2012-08-17

Suppressed Negative Emotions and How to Release Them

One of the psychological effects that drinking of alcoholic beverages has upon me, and probably on many other people, is that the feeling of shame diminishes or disappears. This psychological change often makes me eloquent, and I start making compliments or letting loose my suppressed negative emotions, be they toward specific indivituals or the society. This week I found myself (again) criticizing someone mercilessly for something that seems to have been irritating me for a long time. I was sorry that this way I spoiled the atmosphere, but I am not sure any more if this was a mistake.

Many of us, including myself, of course, seem to have many suppressed nagative emotions. In this sense we are like volcanoes. When the suppressed energy passes our limit, we erupt. And when we are drunk and can rationally control ourselves less, our limit is also lowered. Although I am not sure if this is the best way to release our suppressed negative emotions, we do need to do so every once in a while in some way or another.

Every eruption of this kind makes me realize what negative emotions I have suppressed toward certain individuals. This realization often scares myself. But on the other hand, I think that if I remain in contact with someone while suppressing some strong negative emotions toward him or her, that relationship is a fake one. The best way to evade such an unpleasant conflict would be not to remain in touch with such a person, but we are often forced to do so under various social contexts.

There seem to be many ways to release suppressed negative emotions toward the society even constructively, but when it comes to specific individuals, I cannot see many constructive ways to do so. The longer we suppress our negative emotions toward someone, the more difficult it becomes to release them without running the risk of damaging the relationship with him or her seriously. And unfortunately, being drunk is often the only condition in which we find ourselves allowing ourselves to say directly what we have been suppressing toward someone else.