I have been doing a lot of self-analyzing lately, and I have noticed that I am a person of few words. I was speaking with my mother, and she told me that I never “get deep” with her. While reflecting, I thought, well if my mother thinks this of me then what do my friends or people that don’t know me very well think? These are some behaviors that I have noticed within myself or that my friends have pointed out. If you are someone that keeps things bottled up, you probably can relate to some of these statements.
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Having a bad attitude now and then is a like a survival mechanism you use to avoid lashing out. It’s a way of fighting off or delaying a potential blow up. Think of it like slowly unscrewing the cap of a soda, so the carbonation doesn’t cause a massive, fizzy mess and overflow out of the bottle.
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The silent treatment: It sounds childish AF, I know, however, it isn’t something I intend to use childishly, but more to get the point across. Silence is like a comfort zone for me to hold things in but also make it clear that I’m not impressed with what is going on.
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Managing through a tough time. It is true that being able to hold back on your own emotions can help when going through a hard time. I usually am told that I am calm when going through something rough and I think this has to do with that.
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I don’t often speak up when I should. If you’re like me, you usually think of many things you should or could have said after the situation. This may be because when you hold in your emotions, you develop a tangled mess of feelings inside and when you try to articulate those feelings, you fail.
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Being an introvert is highly likely. Or you like your space. It’s not a big surprise that I relate to both. People that keep things inside tend to have characteristics that can be seen as introvert behavior.
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You are easily in touch with the feelings of the people around you. It isn’t hard to feel the emotions others are feeling and this tends to be extremely overwhelming. To have to embody someone else’s feelings, on top of your own response to theirs can confuse you, leading to the inability to understand them and to express what you actually feel.
Unfortunately, the concealing of our emotions is something that a lot of us do. Suppressing them can do a great amount of damage though. Damage to your relationships and to your physical and mental health. Pent-up feelings can manifest into unhealthy coping mechanisms and risky behaviors. Studies have actually shown that bottling up your emotions can lead to increased risk of developing heart disease and can shorten your lifespan. It is behavior that a lot of us inhibit because it’s almost the way we survive but there is a line to draw between keeping somethings to yourself and bottling up emotions that can hurt you in the long run. If you can relate to any of the ideas that were mentioned above, you might be bottling up your emotions. Find healthy and effective ways to express those emotions before they control you. Pop your top!