Emotional numbness is where we experience mild to severe
feelings of detachment – so it’s hard for us to access normal feelings any
more. This includes both negative and positive emotions as you can’t decide to
shut just one feeling off. Common causes of emotional numbness include
different stresses or traumas … 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 and live with emotional integrity again?
1. The first thing to do is to choose to respect and
allow 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
(as they’ll possibly resurface at inappropriate times.)
2. Try and 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 yourself?
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 – like a true and caring friend. The important thing is
not to try and isolate yourself, and to make the extra effort to prioritise
self-care. You need other people to help you work through this.
5. Seek professional help if the symptoms persist. There
are excellent counsellors and therapists out there who have the training and
skills to help you to get free – so you can live a more fulfilling and normal,
healthy life.
6. Be patient within yourself. It’s likely to take time –
as 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).
Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/558236
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