12 Effective Ways To Be Emotionless When The Situation Calls For It
Whichever therapy you choose, getting help can provide you with a safe place to express and approach your emotions so that you’re no longer feeling numb. People with schizophrenia may go through periods of time where they feel complete apathy or disinterest as well as emotional numbness or blunting. People with BPD may experience periods of emotional detachment or numbness. When this happens, you may feel temporary relief that allows you to move on.
We can learn to appear emotionless by hiding our emotions to avoid being vulnerable. If you are interested in hiding your emotions, here is a useful guide on how to become emotionless. If you wonder why you’ve suddenly become emotionally numb or been numb to emotion for a long time, reaching out to a mental health professional may help you explore possible answers. Becoming emotionally numb may be a way of preventing intense emotions from overwhelming your coping ability. It can be an experience that protects you in the moment, or remains with you long term, depending on the challenges you face.
Avoid emotional triggers.
Feeling numb can be a coping mechanism to avoid dealing with a dangerous and frightening situation. Feeling emotionally numb can be a side effect of some medications that treat depression and anxiety. If you’re taking an antidepressant and feeling emotionally numb, it’s essential to work closely with your doctor. They may choose to adjust your dosage or change the medication altogether. Dr. Mendez points out that people going through depressive episodes may be less attuned to their feelings, or experience a dulling of emotions. “Higher levels of depression and mood dysregulation result in a greater propensity for emotional numbing,” she adds.
Emotional Dysregulation
Please don’t give yourself a hard time if you break down in tears or get waves of extreme anger or fear. Once those waves have passed, everything will be considerably calmer. This can actually have a beneficial effect as you’re trying to be emotionless. Quite simply, if you look as though you aren’t feeling fear, anger, sorrow, etc., then you can temporarily trick your mind and body into believing that’s true. It’s kind of like encouraging yourself to be happier by smiling and laughing more.
Have you ever flown off the handle when angry and said (or did) things that caused irreparable damage? Words spoken and actions taken when emotions are running high can’t just be “taken back.” The person (or people) you lash out at can’t or won’t forget how you’ve behaved toward them. Being in tune with your emotions is a great thing, and it can lead to deeper connections and more awareness overall. However, when your emotions control you, they can seriously affect your ability to perform and to think clearly in crucial situations. You can’t get rid of your emotions completely, but you can keep emotions from taking over your life. The critical thing to remember about advice is that you shouldn’t depend on it.
Step away from your emotions.
This means that you’ve been so effective at becoming emotionless when you’ve needed to that there’s been a glitch when you want to turn those emotions back on. You’ve had to shut down that particular circuit in order to do some work, but when you try to shift it back on, it catches. Do you need to try to stop a serious wound from bleeding profusely?
Take some deep breaths.
See yourself an observer and not active participant in a situation that stirs your emotions. Remove your emotions from your responses to situations and people that cause your emotions to erupt. Keep trying to remove your emotions until giving emotionless responses becomes automatic. Identifying and treating underlying challenges related to trauma or mental health disorders may be one way to overcome emotional numbness.
- That said, situations in which being able to control your emotions – even being as emotionless as possible – are very likely to arise.
- Like we said before, it’s vital that you still have the capacity to feel compassion if needed.
- When you’re unable to feel things like that, you’re also unable to feel happiness, joy, and pleasure.
- The tips mentioned below may help you to go into “emotionless” mode when you need to.
- When you face a situation that requires you to be emotionless, occupy your mind with something else.
- That’s mostly because techniques on how to do this aren’t taught in Western schools.
With venting, there’s always the chance that your friends might be otherwise occupied or burdened with their own worries and unable to help. On the other hand, seeking not to feel in the first place can be a slippery slope. You can will yourself to not feel something, but you’ll likely still feel the first twinges of emotion before you can distance yourself. If you don’t feel emotions at all in a tense or disturbing situation, then there’s something very wrong.
It’s never a bad idea to try and mitigate the bad emotions that we can sometimes be subjected what is process costing to. However, not feeling them at all can put us out of touch with our good feelings, too. This is why there’s such a delicate line to walk when it comes to mastering emotionlessness.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) gives you the opportunity to express and understand your emotions, as well as examine the sources of those emotional responses. It addresses how certain thoughts may be contributing to your emotions. Psychotherapy may support the learning and the use of emotion-focused problem-solving tools. You may learn to allow feelings to emerge and to process them in the safe environment of therapy.
Press your soles and heels into the surface beneath them, full of firm, solid, grounding energy. This is why it’s so important to keep your facial expression as neutral as possible. People might inadvertently push others away, and even though they might appreciate the silence and solitude temporarily, they’ll undoubtedly feel lost and lonely later on.
This will make the person feel seen and respected, while also keeping you from losing your cool. Then, once the storm has passed, they allow the emotions back into themselves so they can deal with them. Some people find it helpful to wear or carry a talisman of some sort that they can shift their emotions into when needed.