Have You Become Emotionally Numb?

When we experience mild to severe feelings of detachment to the point it’s hard for us to access normal feelings any more, in that moment we are experiencing emotional numbness.

This includes both positive and negative emotions because you can’t just shut off one feeling. Common causes of emotional numbness include different types of stress and/or pain… from receiving bad news … to being in an accident … to recovering from the death of someone close … to a relationship breakup … to feeling deeply humiliated or ashamed.

So how do you overcome emotional numbness?

1. The first thing to do is to choose to value and accept all emotions – no matter what they are. Also, try and grasp the fact that suppressing your emotions will likely lead to heartache and problems later on (because they will more than likely resurface at inappropriate times.)

2. Try to understand that feelings and actions are two very different, and unrelated, things. That is, you can still feel angry without becoming violent – so don’t assume your feelings will affect your actions, too.

3. Try to figure out the message behind intense emotions. Are you angry because you’ve been hurt, used or abused? Are you sad because deep down you feel that you’ll never find true love - as you can’t believe that anyone will love you for who you really are below the surface?

4. Take that risk – and find the courage to ask someone for help. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll know that there are those who genuinely love you – like a true and caring friend. The important thing remember is to not isolate yourself, and to make the extra effort to prioritize self-care. You need other people to help you work through this.

5. Seek professional help if the symptoms persist. There are excellent counselors and therapists out there who have the training and skills to help you to shake the numbness off – so you can live a more fulfilling and healthy life.

6. Be patient with yourself. It’s likely to take time because you will need to learn to trust, and take some barriers down, so you can be yourself again (and that is often hard to do when you’ve experience hurt and pain).

TJ