Have you ever heard the phrase “emotionally numb” before?
Many people have this condition but everyone feels it differently.
Here are some signs or symptoms to find out if you or someone you love may be experiencing
emotional numbness, and some reasons why it may have started in the first place.
Before we dive in subscribe to Bestie and click the notification bell.
Don’t forget to watch this video to the end to support Bestie.
Feeling Disconnected This is a big one.
When it comes to emotional numbness, people often describe it as the feeling of being
detached from oneself.
Not only that but when a person is attending a party, or wedding, anything that should
evoke happy or sad emotion, they talk about watching themselves from afar.
This is the feeling of dissociation where you become disconnected from their own body
or thoughts.
This often goes along with feeling like you’re cut off from the events happening around you,
which is also known as derealization.
You don’t enjoy the activities you once did, you feel exhausted no matter how much
sleep you get, and generally feel off.
People Will Isolate Themselves This is common when it comes to things like
mental illness.
Emotional numbness is often referred to as depersonalization-derealization Disorder or
DD.
People talk about how hard it is to really push themselves to go out and perform even
the simplest of tasks like running errands or going to work.
Going to work and going right home after is often all a person struggling with this mental
illness can focus on.
Not only that, but it’s said that since you’re not experiencing emotions like you
once did, you no longer have interest in activities that were once important or positive.
However experiencing emotion numbness could be a signal that you’re struggling with
something else altogether, something like trauma.
They Could Be Struggling With PTSD Emotional avoidance and PTSD often go together.
When someone experiences something traumatic, post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD might
develop shortly after.
Traumatic events can create emotional scars and it makes sense we would want to avoid
things that remind us of these awful moments.
This is known as avoidance and if the person is going through PTSD they may have many triggers
in a span of a normal day.
It would only make sense that they would want to avoid the things they once enjoyed to prevent
bringing that event back up.
Which in turn, may leave you feeling like you’re just going through the motions otherwise
known as...
Autopilot Days are blending together, and everything
looks a constant shade of grey.
Without feeling the normal ups and downs that regular everyday life has to offer, life can
really start to feel like you’re just going through the motions.
This is another common symptom of someone who could be going through a patch of emotional
numbness.
Remember everyone experiences this differently and for different lengths of time so each
case can be different.
The idea of going on autopilot can also be thought of as though your sleepwalking through
your obligations, not really having a say over what you say or do and experiencing times
of memory loss.
When you don’t feel these emotions for a long period of time, you can forget how to
identify them.
Which brings us to our next point.
You Can’t Describe How You’re Feeling When you don’t feel any kind of emotion,
you might start to forget what those emotions mean, and how it feels to experience them.
We’re supposed to go through many emotions in a day, so going weeks and sometimes months
on end without experience any kind of high or low would eventually make it difficult
to identify any kind of feeling.
The idea of feeling numb is the absence of any emotion and this can make it even more
difficult when your are trying to get help.
Being able to talk through your emotions can help you make sense of them.
Have you ever gotten really upset about a situation, vented to your best friend about
it and felt way better after?
Sometimes all we need to do is hear about the problem out loud, get out of our heads
and it can do a world of good.
However, not being able to identify anything you’re feeling makes it difficult to then
talk about those feelings and help you process them.
You Feel Empty Inside When we can’t process our emotions we probably
won’t feel much of anything or feel nothing but “emptiness”.
This is one of the biggest signals that you may be struggling with emotional numbness.
It’s not feeling empty as in you’re hungry, it’s a mental kind of emptiness.
You can feel this kind of emptiness in your heart, your throat, anywhere really.
It can also feel more like there’s something missing within you.
When we are used to feeling many emotions through the span of a day, it’s only natural
to feel the empty space the absence of those emotions leave behind.
Our emotions let us know who we are, what they’re kind of like a signal when it comes
to you mental well being.
Eventually they’ll want to come out, as our emotions are meant to be experienced.
The Emotion You Do Feel Is Irritability Or Anger
When it comes to emotional numbness you still have the capacity to feel some things.
Remember when we said these emotions, when held back for too long, might try to fight
their way out to be heard.
If this happens these feelings can commonly flip from anger or overreacting to nothing
at all.
If one is experiencing any kind of emotion it’s probably been blended together and
mixes into an anger soup that’s been boiling for quite some time.
Since someone struggling with emotional numbness is so walled off all the time, when the emotions
do make it to the surface they can be powerful.
Someone who rarely feels emotions and then all of a sudden gets a surge of them all at
once will probably not have the tools to deal with this sudden flood of emotion and will
not likely be able to control what comes out.
So what are the causes of emotional numbness or DD?
Well, that’s a tricky question.
Since everyone processes their emotions differently and since we all have different responses
to the world around us it’s hard to pinpoint what the cause is without help from a professional
like a therapist.
However, one of the most common reasons is stress.
Stress can be really harmful to the body, and if you’re wondering what other effects
stress can have on the body make sure you check out “8 Important Signs That Your Body
Is Very Stressed”.
Stress can also be present in the form of trauma.
We touched on PTSD a little earlier in this video, but traumatic experiences can range
from emotional or physical abuse.
Loss of a loved one, especially sudden unexpected loss.
Extreme stress with someone who is close to you like a spouse, family member or even co-worker,
and of course financial stress.
What Changes Can I Make To Help Overcome Ir Cope With Emotional Numbness?
Well, there are a few lifestyle things you can try if you’re not ready to seek professional
help yet.
Some common coping strategies that have been documented are trying to reduce stress.
Make more room in your life for the things you love.
That can be something like picking up an old hobby like painting or playing music that
you once loved or it can be as big as removing yourself from a toxic work environment.
Of course it wouldn’t be a Bestie video if we didn’t talk about a healthy diet.
Giving your body what it needs will in turn make you feel better physically and mentally.
Getting enough sleep in another big one, as this will give your brain the time it needs
to rest and recharge after long hard days.
Talk to friends and family when you feel like you need help or are feeling like you are
struggling.
And finally, if you have taken all of these steps you can try to find what stresses you
out in your life, or any triggers that make you unhappy and either eliminate them, or
find a healthy way to cope.
Of course, at the end of all this, of your feeling like you can’t cope or are feeling
very lost it’s always a good idea to ask for help from family or loved ones, and possible
seek out a medical professional.
Do you or someone you know struggle with emotional numbness?
Let us know in the comments section below what steps do you take to keep yourself mentally
healthy.