Feeling numb isn’t what you think
Emotional numbness can hurt. When you imagine feeling numb, you might think that it’s about not feeling at all. But, that’s not what it means. When you’ve reached the point where you’re not feeling at all, it’s because you’re exhausted. Your mind and body have been through a lot. You’ve been dealing with depression, and it’s an effort to manage it. Even if you’re seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist, depression is a severe illness to conquer. You may not know what to do or how to get out of a depressed funk. Maybe you’ve lost hope. When you’ve cried all you can, and there are no tears left, that’s when emotional numbness happens. You can feel anymore. Your body and mind need a break.
Our minds get tired
Imagine you’re a runner, and you’re training for a marathon. You’ve gotten into a routine where you get up in the morning and run five miles. Your body gets used to running every day, but on Saturday, you feel tired. When your muscles are sore, you might use an ice pack on them to stop feeling soreness from running all week. Your body deserves a break from running, and the ice pack is giving you that much-needed rest from pain. Your mind gets just as tired as your body does after five days of running, and when your brain gets tired it needs a rest. That’s when we begin to feel numbness or nothing at all.
When you’re emotionally numb, do you feel?
Emotional numbness doesn’t mean that you’re not feeling anything. It indicates that you’ve gone through a variety of emotions and now your mind is ready to experience nothing. You can think of it like your brain is getting ready for the next feeling, but right now it needs to be neutral. It might be disturbing when you can’t seem to feel an emotion that you’re familiar with like sadness, joy or even anger. But, your mind needs to rest before it can feel again, and you will experience these emotions when your brain is ready for them.
PTSD and emotional numbness
When you experience trauma, it can be draining on your mind and body. Nobody expects to have a traumatic life experience, it just happens. First, you have the trauma, and then you need to deal with the after-effects of the traumatic experience. It’s difficult to process traumatic events, and our brains need to deal with a little bit at a time. Your mind can only handle so much pain at one time. When you’re processing traumatic events, your mind might revert and become numb. Emotional numbness can be a result of PTSD and trauma. You want to understand your trauma and pain better, but it takes time, and you can do it with a therapist or counselor.
Being numb can be the sign of something serious
Feeling emotionally numb for a short period is understandable but, if it drags on longer than a week, you need to seek help. If you’re feeling emotionally numb for too long, it could be the sign of something more serious. Don’t wait to get help. Depression can drain you into feeling nothing, and that’s understandable. But when you’re feeling numb for a couple of weeks, it may be time to seek help. Therapy (including online counseling) is an excellent place to find support for emotional numbness. You don’t have to suffer alone needlessly. Online counseling is a great place for you to discuss your feelings of emotional numbness and start healing.