Hi everyone! Welcome or welcome back to The Teen Safe Zone, where it's safe for teens to be themselves! Today's post is very special because a friend of mine helped me write out the key points for today's blog topic, which is about bottling up emotions and why it is unhealthy. In a time where it is seen in society as "weak" to express your emotions, many people tend to "shove" their emotions to the side. Sometimes we aim to present the persona that we're always a confident person who has everything all together. However, we all have breaking points, but do we express those breaking points or do we just push them aside? In today's post, we will be discussing how unhealthy it is bottling up your emotions and how serious of an issue it can get.
It's Not A "Minor" Thing:
As teenagers, we tend to minimize the impacts that things can have on our lives, and bottling up emotions is one of them. Bottling up your emotions always starts with something minor, or so you think. We've all had a moment where we thought we were over something, but then we get triggered by something that can be completely unrelated, and we're frustrated about it again. Many times, we're not completely "over" something, but we convince ourselves that we are. That "unfinished business" of yours can quickly get piled up by a bunch of other things, and the next thing you know, you're a living volcano ready to explode. This is how the cycle of bottling up emotions starts. Bottling up emotions is an unhealthy way to solve things because all it does is push things "back" and they’ll resurface at unexpected times.
Bottling up your emotions can allow you to see life from a negative point of view. By keeping in your emotions, it can cause you to not be able to focus on daily activities. As we've talked about before a few times on this blog, by only seeing the negative, it's hard for you to see the positive. Those negative thoughts and emotions can make you expect only the worse in life; and while yes, life isn't always full of positive things, you should always have your head up and see the little things in life. This can even affect the way you view yourself and your self-esteem. Just imagine: you are someone who holds on to every negative thing that others have said about you. If you don't open up and talk about those feelings and keep them to yourself, eventually you will make those untrue thoughts your identity. Instead of seeing yourself in a positive way and accepting your flaws, all you will see about yourself is negative things that people point out. You are letting society determine how you see yourself, which is something that you should never do. This can even cause you to isolate yourself from others because you may be afraid that they will be just like other negative people you've met before.
The Impacts It Can Have On You:
Bottling up your emotions can cause tremendous amounts of anxiety. Think of anxiety as a cup. Every time you experience anxiety or bottle up your emotions and feelings, a little bit gets poured into your cup. After so long of doing this, your cup begins to overflow and you experience anxiety or panic attacks. A lot of people tend to underestimate this, but once your mental health starts to degrade, so does your physical health. By letting your emotions build up, it can disrupt your sleep and cause depression.
Bottling up your emotions can also cause you to lash out at innocent people who have done nothing wrong to you. If you're bottling up emotions like rage and anger, you may feel the need to take out your emotions on someone because the person who caused this build up on you isn't here for you to express your anger to. You may not notice it at the time, but you can put a lot of pressure on others by taking out your frustration on the wrong person. Hurt people, hurt people, and the cycle continues.
It's OK To Express Your Emotions:
Yes, we may live in a judgmental society, but at the end of the day, having emotions is what makes us human, whether we like it or not. If a person truly cares about you, they will want to see you express yourself because they wouldn't want to see you put so much pressure on yourself by bottling up emotions. We are not robots who can’t feel anything. Anyone who tells you otherwise does not have your best interests in mind.
It's OK to express and admit that something makes you angry or is bothering you. You are not "weak" if you cry, scream, or do anything else to express your feelings. Crying doesn't make you weak; it just means that you've been strong for so long. Talk to someone you deeply trust about the emotions that you are going through. If you don't have someone you trust, you can always write your feelings down in a journal for yourself. Trust me, it may seem silly at first, but writing down these things or talking to someone about them will make you realize that those things weren't really "minor" after all.
Well, I hope you all found today's post helpful! If you want to contact me about anything, please visit the "Contact Us" page on this blog where we can privately talk! NEW POSTS EVERY SUNDAY! - Lexi
"Writing down these things or talking to someone about them will make you realize that those things weren't really "minor" after all." - I can not even explain to you all how many times I thought the same thing and when you put it down on paper you'll be like "I can't believe I had THAT much on my mind"! Seriously, I can not thank you and your friend enough for writing this!
Hi everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this post and that it means dearly to you! Also another thank you to my friend who helped me with key ideas for this post! See you all hopefully next Sunday lol! (Let's hope I can finally get back on schedule *fingers crossed*)