Abstract
In Psychology, we learn of the reasons behind one’s actions and thee thoughts that tend to circulate within one’s mind. Through the research conducted and presented, my theory regarding the relationship between the suppression of emotions and mental health. Negative emotions are toxic to the human body and causes stress and pain.
Suppressing Emotions and Mental Health In Teens
Defense mechanisms are commonly used among the human population in order to help one cope with emotions that are too difficult to handle after a painful experience or while in a dire situation. Throughout age, these defense mechanisms are widely used we hen emotions begin to heavily weigh upon us. In teens, a highly known and common defense mechanism is suppression. Suppression is the choice to ignore or delay unfavorable memories and circumstances with the knowledge of doing so. Suppression is one of the mechanisms that come with many consequences, even though it does some good at the moment it is used. When a person uses suppression to delay thoughts and memories of a traumatic event, stress, anxiety and depression tend to build and strengthen during the time it is being ignored. The defense mechanisms regulates emptions for a period of time until it can not but while doing so, it tends to affect the mental health of the person using it. The mental health of a person consists of their psychological and emotional wellbeing.
Theoretical Purpose
Psychologists are known to work with understanding the reason a person tends to do what they do. The question of why and how seems to always be in play when figuring out the actions and mindsight of a human being. The affects of suppresion within teens has been questioned by psychologists and examined. The reasoning behind the research is to have a better understand the after result of using such a defense mechanism at such an age where the transitioning from a child to an adult is taking place. In my case, I decided to research the subject to better understand myself and my peers as we fall in the category of adolescents who tend to use suppresion to over Come a traumatic event that was experienced. Just like many others, I would like to have a better understanding of myself and my actions. Suppression is a defense mechanism my peers and I tend to use when we can not handle strong negative emptions and the results of doing so tends to vary among us which I quite not ever understood until conducting research on the topic.
Interesting Findings
The suppression of emotional display appears to result in reduced attention to interpersonal partners, diminishing feelings of social connection, sometimes engendering ill will or conflict (Butler et al. 2003; Richards et al. 2003). While researching, I came across relevant information that did not cross my mind initially. Apparently, suppression of emotions tend to affect the psychosocial development of a teen as well. Not only the mental state is being affected but multiple forms as well. It was revealed as well that suppression of emotions are strongly impacting a population of people that are dealing with diseases such as cancer. Emotional suppression has been associated with high levels of self-reported distress among cancer patients (Classen, Koopman, Angell, & Spiegel, 1996; Cordova et al., 2003; Iwamitsu et al., 2005; Szentagotai, 2006; Watson, Greer, Rowden, & Gorman, 1991). From my readings, I concluded that suppression by cancer patients must be their way to endure the pain they have to go through and for them to deal with the fact that the disease they have can eventually lead to their death. I found the information intriguing because suppression seems to be used in ways that I did not know of and had consequences that never crossed my mind. As I see my fellow classmates look careless as we pass by one another, I am starting to believe that suppression is being used as distancing is slowly taking place at an unnoticeable rate. My readings have shown that suppression can go unnoticed by the human eye and people can suffer psychological damage without anyone having knowledge of so. As a result, depression and anxiety tends to develop within the individual. This commonly tends to happen amongst cancer patients and anyone with post traumatic stress disorder.
My Thoughts
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, is a theorist that I believe would explain the correlation of the suppression of emotion well. Freud believed that making a person’s unconscious thoughts conscious would be able to help them. I believe the same goes for making a person’s hidden emotions more aware would be able to help as well since suppressing the emotions does little to no good. The defense mechanisms we know today was conjured by Freud who felt that people would use these mechanisms when life was hard. Out of the defense mechanisms listed, he included repression which stands on a level similar to supression.
References
- Kaplow, J. B., Gipson, P. Y., Horwitz, A. G., Burch, B. N., & King, C. A. (2014). Emotional suppression mediates the relation between adverse life events and adolescent suicide: Implications for prevention. Prevention Science, 15(2), 177-85. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11121-013-0367-9
- Lanteigne, D. M. (2016). Emotion regulation in adolescence: A mechanism in the development of internalizing symptoms (Order No. 10155170). Available from Psychology Database. (1821936247). Retrieved from http://proxygsu-alta.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1821936247?accountid=8276
- Lanteigne, D. M. (2016). Emotion regulation in adolescence: A mechanism in the development of internalizing symptoms (Order No. 10155170). Available from Psychology Database. (1821936247). Retrieved from http://proxygsu-alta.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1821936247?accountid=8276
- Eastabrook J, Flynn J, Hollenstein T. Internalizing Symptoms in Female Adolescents: Associations with Emotional Awareness and Emotion Regulation. Journal of Child & Family Studies [Internet]. 2014 Apr [cited 2018 Nov 17];23(3):487–96. Available from: http://proxygsu-alta.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=94763078&site=ehost-live
- Tsai, W., Nguyen, D. J., Weiss, B., Ngo, V., & Lau, A. S. (2017). Cultural differences in the reciprocal relations between emotion suppression coping, depressive symptoms and interpersonal functioning among adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 45(4), 657-669. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0192-2
