There have been times when I have wished I could go numb emotionally.

Absolutely! I think it's a common response, perhaps to long term stress factors.

I have been numb emotionally, the first time was after my first wife died. I became very introverted kept the curtains closed in a sence i was like the Pink Floyd tune i was comfortably numb in my own thinking. the thinking was numb an far from free.

Asolutely....was married for 23 years ...the life was drained from me ..to the point of feeling anxious and unhappy.Life started to lose it 's point ..despite all the blessings that I should have embraced .
But now .. divorced ..and not regretting a single day. Love my life ..and living again.

Yes, I have felt this multiple times throughout the years and for extended periods of time. I consider it “going dormant”, as I hope to awake from it after an appropriate amount of time.

Hell yes. I am seeming unconcerned on the outside but extremely sensitive inside. I think it is a defense mechanism for psychological preservation.

I remember going numb emotionally as a teenager after I read "1984". It affected me a great deal. I've never reread it simply because I don't want to go through that again.

Yes, a couple of times. After the divorce from my first husband and after the death of my second. Both times lasted about 6 months.

When l was antidepressants for a couple of years, they put a cap how high or low l could go emotionally. I miss that.

So much, yes.

My wife has been (apparently permanently) in this condition since a major extended family kerfuffle some years ago. Let's just say it involved a culmination of years of emotional abuse from her father and monster-in-law and the realization that she was an unloved child. And I have been this way since my son's death a couple of years ago. In both cases it was really reaching a long-developing tipping-point of emotional overload (I had experienced other major losses before). Too much unwanted and unasked-for drama and grief and loss. I think the emotional subsystem can only take so much long-standing stress, and then a circuit breaker trips somewhere. Or the subconscious decides to install an avoidance mechanism to protect from further emotional pain.

Another cause aside from the PTSD-like triggers mentioned above is childhood emotional neglect, which is doubtless a factor for my wife. When you grow up with the notion that your feelings are unimportant or not worth acknowledging you can fall into a pattern of being estranged from them.

I suppose that it could happen on a shorter term basis in some people too. Don't know why not.

The problem, from our experience and what I've read, is that you can't selectively avoid just certain negative emotions, you end up blunting all of them, with the result that you don't experience emotional highs OR lows, except maybe when it's not personal. I can blubber over a sad movie but I cannot blubber over my own sadness anymore. Same thing for satisfaction or laughter. It's like trying to brown bread in a toaster that's not plugged in. Or perhaps more accurately, it only works on its lowest setting, you get warm bread but no crispness.

Another weird effect of this is that the only strong emotion that still arises at times is irritability / irascibility. I have to exercise a lot of self-control sometimes not to be cranky, which, of course, feeds the cycle.

We have not found a solution for this and in some ways it's a mercy. My wife has had a lifelong problem with anxiety and insomnia and this has improved considerably. In her case, that is probably saving her life, particularly since she seems physiologically very atypical in her reactions to mind altering substances that a shrink might prescribe to help her. She's had some really horrible experiences trying those.

On the abundance-of-caution theory that what you're experiencing could be warning signs of more pervasive or even permanent problems, I'd urge you to use meditation, therapy, or any other means at your disposal to avoid emotional overload. Eject the asshats from your life, for instance. I wish I'd done it much sooner, and I know my wife does.

Here's a pretty good article about the more persistent numbness I'm talking about, I don't know how much it applies to you but -- for what it's worth: [drjonicewebb.com]numb/

Unfortunately only when alcohol was involved.. otherwise there's too much anxiety (mentally and emotionally) and I feel I can't breathe and will want to get out of that situation as soon as possible

Yeah, the last 18 months to two years of my marriage. It's a long story but didn't really appreciate where I was mentally and emotionally at the time until I was out of it, nor did I appreciate the long term effects and damage that period of time did

Yes. It's a survival mechanism, kicks in after a traumatic even or if the trauma is re-triggered or if I'm under too much stress. My mind shuts down to protect itself.

I believe that "going numb" is a defense mechanism. For some of us, it's
our minds going into protection mode, especially after a trauma.
After repeated battering, sometimes our hearts do the same. Okay, it's still
our minds, but you know what I mean.

It's the brain's way of saying "Enough!".

I am going through divorce depression or something tried time off, meds, don't know how to feel anymore and it's numbing to.

Only after sex

I find it harder to recall a time before I started feeling this way.

Dunno....I like Linkin Park tune though

Yes, I am numb emotionally right now. I am shattered! It started when my wife left, then I realized my life was not what I thought it was. I am not who I thought I was, and it all goes backwards to where I see almost everything. I'm able to see why I do what I do and why others do also. Your entire life serves to set you up for who you are right now. You go from the hero of the movie into the limited bit player that you really are. You want to recover from this and go forward normally, but inside you realize that most likely you never will.

I have been drained and hollow feeling for a few years now. Since my wife left with the kids... i’ve been shut down.

Every Fucking Day!

Yup

Its depression...