Why Do We Suppress Our Emotions? (And its Effects)

It seems like lately people have been getting worse and worse with sharing emotions. Society seems to deem it as a sign of weakness to speak freely on what exactly you are feeling. Out of personal experience with people who are close to me, I've come to the conclusion that people are afraid of rejection if they share what makes them vulnerable. One of the things that makes us human and feel connected to one another is sharing deeper emotions with one another without feeling awkward. Sincerity and passion is what makes us alive. Without emotion, we are just a shell of a person.

(credit: psych your mind)

What people don't know about this is, suppressing emotion can actually cause serious physical and mental effects.

Here are just a few things that result from the suppression of emotion:

Increased stress
mental illness
weight gain
depression
feeling physically sick

(credit: breaking muscle)

Stress:

By suppressing our emotions, your body is harboring greater levels of stress, which can manifest itself in physical symptoms. TENSION. We've all felt it. By holding in our emotions, we are creating higher levels of tension that we carry in our neck, backs, shoulders, and in my case head. (I get a lot of tension headaches) Tension is not good for anyone as it contains toxins. The more tension we have in our bodies, the more toxins there are.

Mental illness:

The cause of mental illness is not always inherent. Granted, most serious mental illnesses are inherent and are brought out through bad genetics, or even a traumatic event that triggers the illness to take form and present symptoms. But did you know that holding in your emotions and pushing them back farther and farther within you can physically change your brain? Heres how:

According to Doris Dahdouh:

The parts of the brain that deal with emotions are the "deep limbic system," (stores highly charged emotional memories), the "prefrontal cortex" (controls impulse control, insight, empathy, judgment, concentration, and the ability to plan), the "basal ganglia" (in charge of combing movements, feelings and thoughts) and the "temporal lobe" (deals with mood stability).

(credit: profound impact coaching and training)

So by fighting our brains when dealing with emotions, this prevents these crucial parts of the brain to work properly. Dahdouh describes it as "It (the brain) ends up becoming “sick” and unable to see reality for what it is because a false sense of reality has been created by the ongoing/continuous restraining of feelings. As a result, severe depression, anxiety and/or substance and/or alcohol dependence can be developed."

(credit: Shen Therapies)

Weight gain:

Usually when we are suppressing our emotions, we are not feeling balanced and happy. As a result from stress, our body produced a hormone (cortisol) that tries to counteract the hormones that cause a temporary loss of appetite. After the hormones retreat, the stress hormone (cortisol) seems to linger, which is known to increase appetite. Once you gain weight and are unhappy emotionally, it seems to be a vicious cycle that is hard to break.

(credit: life savers emergency room)

Feeling Physically Sick:

When you are in a state of constant stress, your body really takes a toll on itself. The physical symptoms of stress can be extremely harmful, even leading to a reduction in your immune system. This makes you more vulnerable to sickness. I know personally when I am super stressed with school or work, I tend to catch a cold. This usually happens before the winter holidays as everything for school is due and my job becomes extremely stressful as it is the busy season. I bottle up all my emotional stress and definitely feel the physical symptoms as a result.

Learning how to deal with your emotions and letting other people in can not only benefit you mentally, but physically as well. Next time you are feeling something that you normally wouldn't share with loved ones or friends, go ahead and do it and see what happens. You may be surprised at people's reactions and may even encourage them to open up more.

Hope this was informative and helps someone out there :)

Source: http://fitlife.tv/this-is-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-suppress-your-emotions-original/