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Scientists advise not to hold back emotions
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Emotional people often splash out accumulated emotions, it is difficult for them to keep something inside and experience grief or joy silently. When you look at a joyful person who does not hide his joy and good mood, it seems that there is only one solid positive around.
Well, what about negative emotions? Where to put them if your heart is heavy, and you don’t want to spoil people’s mood. Usually, most people think that a bad mood and those experiences that gnaw away from within should be carefully hidden and not shown in public, following basic rules of etiquette. Some do just that. Someone may not show their state because of the belief that it is not appropriate to show other people their troubles and experiences, and someone is simply embarrassed to “burden” their loved ones, colleagues and friends with them.
But, as it turns out, such silent people only undermine their own health.
Researchers from the University of Jena, Germany, claim that people who "bury" all the negativity inside themselves harm themselves. Those who constantly do this, suppressing their own emotions for various reasons and holding back the explosion of a volcano of boiling passions, suffer especially.
According to scientists, constantly holding in anger, indignation or discontent leads to increased blood pressure and heart rate, which is a direct path to the development of cardiovascular diseases.
Compared to those who are not used to expressing their emotions loudly, people who let their feelings out in both sorrow and joy live on average two years longer.
Experts say that compared to excitable people who quickly calm down after letting their emotions out, reserved "crackers" have an elevated heart rate (tachycardia) for a long time. As a result, the risk of coronary heart disease, arterial hypertension, kidney disease and even cancer increases.
The authors of the study observed a group of 6,000 patients from a university clinic for ten years and, based on this, arrived at the results described above.
But not everything is so bad, and even those people who keep their emotions and feelings in tight control can compete with those who are too excitable and hot-tempered. Experts have found that masters of self-control are even afraid of illness, because compared to emotional people, they recover much faster. Scientists note that this trend is mainly observed in infectious diseases.
According to the lead author of the study, Professor Markus Mund, the habit of constantly controlling emotions and iron internal discipline enables the owner of such characteristics to easily adapt to the regime, which is important during the course of the disease. In addition, such people usually strictly adhere to the doctor's orders and perform all the necessary procedures for a speedy recovery.
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