Breakups are one of the most emotionally painful experiences that, in general, result in people experiencing a cocktail of sadness, anger, and ultimate emotional flatness. If you're experiencing this unsettling state, you're not alone. Below, we discuss the reasons why after a breakup you feel numb and provide you with actionable steps to heal and stabilize your emotions.
What Does Emotional Numbness After a Breakup Feel Like?
Emotional numbness is generally described as a gap, which in turn, is defined as a lack of emotion. After a breakup, this can manifest as:
- An inability to cry or express emotions.
- Feeling detached from reality or loved ones.
A feeling of dissociered importance for previously important items.
This response is confusing and can leave you discouraged about the possibility of recovery.
Reasons Why You May Feel Numb After a Breakup
1. Emotional Overload
If the brain is looking to prevent this intense emotional suffering and that suffering leads to the accumulation of negative emotion, it can shift into an adaptive state that prevents it from over inundating you. It has also been known as emotional shut down, In which the body, in order to survive, does not process emotion.
2. Suppressed Grief
Withholding grief instead of processing it may result in emotional blueness. Individuals often repress their emotions, so as to be present at work or at daily activities, unconsciously driving them into the unconscious.
3. Trauma Response
Breakups are a painful process and even more so when a 'slighted' break up happens, suddenly. The trauma response to the brain may be similar to the symptoms of dissociation and you may experience an emotional detachment.
4. Unresolved Attachment Issues
Individuals with anxious/avoidant attachment style are more prone to develop a numbness after a break up. The disorganization of a core relationship can serve as a template for the reactiviation of former phobic fears of abandonment and/or of neglect.
5. Chronic Stress
Breakups are extremely stressful, and repeated stress hormone activation allow a depleting force to suppress emotional reactivity and thus create a state of emptiness.
How to Heal and Overcome Emotional Numbness
1. Acknowledge Your Feelings
The first step in coming off medication is to enter into accepting your feelings, even if they are difficult. Writing in a journal or confiding in a personal friend can assist in initiating the process of making sense of what has taken place.
2. Seek Professional Support
Treatment with a therapist can be very useful for the emotional regulation. Identification of emotional numbness Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness based therapy [MBSR] have been helpful in reducing the sub-clinical core emotion.
3. Practice Mindfulness and Grounding Techniques
Mindfulness exercises can help you reconnect with your emotions and the present moment. Try:
- Deep breathing exercises to calm your nervous system.
Sensory experiences, e.g., walking barefoot on grass or focusing on the sensations of being close to the earth.
4. Reconnect With Your Body
Exercise, like yoga, dancing, or even stretching may function as an interlink between mind and body and help release emotions.
5. Rebuild Your Identity
After a breakup, rediscovering your sense of self is essential. Go through experiences or activities that are enjoyable and very profound on a personal level (e.g.
6. Set Healthy Boundaries
If your ex remains in your life, then do it to build an emotionally secure distance. This may necessitate lowering the amount of contact or attempting to get closure in order to move on.
When to Seek Help
. Though anhedonia in general can be a normal reaction to a break-up, long-term level of numbness for months and months could suggest a more clinical problem (eg, depression, post-traumatic stress). Seek help if you experience:
- Persistent feelings of emptiness.
- Difficulty functioning in daily life.
- Self-harming thoughts or behaviors.
Final Thoughts
Getting high after a separation, especially, is a very daunting experience, but it can also be a moment for self-discovery and personal growth. Provided that the cause of this psychopathologic state can be identified and a specific therapeutic action can be performed, it is possible to be relieved and discharged into a state of mental and emotional wellbeing. Also note that seek help and look after oneself during this stressful period is perfectly all right.
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