Bitterness not only causes symptoms of trauma like sleeplessness, fatigue, and lack of libido. It can also in the long-term lead to low self-confidence, negative personality shifts, and an inability to have a healthy relationship.
Bitterness is rooted in unfair, disappointing, or painful experiences that would make any human feel hurt, angry, or sad. While most people are able to feel those emotions and then leave them behind, those who become bitter hold on, refusing to forgive the offenses (real or imagined) and miring themselves in misery.
Resentment (also called ranklement or bitterness) is a complex, multilayered emotion that has been described as a mixture of disappointment, disgust and anger. Other psychologists consider it a mood or as a secondary emotion (including cognitive elements) that can be elicited in the face of insult and/or injury.
Why is bitterness so damaging? Stress hormones. The negative emotions attached to bitterness can influence stress responses and release the hormone cortisol. Chronically high levels of this hormone can affect the immune system and increase the odds of disease.
Bitter people feel that they have been hurt, misused and abused. The hurt may have been intentional, unintentional, imagined. When a bitter person is hurt, and he or she doesn't deal with the problem, it is internalized. He begins to dwell on it; she begins to mull it over and over, and over again.
The cause of anxiety, depression, and other illnesses may be unresolved bitterness. Sadly, the person who is bitter and resentful is also repelling people at a time when they may need them most. Bitterness may cause isolation.
The effect on serotonin levels generates an increase of anger, emotional pain, anxiety, and depression. The long-term effects of these triggers are known to many of us.
Acknowledge your emotions about the harm done to you, recognize how those emotions affect your behavior, and work to release them. Choose to forgive the person who's offended you. Release the control and power that the offending person and situation have had in your life.
Bitter men and women often resort to passive-aggressive behavior as an outlet for the angry, sad and disappointed feelings that rule them. Bitter individuals often operate from a blaming and non-empathic perspective.
Resentment, or the strong and painful bitterness you feel when someone does something wrong to you, doesn't have actual physical weight, but it feels very heavy and can last a long time. Forgiveness is one way to get rid of resentment. Sometimes resentment lasts for years.
Liver. Digestion and the processing of nutrients are primary functions of this vital organ. 5 In TCM, the liver is associated with anger, depression, and the below physical symptoms: Emotions: Anger, resentment, frustration, irritability, bitterness, and "flying off the handle"
The Cost of Bitterness
Prolong your mental and emotional pain—and may even exacerbate it. Lead to long-lasting anxiety and/or depression.
Brain Health and Bitter Tasting
There are also studies linking bitter tasting and an increased risk of developing depression and other mood disorders.
Someone who is bitter is angry and unhappy because they cannot forget bad things that happened in the past: I feel very bitter about my childhood and all that I went through.
The book of Hebrews warns us about allowing bitterness to take root: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Hebrews 12:15).
Nevertheless, many adults often crave bitter foods, such as beer, coffee, chocolate, and so on. Why do they prefer bitter foods like this? One reason is thought to be that the intake of bitter food and drink is related to the level of stress in today's society.
The definitions of anger and bitterness are similar: Anger: a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility. Bitterness: anger and disappointment at being treated unfairly; resentment.
Jealousy is often a protective strategy fueled by more vulnerable feelings, such as worthlessness or feelings of inadequacy. No therapist can tell you exactly what the particular vulnerability is, but a skilled therapist can help guide you toward identifying and transforming whatever it might be in your case.
Briefly describe what happened that felt hurtful or disrespectful. Say, “When I was talking, you (said or did this).” Don't go into a long story about what occurred or try to soften the blow by saying you know they didn't mean to be offensive. One sentence that describes your experience of their behavior is enough.