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The Unspoken Numbness of College

By Amanda Belizaire

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I like to think of myself as pretty laid-back. Many people tell me that I have a calming presence, especially around finals season when everyone around is stressed, anxious, and fueled by caffeine and dreams here at the honors college. One day, after being told by someone that they had never seen me anxious or stressed, I started to question if my emotional response to examsand being overwhelmed was out of the ordinary. It is not like I have never been stressed or anxious, but I find myself to be extremely overwhelmed, yet feeling nothing. It turns out that many college students feel this way, but it is never mentioned in the conversations centering around college. Emotional numbness has become a silent companion for so many of us, so I want to talk about it.��

Psychology offers some compelling insights into this feeling, and it’s not only that you’ve hit the burnout stage. What you are experiencing could be a response to overstimulation, a phenomenon that occurs when the brain is overloaded with too much stress and information. Your overwhelmed brain decides to shut down emotionally to protect you from burning out. This emotional shutdown is often referred to as emotional blunting, where the brain dampens its emotional responses to avoid further stress. Hillel Glover (1992) links this to the brain’s endogenous opiate system, the same system that reduces physical pain, suggesting that emotional numbness can work similarly by numbing emotional pain to cope with ongoing stress. Essentially, your brain is trying to protect itself by turning off the emotional intensity you cannot handle at the moment.��

One way that emotional numbness can become evident is through procrastination and a loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyed. When your brain has emotionally shut down, it becomes difficult to engage with tasks that previously sparked motivation or enjoyment, as the emotional reward tied to them is blunted. This lack of motivation can make it harder to prioritize responsibilities or engage with activities that usually bring joy, perpetuating cycles of procrastination (Williamson et al., 2010).��

There is also Richard Solomon’s Opponent Process Theory (1978), which helps explain how your emotional responses adapt to repeated experiences of stress or overstimulation over time. The theory suggests that after an intense emotional experience, your brain triggers an opposite reaction to restore balance. So, if you have been overwhelmed by stress and anxiety for weeks, your brain may shut down in an effort to compensate. It is like a psychological pendulum,�� intense feelings come swinging in a period of emotional numbness, and they can persist as long as the overstimulation lasts.��

Dissociation can also occur when the overstimulation becomes too much to process. We all probably know of dissociation, but I like the way Natalie Riccio (2017) describes it as a mental escape hatch that helps people disconnect from painful experiences. In college, this does not always look like the extreme form of dissociation you hear about in trauma cases. Sometimes it is as simple as feeling like you are watching your life on autopilot, not really participating, but still moving through the motions.

So, how do we get through emotional numbness? The first step is to recognize that it is a sign that your brain is overwhelmed; it is not laziness or apathy. Next, take some time to unwind. Give your brain a break from the barrage of information, academia, and even social media. Mindfulness exercises, journaling, or just a nice walk with no technology can help you reconnect with your emotions. If you are feeling especially disconnected, talk to someone. Emotional numbness thrives on isolation, but connection with just one friend or a counselor can help you begin to turn the emotional volume back up.

If you have been feeling numb for a while, this is your sign to pause and check in with yourself. Ask yourself, “Am I feeling overwhelmed by everything or nothing at all?” If it is the latter, you might be dealing with emotional numbness, and that is your brain’s way of asking to be taken care of. Take a step back, give yourself permission to rest, and slowly work toward re-engaging with the things that bring you joy. Your emotions are still there, waiting for you to reclaim them.

Sources

Glover, H. (1992). Emotional numbing: A possible endorphin-mediated phenomenon associated with post-traumatic stress disorders and other allied psychopathologic states. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 5(4), 643-675. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.2490050413

Riccio, N. Z. (2017). Trauma and dissociation. Issues in Psychoanalytic Psychology, 39.��

Solomon, R. L., & Corbit, J. D. (1978). An Opponent-Process Theory of Motivation. The American Economic Review, 68(6), 12–24. ��

Williamson, J., Kane, R., & Baucom, D. (2010). Emotional Numbness and Executive Dysfunction: An Exploration of Links Between Emotional Blunting and Motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 356-370.