Imagine hanging out with friends and you all agree to watch a comedy. But as everyone is taken in and dying of laughter, you just look on—not amused. This could be a sign of emotional blunting.
Another sign could be receiving sad news about the loss of a loved one with almost no emotion. With emotional blunting, you may be limited or muted in emotional response to events.
Health experts emphasise that emotional blunting can be temporary, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours at a time. It can also be long term, arising from months to years and depends on the primary cause.
Experiencing emotional blunting is also known to affect one’s relationships and how you feel about yourself and the world.
Victoria Kress, a counsellor at mHub Rwanda, notes that emotional blunting refers to a person having limited emotional reactivity to stimuli. They may struggle to experience any emotion, instead feeling numb or empty inside. It is common for those who take psychiatric medication to experience this as a side effect.
She says that emotional blunting is not a mental health disorder, rather, it is a possible symptom of other mental disorders including; PTSD, depression, psychotic disorders, borderline personality disorder, or substance abuse disorders. It can also be caused by taking various psychiatric medications that cause one to feel numb.
"Emotional blunting can be triggered by various medications, substance use, and several mental health disorders,” Kress states.
Studies from Oxford University have shown that between 46 per cent and 71 per cent of antidepressant users have experienced emotional blunting during treatment.
Kress further notes that emotional blunting may be associated with inability to feel happiness and sadness, restlessness, loss of sex drive, feeling disconnected from mind and body, difficulty engaging with others and maintaining relationships, lack of motivation, and fatigue.
There is also difficulty feeling love or affection toward oneself or others, indifference (even to activities or causes a person once found important), difficulty concentrating, and forgetfulness or being scattered.
According to Kress, emotional blunting may impact decision-making and relationships, and result in poor self-care and even thoughts of self-harm in an effort to feel emotion. Emotional blunting can contribute to a reduced sex drive and general apathy. Overall, not living in the present can cause problems and reduce one’s quality of life.
According to PsychCentral, with the right support, emotional blunting can be managed. It usually depends on the treatment you receive for the primary cause or condition causing it. If your emotional blunting is caused by a mental health condition like depression, schizophrenia, PTSD, or BPD, talk therapy may help.
There are different approaches that may be effective for this goal. When treating PTSD, for example, somatic experiencing therapy (a type of alternative therapy geared towards helping people find healing from trauma) or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may help.
"If antidepressant medication is the cause of your emotional blunting, a psychiatrist may transition you to a different drug or adjust your dose. In this case, you can expect to see some improvement within four to six weeks, as the medication adjusts in your system. If you’re feeling up for it, engage in activities you used to enjoy, like art, sports, playing music, visiting a social club, or spending time in nature. It may not boost your mood to the same level of intensity you’re used to, but it may help,” PsychCentral states.