Emotional Numbness in Adults: Causes, Symptoms, and Help

October 14, 2025

Authored by: Daniel Hoadley, B.S. Psychology

Edited by: Jemma Strain, B.S. Psychology

Feeling “not how you should” from time to time is completely normal. For instance, you might watch a sad film and notice that everyone else is emotional while you just feel…nothing. Or perhaps a song that usually lifts your mood suddenly does little for you.

Occasional emotional numbness in adults is part of being human. However, if you can’t remember the last time you truly laughed or cried, this may suggest something deeper is going on.

A lack of emotional responses to life can lead to an inability to experience pleasure or joy, damage relationships, and increase the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors. Plus, emotional numbness can be a sign of an underlying mental health condition, which, without intervention, could worsen over time.

If emotional numbness is affecting your everyday life, a mental health professional can help you understand the underlying causes of the issue and the right treatment options for your needs. This page can also help you better understand emotional numbness in adults, as it explores:

What emotional numbness is
What causes emotional numbness
The link between PTSD and emotional numbness
Other disorders of mental health and emotional numbness
Medications that can cause emotional numbness
Where to find professional support for emotional numbness

What Is Emotional Numbness?

Emotional numbness, or “blunting,” is when your emotions lose their usual strength or clarity. For example, you might notice that moments which once made you laugh or cry now barely register, leaving your reactions flat or distant. Even situations that “should” stir something in you might feel strangely neutral, as though your emotional responses have faded altogether.

Some common signs of emotional numbness include:¹

Feeling detached from your emotions or surroundings
Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
Struggling to connect with loved ones or show affection
Finding it difficult to cry or express joy
Experiencing a sense of emptiness or inner “flatness”
Going through the motions of daily life without really feeling present

So, where does this numbness come from? In the next sections, we take an in-depth look at the causes of emotional numbness.

What Causes Emotional Numbness?

The causes of emotional numbness can be difficult to untangle because there are often many variables involved. By “variables,” we mean how an issue that leads to emotional numbness in one person might not cause the same reaction in another.

For example, emotional numbness can emerge from external experiences like grief, ongoing stress, burnout, and fatigue.¹ Even certain medications can create a sense of emotional distance, a reaction which we’ll look at more closely later on.

In other cases, emotional numbness might stem from internal struggles rather than outside pressures. For instance, mental health conditions such as PTSD or depression can interfere with how emotions are felt and expressed.

There can even be a mix of the internal and external factors involved: Perhaps someone develops depression from burnout, which then creates an emotional numbness.

In light of the different contributory causes of emotional numbness, it may be clear to see how tricky a topic “cause” can be.

But just because the causes may be difficult to explore doesn’t mean we can’t start to understand them in more detail. The next sections look at these complex areas more closely, breaking down the basics of how mental health conditions and emotional numbness can connect.

PTSD’s Strong Links to Emotional Numbness

Emotional numbing is recognized as one of the core features of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Ever since the condition was first defined in the DSM-III, it’s been included among its key symptoms throughout DSM revisions.² This evolution reflects how clinicians have come to understand that numbness is central to how PTSD presents.

Nowadays, it’s recognized that many trauma survivors with PTSD describe feeling “detached” or unable to experience positive emotions, such as love or happiness, after a traumatic event.² In fact, research has shown that people who experience these stronger numbing symptoms can face more severe PTSD overall, as well as greater difficulties functioning day to day.² In other words, those who feel numb may have worse outcomes if intervention isn’t implemented.

Why Does PTSD Cause Emotional Numbness?

As understanding of emotional detachment deepens, researchers have begun exploring what might be happening biologically to create this numbing effect. While there isn’t a single conclusive cause, mounting evidence points to disruptions within the brain’s stress-response systems that seem to dampen emotional reactivity over time.

For example, one study observed that trauma-exposed people with strong numbing symptoms showed reduced amygdala reactivity to mild painful stimuli, along with measurable changes in the endocannabinoid system.³ These findings suggest the brain may, in a sense, “dial down” emotional processing as a protective mechanism.

