When you experience something upsetting, do you tend to hold in your feelings and try to hide them? Do you attempt to bottle up your emotions in favor of acting like you’re fine, even when you’re definitely not? This kind of behavior can be very harmful to you, and it can make your life worse. There are better ways to go about dealing with complicated feelings than by repressing them. Here are 3 reasons you should never bottle up your emotions and ways to express yourself instead of keeping it all inside!

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1 YOUR HEALTH CAN SUFFER

Emotional repression affects so much more than just your mental state and ability to maintain positive thinking or relationships. It can also genuinely take a toll on your physical health, and this has been studied and recorded for a long time. Here are some ways bottling things up might take a toll on your wellbeing:

BAD COPING MECHANISMS

To cope with the bottle-up feelings, you will have to turn to some methods that may not be the best for your health. This may include smoking, drinking, eating junk food, unsafe promiscuity, and substance abuse.

CANCER RISK

More studies are still needed to confirm this, but it’s worth noting that some evidence indicates that emotional repression may worsen the risk of cancer development.

DECREASED LIFESPAN

Due to the health issues caused by bottled up emotions, many people who repress their feelings experience a shorter lifespan overall.

HEADACHES

Regular headaches without any underlying health-related cause can often be traced back to emotional problems, including the chance you’ll bottle up your emotions.

UNHEALTHY WEIGHT GAIN

The bottling up of emotion is often linked to poorer food and snacking choices, contributing to unhealthy forms of weight gain.

DIGESTIVE TROUBLE

You’re more likely to experience gut issues if you spend a lot of time dealing with negative emotions, especially if they involve stress, anxiety, and other similar problems.

2 IT CAN ISOLATE YOU

People often worry that being open about emotions will cause others to dislike them. In reality, they should be worrying about it the other way around. Even though people can’t read your mind, most have enough emotional intelligence and insightful empathy to subconsciously pick up negative emotions. People naturally, without thinking about it, move away from these kinds of “auras.”

3 REPRESSING EMOTIONS MAKES THEM STRONGER

A refusal to accept the negative emotions that you feel can actually cause them to become more overwhelming. When you repress those bad feelings, you’re not getting rid of them – just storing them further back in your head as they build and build unaddressed. They will come back to bite you later, or they may start bogging you down right away!

Do you repress your emotions?

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