Pressure to feel upbeat can make you feel downbeat, while embracing your darker moods can actually make you feel better in the long run, according to a new study out of UC Berkeley.
The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, tested the link between emotional acceptance and psychological health in more than 1,300 adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area.
By contrast, those who generally allow such bleak feelings as sadness, disappointment, and resentment to run their course report fewer mood disorder symptoms than those who critique them or push them away, even after six months.
Three separate studies were conducted on various groups both in the lab and online, and factored in age, gender, socioeconomic status, and other demographic variables.
"It's easier to have an accepting attitude if you lead a pampered life, which is why we ruled out socioeconomic status and major life stressors that could bias the results," Mauss said.
In the first study, more than 1,000 participants filled out surveys rating how strongly they agreed with such statements as "I tell myself I shouldn't be feeling the way that I'm feeling." Those who, as a rule, did not feel bad about feeling bad showed higher levels of well-being than their less-accepting peers.
After completing the task, participants rated their emotions about the ordeal. As expected, the group that typically avoids negative feelings reported more distress than their more-accepting peers.
"By asking parents about their attitudes about their children's emotions, we may be able to predict how their children feel about their emotions, and how that might affect their children's mental health," Mauss said.