No one likes to be unhappy and it’s a known fact that you feel better when you share your sorrow. Yet it is hard.
That is because when you are unhappy and sad, you are in another state of mind. Without getting into the causes of unhappiness and sticking solely to the topic of being unable to share sorrow, unhappiness creates various kinds of fears.
- Fear of losing loved ones - on how revealing the reason for your unhappiness will impact your family. It could affect your personal life and shatter the morale of family members and loved ones.
- Fear of being labeled and judged – The moment you try to open up, you put yourself up to scrutiny from others. This is an uncomfortable feeling most are unwilling to subject themselves to.
- Fear of failure – If you suffer from chronic issues that render you unhappy then you find yourself ruminating over past failures and worrying that everything you do will be a failure. You are unable to disassociate from past experiences and fear you may ruin things for everyone around you.
- Fear of being misunderstood. – The worry that you may not be able to communicate clearly, be it for poor command of language or simply loss of words. This restricts you from expressing your agony.
- Fear of causing tensions – The fear that anything you say could cause tension in your environment, open a pandora’s box which could further your problems.
- Fear of shame – Shame is a powerful negative emotion and can hinder anyone from opening up about their problems. If you feel shame for any action you did, It is harder for you to express and share.
- Fear of Isolation - The fear that if you share your dismay, people will isolate you or distance themself from you. A human being is a social animal and everything we do is motivated by the need to be socially acceptable.
Social etiquettes demand you put up a happy face but as Sigmund Freud said, ‘Unexpressed emotions never die, They are buried alive and come forth later in uglier ways’.
Find an avenue to vent out all the unexpressed emotions so you can think, feel, and act clearly to do the next right thing.