Quotes About Numbing

What emerged from the data on numbing was exactly what Louden speaks to: "It's not what you do; it's why you do it that makes the difference." The invitation is to think about the intention behind our numbing choices and, if helpful, to discuss these issues with family, close friends, or a helping professional.

numbing vulnerability is especially debilitating because it doesn't just deaden the pain of our difficult experiences; numbing vulnerability also dulls our experiences of love, joy, belonging, creativity, and empathy. We can't selectively numb emotion. Numb the dark and you numb the light.

the most powerful need for numbing seems to come from combinations of all three—shame, anxiety, and disconnection.

owning our worthiness is the act of acknowledging that we are sacred. Perhaps embracing vulnerability and overcoming numbing is ultimately about the care and feeding of our spirits.

When I interviewed the participants whom I'd describe as living a Wholehearted life about the same topic, they consistently talked about trying to feel the feelings, staying mindful about numbing behaviors, and trying to lean into the discomfort of hard emotions.

I definitely believe that genetics and neurobiology can play a critical role in addiction, but I also believe that there are countless people out there struggling with numbing and taking the edge off because the disease model of addiction doesn't fit their experiences as closely as a model that takes numbing processes into consideration. Not everyone's addiction is the same.

Numbing or taking the edge off doesn't have the same consequences as addiction, but they are nonetheless severe and life-altering for one reason: We cannot selectively numb emotion. If we numb the dark, we numb the light. If we take the edge off pain and discomfort, we are, by default, taking the edge off joy, love, belonging, and the other emotions that give meaning to our lives.

In another very unexpected discovery, my research also taught me that there's no such thing as selective emotional numbing. There is a full spectrum of human emotions and when we numb the dark, we numb the light.

Without healthy avenues to process loss, people fragment their experiences, neglect their real stories, numb out, and try to cope on their own, which often results in anger, depression, and anxiety.

Something else is hurting you. That's why you need pot or whiskey, or whips or rubber suits, or screaming music turned so fucking loud you can't think.

Something else is hurting you - that's why you need pot or whiskey, or screaming music turned so fucking loud you can't think

We are in the grip of what Kierkegaard called sickness unto death - the numbing of the soul by despair that leads to moral and physical debasement.

So if you remain loyal to people who abuse and mistreat you, that's called trauma bonding. If you only feel normal if you're doing something extreme or high-risk, that's trauma arousal. If you've developed intense self-loathing, you've got trauma shame. If you find chemical, mental, or technological ways to numb yourself and your feelings, that's trauma blocking.

In order to keep her cheerful, us-fat-girls-LOVE-chocolate thing going, Ginger had to eat half the box, even though it made her feel ashamed. Comfort eating always did. That was why she could never lose weight: when her heart was heavy, she numbed it with chocolate or biscuits or ice cream. Hating herself for being fat meant she could keep all other feelings at bay. And for a while, food filled all the dark, sad holes inside her.

We consume to avoid living.

The first glass is a sedative, the second a psychologist, the third glass an excuse, and the fourth a lobotomy.

I want my whole life lined with a topical anesthetic.

I'm not terribly happy about rock and roll. Certain rock music is uninspiring, numbing; it makes you feel like an idiot.

Along with mistrust, hyperreactivity, hyperarousal, depression, and aggression, the numbing response and emotional constriction that are part of the trauma response may lead to the loss of ability to accept caring and support from others. As mistrust grows, so does the ability to accept love and support (van der Kolk 1987).

If people can't deal with their problems, they numb themselves a little bit.

The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer—and yet also, like most things, so very simple—was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay.

Psychic numbing occurs when horrors are extreme, long-standing, variable, and repeated—in other words, when a state of horror becomes predictable.

Yes, liquor is the thin white coat of paint you wash over the cracks in your foundation. Makes any rotten house livable for a few hours. Sometimes days.

She numbs her feelings, because they are bigger than she is.