Title: Why We Hide Emotional Pain | Psychology Today
Headings: Why We Hide Emotional Pain
Leon F Seltzer Ph.D.
Why We Hide Emotional Pain
Strong people won't let themselves cry, right?

Content: As a caveat, however, I should add that it does make sense—and at times may be imperative—to avoid exposing emotional vulnerability in various professional situations.) If we're codependent (i.e., feeling more responsible for the feelings of others than for our own), we may also fear that freely expressing our emotions could launch some kind of emotional contagion. Afraid that openly letting out our hurt might somehow be infectious, we may hold it in, unwilling to take the chance of making anyone else upset. And then there's the fear that fully releasing our emotional pain might make us look ridiculous, or in some way abnormal. What if others don't—or can't—understand why we're in such pain, or grasp its magnitude? Will we not look foolish to have unconstrainedly let out our feelings? At the very least we might feel awkward and embarrassed, concerned that our uninhibited "emoting" might lead others to take us less seriously than they might have otherwise. We certainly don't want to be perceived as overreactive, and so have our feelings discounted or dismissed. article continues after advertisement
The bottom line here is that we don't trust that others (or our "significant" other) will—by responding to our open-heartedness in caring, supportive ways— safeguard or validate our vulnerability. Additionally, we may not trust ourselves to successfully cope with their response, whatever it is.