Building on this finding, researchers propose that heightened endocannabinoid receptor activity in the amygdala might even blunt emotional responses to everyday stress or discomfort.³ Paradoxically, this same mechanism could also leave people hypersensitive to more intense negative stimuli.

The result is a confusing mix: Feeling emotionally flat in daily life but overwhelmed by powerful flashbacks or surges of fear when something triggers memories of the trauma.

Can Other Mental Health Conditions Cause Emotional Numbness?

While PTSD has some of the strongest links to emotional numbness, there are some other mental health conditions that are linked with the phenomenon. Below, we take a look at the research that helps us to understand why emotional numbness can occur as a result of other mental health conditions.

Depression

Many people with major depressive disorder experience a deep emotional numbness, with some patients reporting feeling “empty” or unable to cry and enjoy things. In fact, a recent multi-country study found that nearly 72% of patients in an acute depressive episode rated their emotional numbness as “extremely severe.”⁴ This highlights how common and intense this symptom can be in depression.

Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder

Depersonalization-derealization disorder is characterized by persistent feelings of detachment from oneself (depersonalization) and/or their surroundings (derealization).

A core symptom of depersonalization is hypoemotionality,⁵ meaning the person experiences a marked emotional numbness or blunting. People with the disorder have described feeling like an outside observer of their own life, for example, like being in a dream or inside a game.⁵ They can intellectually recognize events or relationships that should feel emotional, but report that the feelings are dampened or absent.

Anxiety

Intense anxiety, such as during panic attacks or severe stress, can also produce episodes of emotional numbness. This is because, in acute fear or terror, the body’s fight-or-flight system sometimes triggers a freeze response, where emotions shut down as a protective reflex.⁵

For example, someone with panic disorder might suddenly feel nothing (emotionally detached or unreal) at the peak of a panic attack. Clinically, this is a brief dissociative symptom akin to depersonalization, triggered by anxiety.⁵

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia can be different from the other conditions we’ve focused on because, while the condition can look like emotional numbness, it reflects something more complex.

Schizophrenia frequently involves a profound form of emotional flattening known as “blunted affect” (or “flat affect”). Blunted affect is one of the classic negative symptoms of schizophrenia and refers to a marked reduction in the outward display of emotions.⁶

People with blunted affect may show limited facial expressions, gesture less, and speak with little variation in tone. They may also appear indifferent even in situations that would normally provoke strong emotions, giving the impression that they feel “numb” or have no emotions at all.

However, it’s important to understand that blunted affect doesn’t always mean the person lacks emotional experience. In many cases, people with schizophrenia still feel emotions internally but struggle to express them outwardly.⁷

Either way, this emotional blunting remains one of the enduring features of schizophrenia, which can persist throughout the course of the illness.⁸

Can Medications Cause Emotional Numbness?

It may seem slightly ironic to hear that some of the medications that are prescribed to regulate emotions can be the same thing that causes emotional numbness. Medications are often important elements of the treatment process, but it’s important to understand that feeling “low” is sometimes one potential medication side effect.

Antidepressants such as SSRIs are well known for this effect, with around 60% of users reporting that they can cause them to feel emotionally numb.⁹ This response usually happens because these medications calm distress, but, in doing so, can also quieten the brain’s emotional systems more broadly.¹⁰

Additionally, if you’re taking benzodiazepines, especially for a long time or at higher doses, you might notice a similar pattern.¹¹ Feelings can seem distant, and life can start to feel muted, almost as if you’re moving through it on autopilot.

Antipsychotics can bring about a comparable experience, too, and many people describe a sense of emotional “return” when their dosage is later adjusted.¹²

It’s important to recognize this effect for what it is: a known and manageable side effect rather than an issue with yourself. But if your emotional numbness feels like it’s undermining your quality of life, it’s crucial to have an open conversation with your prescriber. In many cases, small changes such as adjusting your dosage or introducing supportive therapy can make a noticeable difference.¹³

When Should I Seek Help for Emotional Numbness?

It can be very difficult to work out whether the emotions you’re experiencing require extra support to deal with or something that may just pass.

