Feeling Numb? Possible Causes and Treatments for Emotional Numbness

Feeling Numb? Possible Causes and Treatments for Emotional Numbness

how to become emotionless

While it may provide temporary relief, learning to cope with difficult feelings this way can have long-lasting consequences. Some people will turn to emotional numbing as a way to manage emotional and physical pain. For people with PTSD, this can manifest as avoiding thoughts, feelings, or conversations relating to a traumatic event. People with emotional numbness might use strategies to resist confronting their emotions. Even if they’re doing it unconsciously, they might use avoidant behaviors and steer clear of certain people or situations.

Channel your inner cold as an ice personality

There are a what is edge computing why we need edge variety of treatment options available that can help you reduce the extent to which you try to escape, disengage from, or avoid your emotions. Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health. In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues. No matter how frustrated you are, screaming at your boss over an unfair disciplinary action won’t help. You may be able to regulate your emotions without suppressing or controlling them.

  1. When disagreements happen within valuable relationships, immediate reactions usually cause ripple effects.
  2. In contrast, suppressing those emotions would be akin to pretending that they aren’t there while also stomping on them so they can’t make themselves known.
  3. The reason why this advice is best in most situations is that you’ll be avoiding back-and-forth reactions that could escalate.

Instead, there’s more of a beige numbness where your feelings used to bitcoin has just halved again be. Similarly, apart from panic attacks, breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly will help you in that moment of anger. When you start feeling the rage burning through you, and you just want to smash someone’s face to bits, slow breaths will lessen your volcanic energy. Also, if you’re usually given to crying jags at the drop of a hat, practicing slow deep breaths can help. Causes of emotional numbness range from side effects of medications to symptoms of mental health disorders. In most cases, you may experience relief once the underlying cause has been addressed.

Calming Yourself Physically

how to become emotionless

When coping with death, a person may go through a period where they feel completely disconnected from their emotions. Emotional numbness is a state of being in which you are not feeling or expressing emotions. Dr. Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a professor at Yeshiva University’s clinical psychology doctoral program. The 24/7 hotline will connect you with mental health resources in your area. Trained specialists can also help you find your state’s resources for treatment if you don’t have health insurance.

Identify what you’re feeling

Your response to this idea might be that it sounds easy in theory but not necessarily in practice. That’s mostly because techniques on how to do this aren’t taught in Western schools. Relax the muscles in your brow so your eyebrows remain fairly still, and hood your eyelids slightly like when you’re reading or relaxing.

One mistake that we make is to think not feeling anything is good. On the other hand, being emotionless means only you decide when your emotions come out to play. You are in total control of your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Anxiety

If you’re controlling your emotions, you’re acknowledging that yes, you have these feelings and they are absolutely valid. You just can’t (or don’t want to) feel them right now, so you’re going to fold them up and set them aside for a little while. In contrast, suppressing those emotions would be akin use these 25 job sites to find your first developer job software development to pretending that they aren’t there while also stomping on them so they can’t make themselves known. Similarly, being able to control emotions can spare everyone a significant amount of grief in the long run. Have you ever flown off the handle when angry and said (or did) things that caused irreparable damage?

They might be in denial, which is a common defense mechanism people use to avoid emotional triggers and negative feelings. If you don’t feel comfortable with showing emotions in front of other people, take some time to yourself to work through them. Physical exercise like a run or a long walk can help to release the nervous tension that’s built up in your back and legs.