There are a lot of different things that we as children can go through that turn us into emotionally numb people. We all grow in different ways and as that happens the things going on in the world around us shape who we become.
Emotional numbness is basically a general lack of emotion. It oftentimes is a symptom of some kind of mental illness and leaves many feeling quite isolated or disconnected from the things and people around them. If you’ve never felt emotional numbness before then it is quite hard to grasp. Those who have experienced it know how hopeless it can be, it’s not something anyone just wants to have to go through.
Regarding the potential causes of emotional numbness, Healthline wrote as follows:
There are a number of different things that can cause emotional numbness. Depression and anxiety are two of the most common causes. Severe levels of acute elevated stress or nervousness can also trigger feelings of emotional numbness. Post-traumatic stress disorder, which can be tied to depression and anxiety, can cause you to feel numb, too.
Some medications can also cause numbness. The most common culprits are medications used to treat anxiety and depression. These medications may affect how the brain processes mood and emotion.
There are several ways that emotional numbness can occur. Stress hormones can flood your systems and cause different reactions within the body that can lead to emotional numbness. For example, stress hormones can affect the limbic system. The limbic system is located near the center of your brain and is responsible for your emotions. Stress hormones can also affect other hormones in your body, which in turn can affect your mood. Both effects can cause you to feel numb.
In some cases, your body can become so stressed that you become overtaxed emotionally and physically fatigued. That depletion of both emotional and physical energy can create emotional numbness.
As a child, any seriously negative events you face can cause a spiral that leads to emotional numbness. Below I am going to go over some of the things that you as an adult might do now because of the emotional numbness you faced as a child. While you can work through these things in time, accepting and addressing them are the first steps towards making the changes you might feel are necessary.
15 Things Your Emotionally Numb Childhood Might Be Causing In Your Life:
1. You feel like you’re existing not living.
You tend to feel like your life is passing you by because it is. You’re not going out and living, you’re just going through the motions. While it might be hard to get started, at some point you will be able to take things into your own hands and really put yourself out there.
2. Sometimes you still feel empty.
While you’ve worked through a lot of that numbness sometimes you still feel it. Emotional numbness is something that is hard to truly overcome. On occasion no matter how long it has been, that emptiness will creep up on you.
3. You give some pretty good advice.
You are always willing to give advice and when someone asks for it you know they really need it. Because you’re able to remove your emotions from the situation you give a great outside perspective. This is one of the few things in regards to being or having grown up emotionally numb that works in your favor.
4. You do not deal well in high emotion situations.
When the people around you get seriously emotional sometimes it shakes you up. You do not know how to handle it and become quite uncomfortable. Sure, you are able to deal with it within reason but sometimes it can be too much.
5. You either overreact or don’t react at all.
You either lash out and cause a scene or you let things go and move on. Which one will come is a mystery to everyone and because of that sometimes the people in your life can be quite on edge when approaching you. You’re a bit unpredictable in this sense.
6. You struggle to put yourself first.
You have never bothered to put yourself first before so why do it now, right? That is the mindset you have and you are constantly working on taking care of everyone else. If you don’t take care of yourself eventually this kind of thing will cause serious issues, your own wellbeing matters more than you realize right now.
7. You never really know what you want.
You are very indecisive. You don’t know what you want or who you want to be. You’re working on finding yourself in the ways that you have never managed to before.
8. You close yourself off from other people.
Being closed off is not something we as human beings do naturally often. Usually, when we are closed off we are that way because of the things we’ve been through or how we are feeling. You close yourself off because you don’t want to have to try anymore.
9. You are quite forgetful.
You forget things all the time. It seems like the most important things slip your mind quite frequently and leave you somewhat in a mess. This is something that really holds you back.
10. You sleep a lot more than most people.
You oversleep a lot more than most other people do. You find yourself exhausted by some of the most minor things and have very little motivation a lot of the time. You either get no sleep or get too much sleep, there isn’t much room in-between.
11. You tend to zone out a lot more than most other people.
You zone out often and let your mind wander even when you shouldn’t. Instead of putting your thoughts into actions you force them to live inside your mind. A lot of the time you will be missing some very important things when this happens.
12. You struggle to identify your emotions.
Because of the emotional numbness, you’ve gone through identifying your own emotions is not easy. You struggle to really put words to the things you’re feeling. It’s like you are unable to really allow things to hit you properly.
13. You agree to far more than you should.
You are willing to do more for the people in your life than you should. You agree to things that you should not agree to and end up causing yourself to fall behind. Even in some of the most unusual situations, you still question very little.
14. You always seem to give in to distractions.
You are always doing things to keep yourself busy. You get distracted quite easily and even the smallest thing can end up taking hours. You have more hobbies than most other people do.
15. You day-dream but rarely ever actually make things happen.
You don’t have much initiative. You are always wanting things but never making changes and doing what is needing to be done to get where you want to be. You cut yourself short more times than not and in many ways, it holds you back.