Does Venting Really Make Us Feel Better?

Venting and seeking advice isn’t the same thing, and as we find out, one is better than the other.

Questions we will address:

Is venting beneficial?

What happens if we suppress our negative vs positive emotions?

When should we express our positive and negative emotions?

To understand the difference between venting and suppression and why neither of them are very good, we first need to establish what they are.

Venting is usually perceived as sharing your struggles, misfortunes, and annoyances with other people, be it those close to you or not. This isn’t very healthy because not only does it not make you feel much better but it also brings down the mood of people around you since any emotions portrayed are infectious. This also means that if you instead share positive experiences and thoughts, you can instead make stronger connections with those you are sharing them with.

On the other hand, supressing positive emotions can lead to lower satisfaction and mood with the experience that caused it and overall.

Does this mean you should supress your negative emotions? No, not at all, suppression is also quite damaging as it teaches you to ignore instead of deal with your problems. What you can do if you cannot deal with your issues yourself is find a friend or someone you are close to and confide in them and ask for help by either just asking them to listen or come up with a solution together.

What is our takeaway from this?

Confide in people close to you. – They love you and will try their best to help you with your negative emotions and struggles.

We should spread positivity to everyone! – Emotions are contagious so why not spread positivity when there is so much potential?

All emotions have their time and place – Learn to find where they do the most good to us or others.