Emotions can be compared to an important material that turns each person’s life into a colorful picture. However, perhaps having experienced a lot of trauma, many people choose to avoid and hide their feelings behind a strong cover. Then, they gradually become numb to everything, no longer feel pain, nor can they receive joy. This phenomenon is called emotional numbing syndrome.

How to understand emotional numbness?

Emotional paralysis is sometimes also called the phenomenon of blunted emotions, which is when a person tries to avoid and build barriers to protect themselves from negative emotions such as fear, hatred, jealousy and grief. But at the same time, they also deprive themselves of the ability to feel joy or meaningful interactions.

When you are emotionally numb, you will no longer be able to experience and evoke your emotions. Instead, there will be feelings of emptiness, tastelessness, depression and self-isolation. You become superficial with everything, like a drifting boat, you lose the ability to connect with the world around you.

Emotional numbness is not a medical condition and is often a temporary experience. But if it lasts long, this phenomenon can cause you to suffer from more complicated mental disorders.

Emotional numbness can be the result of physical or emotional pain. Depression, events and trauma from childhood are considered the main culprits of this syndrome. Many scientific studies also show that the majority of people who have been victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse will show signs of emotional paralysis.

In addition, psychological stress, anxiety disorders, side effects of depression medications and stimulant abuse are also some of the causes leading to this phenomenon.

Signs of emotional paralysis

1. You don’t feel happy even in a happy atmosphere

One sign that everyone suffering from emotional numbness will experience is apathy of the mind towards certain situations. You feel no longer excited about events that you once considered important. For example, when attending a wedding party, birthday party, graduation ceremony or holiday season, although the atmosphere is extremely bustling, for you, everything in front of you is bland and meaningless. You feel distant, unable to connect with people around you, and even expect the party to end quickly.

2. You feel your emotions are inappropriate for the situation

Emotional numbing makes it difficult for you to express both negative and positive emotions. You may feel like this body no longer belongs to you and instead, you become a passive observer of the movies taking place in your life. When faced with events or the pain of loss, even though you know you should express your sadness, you cannot cry nor feel the pain. Every emotion in you is like a calm lake surface, without any ripples.

3. You are easily irritable

Melancholic mood and repressed emotions that cannot be expressed over time will gradually accumulate into a big fire that can burn everything. This is also the reason why you feel disgusted, uncomfortable and easily irritated with people around you. When you suffer from emotional numbing syndrome, you will often have two distinct extremes: you will either be extremely angry, or you will not feel anything.

 

4. You cannot judge your own emotions

Not only do you lose connection with the outside world, you also seem unable to maintain a connection with your inner world. When you get used to the callousness and the state of not being sad or happy, you gradually stop paying attention to your own emotional developments and identifying and evaluating them will be extremely difficult for you.

5. Question yourself

Maybe after observing yourself in a few situations, you will tend to ask yourself questions like: Why don’t I feel anything? Are people crying because they are sad or happy? Why can’t I cry like them?

6. You feel like life goes by in a loop

You will have the feeling that all activities of the day are happening like a pre-programmed machine. Things keep repeating day after day, you still move forward and try to complete all assigned tasks well, but in the end you still feel empty and incomplete. Perhaps, your life is lacking the flavor of the levels of joy, anger, love, sadness, love, nostalgia, anger, and resentment.

7. Isolate yourself

Not only do they deny the right to feel the ups and downs of life, people with emotional paralysis also build barriers to separate themselves from the outside world to protect themselves from the negative emotions that other people feel. another brings. They easily feel scared, confused and have an avoidance mentality when someone shows anger, resentment, provocation or sadness.

What to do to overcome emotional numbness syndrome?

Emotional numbness won’t last forever, and your feelings won’t go away. They still exist and wait for you to awaken them. Here are some useful tips that you can refer to to quickly overcome this syndrome.

1. See a psychologist

Mental health experts will give advice and some treatment methods to help you find your emotions and gradually regain balance in life.

2. Confide in relatives

Try to arrange time to be with people you trust and confide in them about the problems you are facing. Even though you may be having difficulty connecting, speaking out will help you feel lighter and no longer feel alone when there are many people around you who love and care about you.

3. Exercise

Jogging, cycling, swimming, kickboxing or yoga are all extremely effective in reducing stress and increasing happy hormones in the brain. Physical exercise combined with deep breathing will help you gradually regain connection with your body and mind and awaken emotions that have long been dormant inside you. You should spend 15-30 minutes exercising regularly every day to achieve the best results.

4. Self-heal

You can practice mindfulness, meditate and write in a diary every day to purify your mind, observe yourself, identify pain and thereby heal the wounds that are still smoldering. Emotional numbness comes from pain. Your life will be filled with joy again when you have overcome all the storms in your heart.

5. Maintain a healthy lifestyle

Proper rest and healthy eating are important keys to help you maintain positive energy, protect your health and improve your emotions. Therefore, try to get enough sleep 7-9 hours a day and maintain a balanced diet, complete with 4 essential groups of nutrients including: protein, starch, fat and vitamins to improve your quality of life. High. Although it seems simple, if applied seriously, you will gradually feel the significant improvements that this healthy lifestyle brings.