Why can someone have no emotions at all?

Seeing something funny, like a comedy show on television, generally causes most people to burst into laughter. On the other hand, when faced with a heartbreaking or heart-wrenching situation, feelings of heartlessness or sadness may fill your heart. Emotions play an important role in determining how you think and behave in order to make decisions and act. The emotions you feel help you survive, avoid danger, and empathize with other people. Interestingly, there are a handful of people who are emotionless and unable to feel them. In the psychological world, this emotional disorder is called depersonalization-derealization disorder (DD).

Recognizing depersonalization-derealization, when a person has no emotions

Actually, everyone may feel they can't feel emotions sometimes, aka "numbness" every now and then in their life. For example, when you feel very, very overwhelmed by stress at work. Your mind is automatically filled with all the trivia related to work, so emotionally you tend to be less responsive when you get good news.

So, you are so stressed that instead of responding cheerfully, you might even react flatly and reply with "Okay, thanks" or "I'm busy, can't be bothered." Hey, let's admit it, you've been through something like this, right? Or have been a victim dijutekin next door friend?

To some extent, this reaction is still fairly normal. However, when the tendency for emotional "numbness" that you feel persists for a long time, occurs repeatedly, and interferes with activities and even damages your relationships with other people, this could indicate a symptom of a psychological disorder called depersonalization-derealization (DD)..

So if you can't feel your emotions, what happens?

Even though they have no emotions, a person experiencing DD will show common signs and symptoms such as:

• Feeling that his soul, mind and body are disconnected from each other; like your spirit escapes from the body (dissociation). This is the depersonalization stage.
• Feeling distant / distant from the surrounding environment; not connected to the surrounding environment. This is the derealization stage
• Feeling unfamiliar with your own life (depersonalization).
• Feeling depressed for no apparent reason.
• Often forget the time, day, date, and place.
• To think that they are insignificant and unworthy.
• Feeling "live unwillingly, die unwillingly"; feeling empty heart and mind; feeling just sleepwalking while on the move; no longer feel happy when doing hobbies.
• Thinking or feeling mentally unstable.
• Feeling slow in receiving and processing signals received by the body such as; sight, hearing, taste and tactile sensations.
• Visual perceptual errors, such as seeing an actual larger or smaller object.
• Voice perception error; voice becomes lower or louder than it actually is.
• Never feel fit even though you are still diligent in exercising or always getting enough sleep.
• Experiencing a change in the perception of body image (body image) alone.
• Seemed lack of empathy, unable / difficult to understand social conditions.

Causes of depersonalization-derealization

DD disorders occur when the functions of the parts of the brain that process emotions, empathy, and interception (functions that play a role and feel what happens in the body) experience decreased activity.

DD tends to emerge as a self-defense mechanism (coping strategy) by the subconscious so that the person does not experience even more severe mental stress. This condition is known as desentization.

That's why this psychological disorder more often appears after being triggered by prolonged severe stress or after experiencing a traumatic past event, both physically and mentally (for example after sexual violence, child abuse, victims of domestic violence, financial crisis, or after the death of a loved one.).

However, the emotional deprivation caused by DD cannot be compared to other types of mental disorders that are also related to stress, such as seizures due to epilepsy, panic attacks and anxiety attacks, or depression.

Depersonalization-derealization can also occur because of the side effects of exposure to chemical drugs that suppress the work of the brain. Drugs that commonly cause emotional numbness are narcotics such as ketamine, LSD, and marijuana. The use of legal (doctor-supervised) medical drugs such as SSRI-class antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs can also cause similar side effects.

What can be done?

Usually the symptoms of DD improve on their own with changes in lifestyle patterns, social support and over time. Various ways that can be done are:

• Reduces stress.
• Regulate diet and activity patterns.
• Get enough sleep.
• Understand the causes, triggers and sources of stress and avoid it for some time.
• Share with others about the things you are feeling, aka don't harbor emotions.
• Keep yourself busy with positive things to take your mind off stress.
• Understand that the bad things you are experiencing are only temporary.

It is best to consult further with a psychologist or therapist if you are unable to cope with the stress or when the symptoms of DD are very severe, to find more effective and safer stress coping strategies.

For some people, stopping using antidepressant drugs may relieve symptoms of DD. However, consult your doctor first before deciding to stop dosing.