Suppressed Anger: Is It Okay To Not Express Anger?

Anger is one of the common emotions and almost every one of us gets it occasionally. Anger can range from annoyance to rage! It can be triggered by objects, feelings, situations, memories, or people. For me, it’s some old memories that make me feel annoyed!  So whenever some old memories trigger, I express my anger by throwing things.

I know it’s a bad thing to do but I am sure you can also relate to the feeling when you’re stuck in the cloud of memories and you just can’t take them off your mind. But, do you know there are some people that don’t express their anger and opt to suppress it? Such anger is known as suppressed anger in psychology. We can simply say…

Suppressed anger can be seen when someone experiences anger but choose to not express it (it can be seen in constructive or destructive ways).

But, have you ever wondered “is it okay to suppress your anger?” Well, let’s explore in this blog!

In this blog, we will be learning about the characteristics, impacts, and coping strategies for suppressed anger. So, let’s get started!

Characteristics of Suppressed Anger

According to the research, there are no specific signs or symptoms for identifying suppressed anger, but there can be some characteristics that can help you identify if someone is suppressing their anger.

1. Substituting other emotions

A person who tends to suppress his/her anger uses other emotions as a substitute for anger. For example, some people might get anxious, depressed, ashamed, guilty, or sad instead of venting their anger.

2. Feeling emotionally numb

A person who suppresses anger denies a lot of emotions within and chooses to stay or feel numb. They might also shut down themselves entirely to overpower their anger within.

3. Outburst of rage

They say “suppressed anger does not just go away” well it’s true! When someone tends to suppress their anger for a long period, they eventually explode after a period and have to go through a major outburst which can have negative impacts on their overall well-being.

4. Passively showing the aggression

Some people opt to avoid anger in order to avoid conflicts but they keep on passively showing their aggression toward the source. This phenomenon is known as passive aggression. For example, someone who suppresses anger might keep on passing snide or sarcastic comments in an indirect manner. They generally pass passive comments to let the source know the reason behind their sadness.

Impacts of Suppressed Anger

Suppressing natural emotions specifically anger can have physical and mental health impacts, such as:

1. Increases stress levels

Suppressed emotions like sadness or anger can have direct negative impacts on physical and mental health. It can result in increased levels of stress. According to psychology, anger gets our body into a hyper-alert state which increases the blood pressure, heart rate, and certain hormones which puts you in a stress state. Bottling up emotions can also result in hypertension.

2. Impacts emotional processing negatively

Every emotion in our body comes with a different message and when we bottle up emotion, we stop reflecting, learning, or developing insights. Similarly, suppressing emotions can prevent us from processing, regulating, and expressing our emotions.

3. Lead to other mental health issues

Anger is known to be a negative emotion that can also result in feelings of shame, belittle, diminish, disrespect, and more. Ignoring or bottling up anger can lead to other mental health issues like anxiety, stress, depression, and others. It can also result in other negative behaviours related to food, substances, bad habits, and more.

4. Impacts relationship negatively

Suppressed anger can also impact personal relationships. It directly impacts the ability to be genuine and authentic. Moreover, it also impacts the boundaries. It can also impact the ability to form relationships in the future.

Suppressing Anger is not a good thing! Finding resolutions

“Suppressed anger just does not go away” … it keeps on coming back and back again until and unless we work on it. Therefore, addressing suppressed anger is important. If you are also looking for resolutions, begin the process by being aware and open about your fears associated with it. In this way, you can protect yourself from harming yourself and others.

Additionally, try to learn communication skills that address your emotional needs. Acknowledgment and honor can help you feel more grounded and empowered. Move to the next section to learn how to deal with suppressed anger.

Coping Strategies for Suppressed Anger

If you’re someone who suppresses anger or other emotions, know that it is always helpful to express such feelings in a healthy manner. Try the below-mentioned strategies to deal with suppressed anger:

• Being mindful can help you develop awareness about your emotions. Focusing and acknowledging your triggers can help you in expressing your emotions in a more constructive way.
• Emotional management can help in learning healthy skills. It helps us in learning about our emotions, understand emotions, and identify our
• Applying the basics of cognitive behavioral therapy is useful. CBT helps in replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.
• Journaling your thoughts can help you feel more emotionally aware and grounded.

I hope this blog helps you understand why it is not okay to suppress your anger. Comment down and share your views on suppressing your anger. For more such content, connect with us on all social media platforms.

Thanks for reading!