Title: The Dangers of Holding In Your Emotions
Headings: The Dangers of Holding in Your Emotions
The Dangers of Holding in Your Emotions
The Stress of Silence
5 Ways You Can Cope
1. Know Your ABCs
2. Practice Healthy Habits
3. Read
4. Learn to Be Resilient
5. Get Counseling
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Content: The Dangers of Holding In Your Emotions



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The Dangers of Holding in Your Emotions
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Rosemary Black and Tabby Biddle
Reviewed by QualityHealth's Medical Advisory Board
If you’ve spent years trying to repress painful emotions, you’re not doing your health any favors. Emotions, however uncomfortable, "are an important part of the human experience and they facilitate communication to others and sometimes ourselves about our needs and wishes," says Mayer Bellehsen, Ph. D, director of the Feinberg Division of the Unified Behavioral Health Center in Bay Shore, NY. And ignoring, repressing, or avoiding these emotions is linked with both physical and mental illnesses. The Stress of Silence
"Holding things in can cause a constant state of elevated stress hormones that the body is not meant to sustain for long periods of time," says Lisa Rene Reynolds, PhD, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy graduate programs at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, and the author of Parenting Through Divorce: Helping Your Kids Thrive During and After the Split. Constantly elevated stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol "can weaken your immune system and bring on headaches, cold sores, and flare ups of preexisting conditions such as backaches and fibromyalgia," a chronic condition characterized by pain and fatigue, Reynolds adds. Keeping your emotions at bay can cause an individual to lack self-worth and to be anxious and depressed, which can foster physical illness, agrees Tina B. Tessina, Ph. D, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in California. " The stress of repressed emotions can cause tension in particular parts of the body, causing pain there," she says.