Mental barriers to speaking up and how to overcome them

From fear of judgement to self-gaslighting, here are a few mental barriers to speaking up for us.

Often we feel that the situation is wrong, and we should speak up against it, but we are unable to. This happens because of years of conditioning of the home to learn not to talk when we should choose peace by diverting the issue. However, sometimes, it may not work out and we should speak up and stand up for ourselves. "These are the top blocks I hear to speaking up as a psychologist. And key things to ask yourself to overcome these blocks. Which barrier comes up for you the most," wrote Psychotherapist Katie Fracalanza as she explained the mental barriers that stop us from standing up for ourselves.

Mental barriers to speaking up and how to overcome them (Pexels)

Shut-up and take it barrier: We sometimes think that the best thing to do is to just shut up and tolerate the things happening to us – that way we will be able to maintain peace. In order to overcome the same, we need to consider if we have ever done it and stood up for ourselves and should do it more frequently.

Catastrophe barrier: Sometimes we refrain from standing up for ourselves because we think that something bad will happen if we do so – we should try to combat that feeling by understanding how we will cope with it if something bad happens, just in case.

Good girl/boy barrier: Sometimes we are so burdened with the expectations of others that we think if we stand up for ourselves, we will end up disappointing others. But how long will we deal with the negative emotions and keep tolerating them?

Fear of judgement barrier: We fear that we will be judged for standing up for ourselves, but to combat this feeling, we need to understand that we cannot avoid being judged – so we should do what is right for us.

Fear of feelings barrier: We feel that we will get uncomfortable, but this should be the start of learning how to tolerate discomfort.