There are events in every person’s life that he/she wants to forget about. Some of them are minor unpleasant situations and some have traumatic events. Whatever the case, people try not to tell others about them and try to forget about them. They hide their memories deeply and think that this will help them cope with the destructive power of these events. Psychology professor Ames W. Pennebaker studied the effect of secrets on human health and described all the consequences of silence about them in his scientific researches. He claims that hiding some unpleasant events destroys the human psyche and can cause serious harm to health.
He found that people tend to hide negative information about their lives and try not to show what kind of pain they experience from these events. Traumatic events include mental or physical abuse, ridicule of classmates, divorce, bad relationships, and others. Everything that made you suffer in the past affects your condition today. After conducting research, the professor found that people do not want to talk about events that injured them. They try to hide this information even from themselves. But no matter how hard they try, the memories remind of themselves and this hurts them more and more.
The results of studies showed that people who keep secrets about unpleasant events in their lives suffer from various diseases of the cardiovascular system, have problems with the digestive system, or suffer from frequent headaches.
At the same time, people who hide their traumatic events often feel guilty for what happened, shy or afraid to talk about it. Such emotions can cause depression and increased anxiety.
Pennebaker claims that keeping secrets does more harm to health than the event itself. If you try to hide and forget about the event that hurt you, then this will not help you get rid of it. You should try to tell someone about it. It should be a person whom you trust infinitely or a psychologist. The longer you hide the truth, the more it will destroy you.
When you voice your emotions they decrease. Your fear, shame, or pain go out and dissolve in your words. During the conversation, you are relieved of the burden that you wore for so long. Telling, you can clearly understand what you are experiencing and why. You can also find benefits on how to reduce the pain of memories. The event will not disappear anywhere, but memories of it will not hurt you. Therefore, do not keep secret any events that hurt you. After you share your emotions with someone, you will feel significant relief and will be able to move on with ease thoughts.
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