Anger, sadness, frustration, and sometimes even happiness get caught inside us and build up. Bottling up these emotions causes the pressure to build, and like a shaken soda bottle, we can’t really calm down without exploding.

Repressed emotions have been linked to cancer, autoimmune disease, and other health complications – the body is a weird and amazing place where stress, your hormones, and your immune system all work together. So we all have good motivation not to bottle our emotions.

However, bottling up our emotions makes sense.

Sometimes when discomfort washes over us, we have to stuff it down in order to survive. We have to do what we have to do; and we just may not have the emotional capacity to handle everything at once.

Especially during a long day, we may push a tough feeling to the back of our heads. Then we crash at home and forget about the stuffed-down emotion – leaving it to fester under tomorrow’s burdens.

Delving into your own pain stockpile isn’t easy to do. Especially when you don’t have a break in your stress, you may have trouble finding an opportunity to reflect. Reflecting on bottled emotions is also difficult without someone to bounce your thoughts off of.

But think about this. Have you ever noticed how problems feel less overwhelming, when you talk about them with someone you trust?

Releasing bottled emotions is easier with support

We may naturally focus better when other people are involved in our problem solving efforts; and others may help us find solutions. But you can’t confide in just anyone. Sharing your struggles with someone who doesn’t get it may open you up to anxiety, fear, and judgement. Those emotions just discourage opening up!

So…is there a solution, where you can let out your bottled emotions, without judgement? Is there a way to let them out slowly and regularly, so you don’t accidentally just…burst?

This solution would have to help you let out your emotions in realtime:

  • without planning what you’ll say,
  • without having to keep an appointment,
  • without insurance and therapists’ bureaucracy,
  • without sharing your identity,
  • without trolling or bullying, and
  • with people who have been in similar situations.
  • without having to keep focused on a blank page, and
  • without feeling judged by other people?

These descriptions don’t fit mindfulness apps, nor chat bots. But there is a connection-based tool that might allow you to release your bottled-up emotions, on your terms, without falling apart: online, anonymous peer support.

Peer support is available 24/7, on-demand with no identifying information required. When you feel the pressure build, it’s somewhere you can go to deal with tough emotions, instead of stuffing them down and bottling them up.