Ok, so I’m just gonna talk about it cause I feel like I need to.
I’ve come to conclusion that I can’t connect with someone or something else on an emotional level.
even with my own family, I don’t feel anything for them. like I imagine one of them dying and I don’t feel even a little sad or anything… like it doesn’t affect me at all.
and it has started to freak me out, cause I can understand how bad this is. I shouldn’t be like this. but I am and I can’t do anything about it.
I even adopted a dog recently to see if the man’s best friend can help me find that connection. but no. it didn’t.
I’m living with this dog for 3 months now but I feel no connection to it at all. I take care of it and everything, cause my mind understand everything. I’m not depressed, sad or anything like that. I can completely understand the world around me.
but I feel no connection whatsoever with it.like I imagine if someone would break into my house right now and put a bullet in my dog’s head and ran away, I wouldn’t even bother chasing after that guy. I would just get mad that I have to clean up after him and trow the dog’s dead body in a trash can or something..
like that’s how little I care about the dog. and anyone and everything else in my life.I can feel everything when it comes to myself, but anything besides that, I feel nothing about.
and its not something new, I’ve always been like this for as far as I can remember.so… any idea how to fix something like that?
Maybe it’s difficult for you to connect with others but the fact that you care about not caring is a good sign.
If you were completely emotionless and not capable of connecting with others, you probably would not care much about this problem. In fact, you might not even see it as a problem.
If I were your therapist, I would want to know when you first noticed your difficulty connecting. Other questions I would have include: How does your family interact with one another? Would you describe any of them as cold or unfeeling? Do you have a history of drug use? Do you have a history of trauma or abuse?
The latter two questions are particularly important to explore. Some people have reported that after using illicit drugs, their emotions are dulled.
Even certain over-the-counter drugs could suppress emotions. A recent study of acetaminophen, a common over-the counter drug, found that participants in the acetaminophen group had more emotionally muted responses than participants in the placebo group. The results are preliminary but might suggest an association between acetaminophen and blunted emotions.
A similar effect is sometimes found among individuals who sustained trauma or abuse. It changes them, sometimes leaving them emotionally numb.
It would be helpful for you to receive an objective opinion. It is difficult to be objective about ourselves. You describe yourself as non-feeling but a trained professional might not see it that way. There might be certain feelings and or connections you are overlooking.
If you have a trauma history, choose a mental health professional who specializes in posttraumatic stress disorder. Counseling could help you discover when this problem began but more importantly, how to fix it. Please take care.
Dr. Kristina Randle
