 Hey Psych2Goers, welcome back to our channel. We wanted to let you know that each and every one of your comments, likes, and shares help support this channel in our goal to spread awareness about mental health and psychology. You help us make psychology and mental health more accessible to everyone. So, thank you for your support. Now, on to the video. You may have heard someone who suffers from depression or another mental illness say they feel numb inside. What does this mean exactly? Do they feel empty? Do they always feel this way? Are they depressed, angry? Are they void of any feelings at all? Suffering from emotional numbness doesn't mean you have to feel nothing all the time. Your emotions can even merge together from an unconscious or conscious suppression to create a primary feeling that can accompany your numbness. Often this is anger as it's a powerful emotion. When you're not feeling this frequent primary emotion, you're otherwise numb. So it's very possible to feel more than just emotional numbness but still suffer from it. So how do you know if you feel numb? Well, here are six telltale signs you're feeling numb. Number one, you're living on autopilot. Do you feel as if you're not living your life fully present? You may stick to your familiar routine, which can be a good thing, but there are no highs or lows in your day. It's as if you're a virtual character left on an autoplay system. While others around you are completing quests and winning battles, you're stuck in the lobby waiting for someone to take control. That's someone being you. The thing is, you can be aware that you're in this autopilot state and wonder why you don't feel more. You're observing yourself and you want to live in the present. Yet somehow you remain detached from your own life. Watching your own character live its life on autopilot with often no accompanying feelings. Number two, you don't enjoy the happy events, even the big ones. It's your birthday. Your family and friends secretly planned a huge surprise party for you and as you walk through the door, your closest friends and family jump out to shout, surprise your response. Oh, thanks. You don't know what you're feeling because there doesn't seem to be a strong emotion at all. You may feel a bit happy, but you notice your emotions during these big events don't seem as strong as others. Your friend had a birthday party last month and seemed genuinely happy. Your sister got promoted at work and was ecstatic. Your brother graduated from college and felt proud. But you, you feel a fraction of these feelings when you experience the same accomplishments or celebrations. Number three, when you do feel something, it's anger. You've been feeling numb for days and yet one small annoyance can cause you to go into an irritable rage. When we subconsciously or consciously suppress or block off feelings, they can build up and gather into one big emotion. With all these suppressions built up, these feelings will eventually burst out and usually a powerful emotion will be the one to let them out. Anger. It seems you only have two emotional states, anger and numbness. And when the time comes to feel anything, anger and irritability take the lead on this one. They're the player one who finally pushes play from your pause game, your autopilot state. And it's not a pretty picture. It's best to try to delve into the emotions you may be suppressing. Talking to someone such as a counselor or a mental health professional is a good place to start. They can help you take the steps necessary to manage your anger and to get to the root of your feelings or lack thereof. Number four, when you do feel it's through watching a movie or TV show or reading a book. Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? The romance is leaping off the pages of the script and it's as if you yourself are in love. You finally feel something. Love, wonder, happiness and it's great. The only problem is it's fiction. Somehow in real life you just don't feel those strong emotions. But when you open a book or turn on an engaging film your mind delves into the feelings of its characters. Maybe you empathize with the protagonist or it's as if you are the characters themselves. While this can be better than feeling nothing at all it's still important to make sure your real life is taken care of. If you feel empty in real life but emotions only start to present themselves when you watch a show or read you may be suffering from emotional numbness. Number five, you're dealing with emotional blunting. Certain antidepressants and medications can help us get back to feeling like ourselves again if we're suffering from a mental illness. But with the benefits some medications have some side effects that cause emotional blunting. Emotional blunting is a common term to describe the dull state many individuals feel while on certain antidepressants. Sometimes patients will describe that they don't feel quite themselves. This feeling is common in antidepressants and downers which is a name for drugs that are meant to depress your central nervous system. Several studies from Oxford University have shown that between 46 and 71% of antidepressant users have experienced emotional blunting during treatment. Although for some emotional blunting was viewed as a positive in the study 37% of the 819 subjects regarded it as a negative outcome of treatment while 38% viewed it as a positive. Generally those with severe blunting symptoms were likely to rate it as a negative. And number six, you can't empathize with others. Do you find yourself not being able to empathize with your friends or loved ones? Do you feel as if you have to act through the day to day motions but deep down you feel empty? Maybe you even feel a bit uncomfortable because you're unsure of how to react. After all, if you can't empathize with someone in a moment it may be harder to react genuinely and still show support for them. Loss of empathy can be a sign that you're feeling numb. It's not that you don't love and support your family and friends. You're just going through a struggle of your own and maybe with a little support from them or help from a counselor you can take one step forward on the path to feeling like yourself again. So do you relate to any of these signs? If so, what do you plan to do next? Let us know in the comments. And know that you're not alone. Even I've felt this way before. And if the feelings persist, consider seeking help from a mental health professional. With a bit of support you could soon be on your way to pushing play on your feelings again, not just in a movie and not playing on autopilot either. If you find this video helpful don't forget to click the like button and share this video with someone who might be struggling with emotional numbness. Subscribe to Psych2Go and hit the notification bell icon for more content like this. And as always, thanks so much for watching.