Signs that you are suppressing your emotions instead of processing them

From shutting down to pleasing others, here are a few signs of suppressed emotions.

When we suppress our emotions for a long time, instead of addressing them, they can show up as extreme reactions. Often as physical symptoms or a reaction blown out of proportion, a suppressed emotion always finds its way out. "If you suppress your emotions for too long, they’re eventually going to show up later — most likely in your body: gut issues, migraines, body aches, pains, fatigue, insomnia, etc. Why does this happen? It’s because emotions are meant to be felt and processed - not suppressed or avoided. They should be used as data points to indicate things like your tolerance level, joys, sorrows, what is acceptable to you and what is not good for you," wrote Therapist Sadaf Siddiqi.

Here are a few signs that we are suppressing our emotions instead of addressing them:

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Pretending: We often pretend and say that we are fine when we are not. We feel that confrontation can be scary and hence we stay away from it by trying to maintain peace.

Conditioned sense of worth: We put conditions on loving ourselves and finding joy in being our truest selves. We feel that only when we accomplish the goals set by us, will we be truly happy.

Controlling nature: We find it very difficult to not be the center of attraction – hence we try to control people and situations around us to feel powerful and important.

Aim for perfection: Suppressed emotions often make us perfectionists as we tie our sense of self-worth to how we are viewed by others, and how successful we are.

Pleasing people: We prioritise others and please people, even though it leads to burnout.

Masking ourselves: We try to pretend and put up a likeable version of ourselves in front of others, and refrain from being vulnerable.