Suppression of Emotions can have Consequences

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http://bpd.about.com/od/livingwithbpd/a/suppress.htm

This article discusses how suppressing emotions can be harmful, the consequences of suppressing emotions, and how to avoid emotional suppression.

I thought this article was interesting because I have often heard that suppressing your emotions can be harmful to yourself but I never really knew why.  The article mentions that people with boderline personality disorder often suppress their feelings.  As this may be true I think that anyone who has ever had drama or conflict in their life has had the opportunity to either suppress emotions, or just let them out (which would include everyone).

One study discussed in the article explained that when people are told not to think of something, they become preoccupied with the thing they are not supposed to think of.  The same can be said for emotions, if they are not released and talked about, they can consume the thought process of that partciular person. This is called the "rebound effect of thought suppression," and it occurs when feelings are pushed away. The article mentions that this can become a vicious cycle in that when one emotion is pushed away, which influences negative emotions, which are pushed away, etc..

One way to avoid suppression is to actively engage in another activity to regulate your emotion.  I feel that when I have strong emotions, it works best to actively confront the issue (or the person the issue is with) and work things out.  If emotions are not worked out, then things can quickly turn for the worse.  If we learn how to deal with our emotions in a positive manner, it will influence and motivate us to avoid suppressing our emotions.

Let me know what you guys think about this article; is it accurate and meaningful? What other strategies would you suggest?

 

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