Skip to main content Skip to footer links

Emotional Numbness

Do you feel numb, empty, frozen, or nothing at all? While it's normal to experience at times, long-term emotional numbness can greatly impact your overall mental health and strain your relationships. Learn more about emotional numbness, why it happens, and how to cope with it.
Thoughtful stressed young hispanic latin woman sitting on windowsill, looking outside on rainy weather, having depressive or melancholic mood, suffering from negative thoughts alone at home.

What is emotional numbness?

Emotional numbness is a complex, valid emotional response and coping mechanism for pain and discomfort. If you often find yourself thinking, "I don't even know how I feel," or "I feel nothing," or even "dead inside," you could be experiencing emotional numbness. It's also a sign that you may benefit from support for a mental health condition.

Emotional numbness is often felt as an inner emptiness or blankness; you know you should have feelings, but nothing is there. Others still feel emotions like contentedness, anger, or mild sadness, but are unable to access more intense feelings like excitement or sorrow. Some also deal with associated physical symptoms: headaches, fatigue, body pains, and mental fog.

At times, numbness comes with detachment from loved ones, a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed, and apathy about life. You may feel unsure about your identity or sense of self and experience a general lack of motivation. Numbness is also associated with dissociation, a feeling of disconnection from your body, emotions, and thoughts. It can feel like you're "not all there." 

Your effect, or the way you behave and react to things, and even your facial expressions, may change. You may have trouble responding with the appropriate feeling in conversation with someone, like with joy at a friend's accomplishment. This can make it tough to connect with others and form intimate relationships, which in turn can create loneliness.

If you're feeling out of touch with your emotions, you aren't alone. Read on to discover causes of emotional numbness and where to find support.

Why do I feel emotionally numb?

Emotional numbness often develops as a coping mechanism for dealing with intense, painful situations. Grief, abuse, depression, addiction, and painful events — personal or in the world — are all shocking to the senses, and it's common to shut down just to get through. Emotional numbness also arises from less severe but stressful situations: stressful work environments, health conditions, and in relationships. But sometimes, the numbness is more general and not connected to anything in particular. 

Detachment can serve a positive, protective function. But numbness can easily become maladaptive, especially when connected to a mental health condition. With trauma in particular, numbness can be associated with memory loss and feelings of physical dissociation (feeling like you aren't there or are above yourself). Chronic emotional numbness is a cause for concern and is a symptom of many psychological conditions, including depression and dissociative disorders.

Some psychiatric medications can cause emotional numbness as a side effect, which makes it more challenging to address your mental health problem in the first place. It's important to monitor your symptoms and discuss with your doctor how certain medications impact your daily life.

Many struggle to identify why they feel this way in the first place. You may find yourself digging deep for emotions or memories that are buried. It doesn't mean your emotions aren't there, they're just deeply hidden. 

Emotional numbness can be alienating, especially when there's an expectation to feel a certain way, like after the passing of a loved one. Where some react to stress with overflowing emotions, others shut down. You may want to cry, but the tears just aren't coming. It may appear like you're apathetic to the situation when you really aren't--you just don't know how to feel.

Emotional numbness is a common way of coping with pain. Above all, you are entitled to your feelings, even if they are hard to understand.

What are some emotions, moods, and life experiences associated with emotional numbness?

Emotional numbness typically follows a traumatic or stressful event. Learn more about associated feelings and life experiences.

How can I cope with emotional numbness?

Confronting your emotional numbness can be challenging, especially when you've relied on it as a coping mechanism for pain or trauma. It's tough to face emotions head-on that you've been avoiding, either subconsciously or on purpose. With time, it is possible to get back in touch with your feelings.

People who feel numb sometimes engage in addictive behaviors and self-harm to cope. You may think, "I just want to feel anything at all." The behavior may create a sensation that shocks or comforts you temporarily, but hurting yourself is not a solution to emotional numbness. Over time, it becomes an unhealthy pattern that contributes negatively to your mental health. It's important to seek professional support if you struggle with self-harm as a way to deal with numbness.

You may feel some pressure to feel a certain way about something going on in your life because everyone else has a reaction, but this is also not a solution to emotional numbness. Instead, don't force yourself to feel anything, but notice your experiences and thoughts without judgement. It helps to keep track of how you feel, even if it's not much, by journaling a little once a day.

If you experience dissociation, grounding and mindfulness practices are very effective at bringing you back down to earth. Some popular mindfulness practices include:

  • 5-4-3-2-1: Name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste)
  • Body scanning: While deep breathing, focus your awareness on specific parts of your body and your physical sensations, moving from top to bottom
  • 4-7-8 breathing: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and release your breath for 8 seconds, then repeat

Dealing with chronic emotional numbness undoubtedlty takes a toll. Professional support can be instrumental in helping you get back in touch with your feelings and with yourself.

Things to Try

Connecting with your feelings can take time. Try some of these activities below to begin the journey of acknowledging your emotions.
Write down a few things you're grateful for
Loading Write down a few things you're grateful for
Acknowledge and avoid negative self-talk
Loading Acknowledge and avoid negative self-talk
More Things To Try

What are some mental health conditions associated with emotional numbness?

Several mental health conditions list emotional numbness among their symptoms; learn more about those conditions below.

What are resources are available for coping with emotional numbness?

If you're struggling to express and stay in touch with your feelings, it may be time to seek professional support for emotional numbness. Explore the resources below to get started.
More Resources