In other words, you can experience blunted affect even in the presence of strong emotions, while emotional numbness may imply both limited feeling and expression. In situations where you might be expected to experience joy or sadness, you may feel empty or detached instead. This feeling isn’t positive or negative; instead, it’s absent of emotion.

If you weren’t responsible at all for what happened, you shouldn’t have to bear the repercussions of it. Another great situation to step back is one where you might be getting too involved. Let’s imagine that you and some friends decided to go out for a few drinks on a weekend night, for example. There’s nothing wrong at all with a relatively painless guide to double-entry accounting going out for a few drinks and having a little fun.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

For example, if you’re dreading a doctor’s visit tomorrow, play your favorite videogame or socialize with your friends before bed. Try not to talk or think about the doctor’s appointment if you can. The chances are that, if you’re in a tense situation, your breathing is coming fast and shallow. Once you’re aware of that, though, you can start changing it by taking some good, deep breaths.

Focus on regulating your breathing.

Similarly, they might balk from physical affection because to be hugged or kissed might inspire emotions that they don’t want to feel. The other side of learning how to be emotionless is that you have to control positive emotions as well. You cannot show enthusiasm or excitement about anything if you want to remain emotionless. However, if nothing makes you happy then nothing will make you sad. Emotions range from high and low extremes to little nudges in our minds.

Life can never be made truly “safe,” but some circumstances are certainly safer than others. If you’ve sorted out triage – or whatever emergency measure needs to be tended to in this exact moment – then focus everything you have on that. For you, nothing else needs to exist except for what’s needed right here, right now.

However, do keep in mind that some people are good at offering input, while others are not. Make sure to ask people who you know are logical and level-headed for information, or you may get information that doesn’t make sense or doesn’t help you. Let’s consider that you’re being blamed or even disciplined for something that you didn’t do, for example. For someone who practiced acceptance all the time, they might just accept whatever discipline was coming their way without fighting it.

1. As you can imagine, showing visual cues such as these will allow others to read what it is you’re feeling.
2. Human beings are wired to show and receive feelings, and if they can’t (or won’t), it can either cause or be a result of severe mental health problems.
3. Experiencing blunted affect can mean you feel an emotion intensely, but you’re unable to express it.
4. Focus on reasons behind every action and avoid making judgment before looking at situations from all sides.
5. Sometimes you need a little more than just logical thoughts to bring your body out of an automatic response.
6. You don’t look forward to anything, and feel general apathy about the goings-on in other people’s lives.

Avoid using drugs or alcohol to bury your emotions.

Over time, though, this protective shield can begin to get in the way of connecting with others and getting in touch with feelings that are both positive and negative. What’s more, by controlling your voice, you control your emotions too. It’s far easier to feel little or nothing when you speak in a way that remains natural and neutral.

Focusing on others may be a challenge in an individualistic community. However, helping and connecting with others, volunteering, mentoring and spending time with others uplifts an individual’s life. Use a logical approach to your situation when you cannot dissociate yourself from it. Focus on reasons behind every action and avoid making judgment before looking at situations from all sides.

We go through many situations in life where getting emotional does not change anything but our self-respect. Your actions in different situations affect your beliefs about yourself to an extent that you might believe you became a different person. You may lose your self-confidence if you believe that you were weak in some situations. Hence, it is important to learn how to be emotionless in situations where emotions harm your well-being. Some people will turn to emotional numbing as a way to manage emotional and physical pain. For people with PTSD, this can manifest as avoiding thoughts, feelings, or conversations relating to a traumatic event.

When emotions are running high, people tend to take rapid, shallow breaths (hence hyperventilation). This can cause feelings of weakness, dizziness, tingling hands, and an overall sense of unease. However, let’s imagine that now your friend wants to drive home while clearly being under the influence, and you can’t convince them not to do so. Instead of riding home with them, it would be best to take a step back, call yourself a cab or sober ride home, and not involve yourself any further.

If this occurs, then you’ll likely need some help turning that circuit back on again. In a case like this, a therapist is the equivalent of a master electrician. They’ll be able to trace the issue back to its source and give you the tools you’ll need to get power running through smoothly again. Don’t allow your thoughts to wander and spiral about all the things that could possibly unfold from this moment onwards. Emotions and voices might be roiling and swirling all around you, but they won’t affect you. Put your attention – and intention – into your feet, and feel an inner weight push downwards to ground yourself.

This might not be an option if you’re in a small space, or if you must remain seated for various reasons. These emotions can be wonderful at times, offering us the opportunity to experience things like love, elation, excitement, and relief. If you find it difficult to accept a situation or distance yourself from it, another good option is to seek the advice of others.

Keep your mind occupied with boring things as you take in all the aspects of your situation. People who misuse substances like marijuana or cocaine can alter the brain's reward system, making it harder to feel pleasure without the drug. Substance use can produce a detachment from one's emotions and an overall lack of motivation and interest. Before you know it, there isn’t enough room to store any more, and the ones already crammed in there are pushing against the door. They’re poised to explode outward at any given moment, which will undoubtedly be a rather explosive situation.

However, thinking instead of feeling is not the same as not feeling in the first place. Instead, it involves taking a moment to stop ourselves when we’re starting to feel overwhelmed by emotion. Human beings are wired to show and receive feelings, and if they can’t (or won’t), it can either cause or be a result of severe mental health problems.

In stressful or difficult circumstances, people’s emotions are often mirrored by their facial expressions. If you choose to go this route, select an item that’s appealing to you on several levels. Let it be visually appealing so you’re content to carry it with you regularly, and ensure that it has tactile appeal to you as well.