Then one can develop a healthy plan to work through the feelings. Suppression is a positive step when it is followed by working through the situation. Suppression can be an excellent tool when one is confronted with anger, tragedy, or upon learning unacceptable details about a loved one's life, such as involvement with the cults or homosexuality. Through suppression, an individual is able to work through the initial shock, taking care of immediate needs. He can then prepare a loving response instead of merely reacting.
Suppression can become repression when buried anger is no longer acknowledged.
At that point, anger is transformed into bitterness. When an individual refuses to proceed through the grieving process, suppressed grief becomes repressed grief, preventing a return to normalcy. Repression, then, is an unconscious act whereby the individual refuses to acknowledge, deal with, or work through a certain situation. Homosexual desires or impulses are generally seen as unacceptable when a person is becoming aware of them. Even though an individual may be aware of these impulses, he can continue to refuse to consciously deal with them, leaving them to plague his unconscious being.