Rejections can be extremely hard to deal with and can induce stress and depression if not handled properly. Even though rejection is so common in everyday life, one might think that they are not worthy enough for anything.
Rejection comes when we set a certain expectation from someone or something and fail to achieve the expected outcome. It can be more impactful if the intensity of attachment to the outcome or a person involved is too high especially. Let's delve into details.
Effects of rejection on physical and mental health:
Depending upon the intensity of feelings attached, rejection can lead to various negative impacts on an individual. At times the pain can manifest itself into physical symptoms. It is imperative to deal with these emotions and symptoms in a timely fashion.
Depression: The pain of rejection makes the brain release lesser amounts of opioids thus making an individual prone to depression.
Trauma: Rejection in any form can lead to lingering trauma in an individual, especially children. Children who are continuously exposed to rejection may grow up with a suppressed sense of trauma which might cause adverse emotional problems in his/her adult life.
Anxiety: Rejection might amplify someone’s pre-existing anxiety disorders, while in some it may bring upon a continuous feeling of nervousness, worthlessness, and rapid heart rates scaled up without any warnings.
Stress: Rejection may cause increased amounts of negative stress in an individual. Over time this can lead to multiple negative physical symptoms.
Trust Issues: Facing rejection multiple times, or a singular traumatic rejection may bring upon trust issues where the individual questions the authenticity of experiences they go through in their life.
Development of Addiction: Alcohol and drug usage is most common way of dealing with rejections and they are devastatingly harmful if not checked.
Low Self-Esteem: Rejection may cause an individual to question one's self worth.
Hormonal shifts: Rejection leads to various emotional changes and affects hormones negatively. When encountered with rejection, our glands stop releasing feel good hormones which in turn lead to more problems.
Heartache: Heartbreaks and rejections can activate certain networks of nerves which cause physical pain. Therefore, a loss of a closed one, rejection or being let down may feel like a real blow to the gut or heart.
Withdrawal: In extreme cases, a rejection may lead to withdrawal symptoms at various levels. An individual may start bottling up all emotions, and resort to cutting people off from their lives randomly. Physically the person may start showing signs of irritability, sleeplessness and anger management problems.
Real Talk:
Phrasing what Rocky Balboa said to his son, life isn't sunshine and rainbows and it hits you hard. Times can be tough, alone and immensely unimaginable to turn it around. But, it is on us how hard we keep moving forward and stay true to ourselves. This doesn't mean you have to suffer and do it alone, you can always reach out to your family/ friends or professional therapists to get out of troubled times. You get to decide your own self worth.