Who has never felt mistreated?These reactions are relatively normal, but we should know that bitterness is bad for your health.
Sometimes a friend made a bad joke or a review behind them, or you needed someone who ended up putting you at the end of your priority scale.
- It could be your teacher who didn’t recognize your effort.
- Your parents who didn’t realize the difficulties of surviving in today’s world.
- Or your partner who fell in love with someone else.
- Everyone.
- At some point.
- Went through situations like the ones described above.
It would be good if negative emotions were accompanied by warning messages and educational programs to devote some of their sections to learning how to control them. We’re talking about dangerous material. There is compelling evidence that poorly managed negative emotions can be considered the greatest danger to our health.
For example, depression is associated with measurable changes in immune function. People with depression have a higher risk of heart attack than people without a history of depression. In contrast, in women, depression appears to increase the risk of osteoporosis. In men, depression predicts a decrease in muscle strength after a three-year period.
Anxiety also appears to be associated with the development of heart problems. In addition, this may delay recovery after surgery. On the other hand, it is well documented that chronic hostility can be a risk factor for heart disease and even death.
The grudge is a feeling that represents very well the emotional state of many people, it differs, like all emotional states, in generating behaviors that tend to keep the person in that state, on the other hand, it is usually accompanied by a degree of stubbornness or blindness that makes it very resistant to the measures that are attempted to get rid of it.
In this way, the grudge indicates an injured person. Whether you have been treated unfairly, your expectations have been thwarted, or your trust has been betrayed, you may feel anger and resentment. In other words, it is a feeling of rejection from those who caused the discomfort.
On the other hand, if we express it as a trend, we could say that a grudge is one that barely forgets the differences after an argument with a partner or a friend, or needs a lot of time to assimilate what happened, forgive and forget.
To discuss this topic, Witvliet et al. (2002) studied the emotional and physiological consequences of action out of spite, through an experiment. College students were asked to choose real interpersonal offenses they had experienced in the past, most of these offenses came from friends, boyfriends, siblings, or family members.
These crimes included circumstances such as rejection, lying or insult. Subsequently, the researchers collected psychophysiological reports and data. These data included heart rate, blood pressure and facial muscle tension.
The report’s data was collected as students imagined a response to these offenses, either with leniency or spite. In the condition of forgiving, students had to think of feelings of pity or empathy for those who had offended them. remain in the role of the victims. They were asked to focus on the damage and try to be petty.
Is it possible that both ways of thinking about the same problem have changed the mood and physiology of study participants?The answer is yes. When they forgaved, participants had more feelings of empathy and mercy, however, when they were full of resentment and resentment, they reported more negative, hostile, and sad feelings, as well as a loss of control.
There was also increased eyebrow tension, increased heart rate, blood pressure and electrical conductivity of the skin. We believe that increased skin conductivity indicates greater activation of the autonomous nervous system, which prepares us to act. when we perceive a threat.
Another discovery was even more surprising. After completing the experiment, students were invited to relax, however, individuals who imagined feelings of resentment could not relax, the state of high physiological activation that had been achieved by imagining past violations was very difficult to eliminate. annoying or anxious for much longer.
What are the implications of the results of this study?Experiencing fleeting feelings of hostility is certainly not enough to harm our health; however, people who tend to ruminate about crime insist indefinitely on a very dangerous habit for them. resulting physiological reactions can have negative consequences on the functioning of the cardiovascular and immune systems.
That’s why resentment can be dangerous to our health, although it’s not always easy, forgiving those who offend us can reduce our stress and increase our well-being, we can compare the effects of resentment to carry a weight that even affects our physical health. , since this can make us sick, therefore, for our emotional health, it is important to give priority to well-being, consciously deciding not to continue to feed this grudge in relation to what happened.