Suppression gives us the conscious decision to delay dealing with our emotions or destructive things in our lives,  so that we may deal with the present things we need to get done to survive, to maintain stability, and to rework our strategy at life’s goals as a successful couple. It is reminiscent of the 1990s action films where the main character would often say, “I ain’t got time to bleed.”

The concept of physical trauma is interesting here, where the body goes into “shock.”  When injured physically, we may not feel any pain for a time, an adrenaline-fueled rush that increases our heart rate, blood pressure, and senses for the purpose of saving our own lives, that absence of pain is interesting, and very similar as a psychical analogy to suppression - where we defer pain for a time in order to simply do what needs to be done right now to make it through trouble.

This makes it possible later to return to uncomfortable emotions and to more accept them from a non-stressed and patient perspective.

GO BACK TO MATURE DEFENSE MECHANISMS.