We all have, at some point of time in our life, decided to 'mute' ourselves.
Every person has certain pleasant memories of past, which he would reveal only to his friends.Some other matters which he doesn't reveal even to his friends, but himself
But sometimes, there are certain things that he is afraid to tell even to himself and every decent person has a number of these things or "secrets" stored in his mind.
This is called REPRESSION
Repression is nothing but rejecting or keeping those secret thoughts out of your Consciousness. These could be any , which evoked Psychological pain and pain could be Trauma, Intolerable ideas, Sexual abuse, Some insult in the past, Anxiety, Guilt , Shame and so on
Repression is very similar to denial which diminishes pain by diverting the awareness and could actually lead to behavioral issues and phobias later on in life.
They are basically defense-mechanisms which we apply on ourselves to feel free of painful mental anguish.
But in the process we no not realize that it creates a dent/warp on our personalities.
An analytical person tries to resist repression in many ways one of them being his inability to freely associate himself with full freedom or going into silence like others facing the same.
Person with repressed feelings tries to go behind a mental screen where whispers of thoughts disappear into silence.
It's like making a deal with the emotions."Not to feel.Not to respond" .in others words to mute the emotions.
It's the other form of self-deception and in majority cases it manifests itself sometime in life in the form of different illnesses.
The only way to retrieve these secrets is by psychoanalysis which is nothing but personal interaction or one to one sessions with a therapist or a person whom you confide in , who has the capability to deliver an unbiased , positive concrete solution, and a completely non-judgmental, compassionate view so that you destress yourself by expressing innermost, hidden feelings of your core being thereby elevating emotionally to a level of well being and self worth.