In some cases, feeling numb is actually a short-term coping response to stress or trauma – a way for the mind to protect itself from overload. But this type of response should be temporary, not a new normal.

Therefore, if the emptiness begins to interfere with your daily life, or you identify with one or more of the self-assessment questions below, it may be time to reach out for support.

Emotional Numbness Self-Assessment:

*The following questions are not diagnostic – they’re merely intended to give you more insight into whether emotional numbness may require professional support.*

1. Has the sense of emptiness lasted too long?

When emotional numbness continues for weeks or months instead of easing, this is a sign that something deeper may need attention.

2. Is emotional numbness affecting your daily life?

If you’re finding it harder to connect with others or enjoy the things you once did, reaching out for help can make a real difference.

3. Are unhealthy coping habits creeping in?

Using substances or engaging in self-harm actions to feel something again can worsen emotional numbness and put you in a risky position.

4. Did the numbness begin after trauma or loss?

If emotional numbness follows a traumatic event or bereavement and hasn’t improved, therapy can help you process the experience and begin to heal.

While the above questions aren’t meant as a way to diagnose yourself, they do serve as a way to check in with yourself and understand where you stand with your emotions. If you find yourself answering “yes” to one or more of these, then reaching out to a doctor or therapist may be an important first step in recovery. They can help you understand where the numbness comes from and guide you toward treatments that restore emotional balance and connection. The earlier you seek help, the sooner you can begin to feel like you again.

Mission Connection: Professional Support for Emotional Numbness in Adults

Feeling emotionally numb can be confusing; it’s like watching life happen from behind glass, knowing you should feel something but are struggling to connect. If this is where you are right now, Mission Connection can help you find your way back to feeling again.

Our outpatient programs are designed to treat people experiencing emotional numbness through complex emotional and mental health challenges, such as:

Depression
Anxiety
trauma-related issues and PTSD
Bipolar disorder
Schizophrenia
Psychosis
Self-harm

Each programme balances structure with flexibility, offering intensive outpatient (IOP) and, if needed, partial hospitalisation (PHP) options across the US.

At the heart of every one of our programs sits therapy, where we combine evidence-based approaches like CBT and DBT with individual and group sessions. Led by licensed professionals, these sessions can gently help you rediscover emotional awareness and reconnect with the parts of yourself that may feel as though they’ve gone “quiet.”

If showing up in person feels like too much right now, we also offer secure telehealth options, so you can begin healing from the comfort of your own space.

Reach out to Mission Connection today, and let’s take the first step toward helping you feel whole again.

References

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Korem, N., Hillmer, A. T., D’Souza, D. C., Nia, A. B., Levy, I., Pietrzak, R. H., & Harpaz-Rotem, I. (2024). Amygdala Cannabinoid 1 Receptor, Pain Response, and Emotional Numbing in Trauma-Exposed Individuals. JAMA Network Open, 7(9), e2432387–e2432387. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.32387
Christensen, M. C., Ren, H., & Fagiolini, A. (2022). Emotional blunting in patients with depression. Part I: clinical characteristics. Annals of General Psychiatry, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-022-00387-1
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Strauss, G. P., Bartolomeo, L. A., & Harvey, P. D. (2021). Avolition as the core negative symptom in schizophrenia: relevance to pharmacological treatment development. Npj Schizophrenia, 7(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-021-00145-4
Oorschot, M., Lataster, T., Thewissen, V., Lardinois, M., Wichers, M., van Os, J., Delespaul, P., & Myin-Germeys, I. (2013). Emotional Experience in Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia—No Evidence for a Generalized Hedonic Deficit. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 39(1), 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbr137
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Christensen, M. C., Ren, H., & Fagiolini, A. (2022). Emotional blunting in patients with depression. Part IV: differences between patient and physician perceptions. Annals of General Psychiatry, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-022-00391-5
Marazziti, D., Mucci, F., Tripodi, B., Carbone, M. G., Muscarella, A., Falaschi, V., & Baroni, S. (2019). Emotional Blunting, Cognitive Impairment, Bone Fractures, and Bleeding as Possible Side Effects of Long-Term Use of SSRIs. Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 16(2), 75. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8650205/
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