Why You Shouldn't Hide Your Emotions

It can often feel overwhelming and even more stressful when you acknowledge your 
emotions, and even harder when it comes to expressing them in an open and honest 
way. It is scary to come to a place of acceptance with your own emotions about various 
things in your life, but hiding from them isn’t going to help anything. In fact, in most 
cases it makes it a lot worse. 

Here are some reasons you should not be hiding your emotions, and instead should be 
embracing them.


Common Reasons People Hide Their Emotions

There are many reasons why people have a tendency to hide their emotions, not just to 
other people, but often from themselves. These might include:

Not wanting to deal with them – Simply put, people don’t want to deal with their 
emotions. It is scary and uncomfortable. 

Feeling shame or guilt – A very common reason for people hiding their emotions is 
that they are ashamed of them or feel guilty. Your emotions are just what they are, and 
it is nothing to be ashamed of. You can’t always control how you feel or react to 
something, so processing and accepting them is your only option.

Not wanting to appear weak – This often starts in adolescence by people who were 
raised to hide their emotions. A parent who tells them not to be “weak” and to stop 
crying has taught their child that it’s not okay to have feelings. This unfortunately follows 
them into adulthood, and it’s a hard habit to break.

The fear of losing control – Some people also feel that once they start expressing 
their true feelings, they will never stop. That all that control they built up over years of 
practice will explode and let loose every emotion they have ever tried to hide.


It Puts a Strain on Relationships

The first reason you don’t want to hide your emotions is that it can put a big strain on 
your relationships. If you have a habit of hiding how you truly feel, then the person you 
are in a relationship will also not know how you feel. Not just your negative emotions, 
but your positive ones as well. 

They won’t be able to feel these feelings. They won’t know when something is upsetting 
you. They won’t always feel the love and compassion you have for them if you hide too 
much. 


It Creates a Lack of Clarity and Understanding

In general, not processing and expressing your emotions makes for a lot of 
misunderstanding. Not just with other people, but also with yourself. To get to know 
yourself more and work on your emotional health, you need clarity from your own 
emotions. The way you feel and react to things that happen in your life says so much 
about who you are as a person. Just by processing and accepting your emotions, you 
can learn so much and gain clarity. This can be so healing for you as you move forward.


Lowered Self-Confidence

You might think that by hiding your true feelings, you are protecting yourself and your 
own confidence, but you might actually be making it worse. Just pretending you never 
feel anything bad isn’t going to magically improve your confidence. You need self-
compassion and unconditional self-love for that. And you can only truly love yourself 
fully when you embrace every thought, every feeling, and every emotion that you have.


You Might Cope With Unhealthy Habits

People who hide from their emotions often do so with unhealthy habits. This ranges 
from shopping and gambling, to substance abuse. If you find that when you feel 
anything uncomfortable, you quickly try to find something to cover it up and feel 
anything else, it is a really bad cycle you have gotten yourself caught up in.

Now is the perfect time to break free of this cycle and accept your feelings for what they 
are.


