicit drugs) to numb the pain

Many cultures, including South Asian culture, believe that emotion suppression is a particularly masculine quality and that emotion expression qualifies you as weak. Unfortunately, no matter how highly it is valued, avoiding your emotions never makes them go away and makes it more difficult for you to manage a similar situation were it to happen in the future.

Research has shown that suppressing or avoiding your emotions in fact can make them stronger. For example, if you are sad because a family member passed away but want to avoid feeling the sadness, you may watch happy movies, try to keep your day as normal as possible and may even talk to friends as if nothing happened. However, the sadness is still present in your mind and a small hiccup in the day may cause you to seemingly overreact to the situation. Even if the object of your emotion is different, this is your body's way of releasing the pent up emotions. Just as emotion suppression is your body's way of -protecting you during a trauma, emotion release in a non-traumatic situation is your body's way of protecting itself from further damage.

Effects of consistent emotion suppression include increased physical stress on your body, including high blood pressure, increased incidence of diabetes and heart disease. In addition, people who engage in emotion suppression regularly rare more likely to experience stiff joints, bone weakness and more illnesses due to lowered immunity.

Research has also shown a connection between avoiding emotions and poor memory as well as more misunderstandings in conversations with others. This is because people who regularly suppress emotion are often less aware of the signals they are sending to others and also less aware of the social cues present in daily conversation. In addition, when one or both partners engage in regular emotion suppression, communication skills often decline resulting in unhealthy relationship patterns and decreased satisfaction in the marriage.

Finally, men and women who avoid emotions, especially negative ones, are more likely to experience high anxiety and depression in their lifetime.

While emotion expression is not always socially appropriate (e.g. you may not be able to burst into tears if in a job interview if you get negative feedback), the importance is to be able to find a time soon after the situation to express your emotions in a healthy manner.

For tips and guidance on how to best manage your emotions, please contact a local mental health professional for a consultation.
How do you manage your emotions? Please leave your ideas below.
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Emotion Suppression: Effects on Mental and Physical Health

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Sometimes when we experience a trauma such as a car accident, witnessing violence or abuse, our minds protect ourselves by shutting off our emotions. The same way our pain receptors shut off to manage intense pain, our mind suppresses strong, negative emotions during times of crises to protect our well-being.