The Numb Effect
One fruit of trauma is numbness and it causes a zombie like effect. It could have been the molestation, foster care, seeing my mom stab my step dad in the head, cleaning my mother’s blood off the floor, loss of several relationships….you name it. I don’t know when it began. The numbness, I often felt trapped in my own body. People would ask me when are you going to break down and cry. They told me that I was stoic and that it would sometimes throw them off about how I really felt about a situation. This made me seem insensitive, unloving or having the inability to care. It became weird, no matter what happened, I was unable to cry, or when I did it would be at awkward times.
Emotional numbing or blunting is a disconnection from emotion, it is frequently used as a coping/ survival skill during traumatic childhood events such as abuse or severe neglect. Over time and with much use, this can become second nature when dealing with day to day stressors.
Some examples of traumatic events are
- Community violence (e.g., shooting, mugging, burglary, physical or sexual assault, bullying)
- Sexual and/or physical abuse
- Natural disaster such as a hurricane, flood, fire, or earthquake
- Being in or witnessing a serious car accident
- Sudden unexpected or violent death of someone close (e.g., suicide, accident)
- Serious injury (e.g., burns, dog attack), major surgery (e.g., heart surgery), or life-threatening illness (e.g., childhood cancer)
- Domestic or family violence, dating violence
- War or political violence (e.g., civil war, terrorism, refugee)
A symptom of emotional numbing is avoidance.
Studies indicate that persons with PTSD often try to avoid their emotions, both emotions about a traumatic experience and emotions in general. These people may also withhold expressing emotions. While this is a short-term coping fix it can actually cause worst problems down the line, potentially a breakdown. Some signs of avoidance are
- Dismissing phone calls
- Not being able to listen to people cry
- An Inability to cry
- Laughing at awkward times
- Humming or blurting out lyrics
- Avoiding speaking to certain friends who are too emotional
Other symptoms include, isolation and various kinds of self-neglect.
Spiritually numbness and or emotional numbness is a deep dark emptiness, akin to just going along with the motions. You may try to pray but are unsuccessful, worship has lost its intensity. Our emotions are a part of our soul. God created our souls to be healthy. In the soul dwells our will and emotions. God wants us to be in touch with that area.
Naomi in the Book of Ruth experienced a level of her soul being empty. She lost her husband, two sons, and daughter in law. She also had previously lost her hometown which she now was a stranger to.
Ruth 1:20-21
She said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
The word Empty used in this verse is 7387 in the concordance Requam, from the word reyq meaning without cause, empty, in vain, void.
Therapeutic Healing of Emotional Numbness
Along with talking with a therapist and pastor, we can draw from the text for tips on how to help emotional numbing. Later in the book of Ruth, we see that Naomi (who could have been considered a nosy, control freak, another sign of trauma). Invested in Ruth’s life, and began to live vicariously through her situation. The word says she was revived by Ruth and Boaz’s love story. Her role in It helped in this vibrancy. It is important for us to invest in helping others. Pouring back into children and communities can serve as emotional stabilization techniques that can be love, peace and joy.
Also, Oil therapy can also help to awaken one’s emotions. Mixes of certain essential oils could trigger a good emotional response.
Tomorrow we will discuss faith and Triggers of PTSD
Bibliography upon request